Exercises for Sciatica

If you are looking to find exercises for sciatica, then you may have been searching for a while. Do they actually exist, do they work and if they do which exercises are best?

Read on to find out these answers and also the first essential step in relieving sciatica quickly.

First you do need to understand that sciatica is caused by 4 main factors - tight muscles, weak muscles, joint movement and pelvic balance. The most common muscle that tightens is your Piriformis muscle, which has the sciatic nerve running through it or next to it.

Targeting this muscle is the main focus for a lot of people. This is also why easing sciatic pain has poor success.

To have long lasting relief, you must remove all the causes, not just target one muscle.

Is there an exercise that removes sciatica?

The most common exercise used to ease sciatica is stretching the Piriformis muscle. You can do this in a variety of ways, however the best is in a sitting position.

You sit with the painful side knee bent, the other leg flat on the floor. Then try pulling the knee towards your opposite shoulder. You will feel a pulling sensation in your buttock region.

Make sure you only pull until you feel tightness, not pain. If you create pain the muscle will not relax. You can hold this tension for 30 seconds or more, but there are actually more effective ways to relax this muscle.

Using this type of exercise for sciatica will only give you temporary relief. To get long lasting relief, you need to address all the factors causing your pain.

Does exercise truly help sciatica?

Exercise as part of an overall regime, will help your sciatica. However, exercise has poor success for two main reasons.

The first is that people still believe in the "no pain, no gain" concept. They aggressively stretch until pain is felt, you exercise to the point of pain and push your body hard.

Pain is the signal your body has to tell you something is wrong. You should never exercise or stretch and feel pain. A pulling, tightness or mild discomfort is okay, pain is not.

To have long lasting relief from sciatica, you need to address the weak and tense muscles, correct joint movement and balance your pelvis. In fact it is the pelvic balance that is the main cause of sciatica.

If your pelvis is out of balance, your Piriformis muscle will tighten, which is the most common muscle associated with sciatica.

So the pelvis is the key to long-term relief.

The second reason exercises for sciatica do not work long term is that people stop using them as pain eases. You believe that because pain has eased the causes have gone also.

In fact, pain is the last signal to arrive when problems occur and the first to go. The causes remain and pain returns again soon. This leads you to the first essential step in relieving sciatica.

The essential exercises for sciatica

The essential exercise for sciatica is actually used to find the distortion patterns that exist in your spine and pelvis. If you know what patterns exist, you can use targeted exercises for sciatica.

Generic exercises that stretch or strengthen fail most times. They are no specific enough to target the areas causing your pain.

The first steps therefore finding the cause, then you can exercise to help ease pain. Too many people make the mistake of jumping in to try easing their pain, without knowing what causes it.

What is the best approach to ease your sciatica?

To get long lasting results you must both remove the symptoms and the cause. First you must identify which spinal imbalances are present, then attack the symptomatic processes. This can be achieved by using many techniques from ice/heat, Acupressure and anti-inflammatory measures. Then you must perform corrective techniques that target the spinal imbalances.

The principles of Spinal Balancing address the both the pain and the root cause of the condition that is responsible for your lower right back pain. Through self assessments, your individual spinal imbalances can be identified, and a targeted corrective program can be developed for your specific needs.

Continue to the ... 3-Step-System for Back Pain Relief!