How Sciatica Exercises Can Help Relieve Sciatic Pain

People who suffer from sciatica will often feel pain in their leg which can travel from the back of their thigh up to the thigh and in some cases up to the hip or down towards the foot.

For some people, not only will they feel pain but they may find that their leg become numb and they will have problems in trying to either move or control their leg.

However there are ways in which sciatica can be treated and certainly using sciatica exercises can be extremely effective in dealing with this particular problem.

Although many people may feel that bed rest is the best way for treating sciatica this is simply not true. Yes resting for a day or two can help to relieve the pain felt when the sciatica flares up but after that, because a person has become inactive, they will find that the pain actually becomes much worse.

This is because without them carrying out any kind of exercise or movement the muscles in the back and their spine will lose its condition and will then find it very difficult to support the back properly. The weakening of the back could lead to injuries and this will only then increase the amount of pain that the person is feeling.

Exercise is actually extremely important to our spine especially in order to keep the discs within the spine healthy. By carrying out movement a person is actually enable nutrients and fluids to gain access to these discs which in turn ensures that they remain fit and healthy.

Many of the sciatica exercises you will see being presented to you by your doctor, health care provider or by websites providing information on exercises for treating this problem will focus on strengthening both the muscles in your back and abdomen. By strengthening these muscles a person is actually providing their back with more support.

Stretching exercises are especially good for treating sciatica as they target those muscles which are causing the pain because they have become tense (tight) and not as flexible as they should be. People who take up sciatica exercises find that it helps to strengthen and stretch the back muscles and they can recover much more quickly when they suffer a flare up of sciatica in the future. Plus it has also been found that it actually helps to prevent them from suffering future episodes of sciatica pain.

However the actual sciatica exercises a person will use to treat the problem will depend on what the actual cause of the pain is. Plus it is important that you should know that this type of pain can be caused by some other underlying medical condition such as an infection or tumor which will need to be treated as well using the right kind of medical procedures.

Ricky Lim recommends natural back pain products such as Eazol for natural back pain relief. Visit his site today for more back pain products reviews.

By Ricky Lim Published: 8/4/2007

Proper Sciatica Exercises to Reduce Sciatica Pain – Benefits Of Sciatica Exercises These specifically targeted exercise work because they work on the muscles that are crucial for supporting the back and reducing the pressure that affects sciatic nerve. 

Sciatica Treatment | Sciatica Exercise  – Sciatica Treatment: Information on the Causes, Symptoms and Effective Treatments of Sciatica, Spinal Stenosis, Herniated Discs and Many Other Back Pain Complaints. 

Instant Sciatica Relief Strategies Anyone Can Use – Physical therapists have a number of tools to help bring about relief from sciatica. They can create a program of stretches and exercises to alleviate acute pain.

Proper Sciatica Exercises  – Exercise plays a leading role in treating sciatica. There are many sciatica exercises. These exercises are one the best ways of treating sciatica. They specifically target the muscles in lower back, thighs and abdomen area. 

Technorati Tags: sciatic exercises, sciatic nerve pain relief, sciatic nerve pain treatment, sciatic pain relief, sciatica exercises, sciatica pain treatment

Sciatic Nerve Pain – What are the Symptoms and Causes?

Sciatica or sciatic nerve pain is a term often used to describe all sorts of back pain. In fact, less than 5% of people who suffer from lower back pain will have sciatica.

Sciatica is caused by a sciatic nerve irritation. This is most commonly caused by a disc bulge in the lower back.

What is the sciatic nerve?

To understand this you need to have a bit of an idea about human spine anatomy. The spine is made up of large bones called vertebra. These bones are separated from one another by spinal discs. Each vertebra overlaps the next at the back to form a joint called a facet joint.

Running down through the middle of the spine is a channel called the spinal canal, its here that the spinal cord sits. The spinal cord is the main structure that passes messages from our brains to our bodies.

At each vertebra the spinal cord braches out to form a nerve root, these nerve roots leave the spine via a gap between each vertebra and then bundle together to form much larger nerves.

In the legs there are two main, large nerves, the femoral nerve at the front and the sciatic nerve at the back. The sciatic nerve passes down through the buttock area into the back of the thigh and leg.

What causes sciatic nerve pain?

The most common cause of sciatica is a disc bulge. The disc is a very misunderstood structure; it has been blamed for back pain ever since it was discovered. Over the years we have started to believe that the disc is a really weak and vulnerable structure.

The term slipped disc makes it sound as if it can slip about inside. In truth the disc cant slip anywhere, it is firmly fixed at the top and at the bottom to the vertebrae above and below.

The disc can and does cause problems however. Sometimes the central area of the disc bulges, usually backwards and sideways. This can cause an irritation of the nerve root as it leaves the spine. Occasionally the bulge is severe enough to actually squash or trap the nerve but this is fairly rare.

When the nerve is irritated by the disc bulge it can become inflamed. Remember what it feels like to hit your finger with a hammer or catch it in a door for a moment. Following the nasty sharp pain you are left with a dull ache. The finger may become red and swollen; there may be some heat or warmth there. After a while, those symptoms settle and everything gets back to normal. Its very similar with the sciatic nerve. It becomes very sore and can give you a lot of pain, even though it is not actually trapped or squashed.

An important thing to know is that many people have disc bulges and have no symptoms at all.

There are some other conditions that can cause sciatic nerve pain but they are much less common. These include degenerative disc disease, severe osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis or spondylolisthesis. Fractures, tumours and infection can also cause sciatica.

What are the symptoms of sciatica?

If someone has true sciatica then they often have pain in the legs, usually in the buttock, back of the thigh or calf. There may also be pins and needles and numbness in parts of the leg.

In severe cases the leg may feel weak and the strength may be reduced. Often, disc bulges cause no back pain at all; the symptoms are felt only in the legs.

Why are so many people given the diagnosis of sciatica?

Very often, as soon as anyone has any lower back or leg symptoms they are told that have sciatica. However, there are other things that can cause leg pain; a strained facet joint for example can cause pain in the buttock and thigh. But if the sciatic nerve is not irritated then it is not sciatica.

The best way to tell if it is sciatica is to undergo a series of test that your physiotherapist or doctor can perform. These simple clinical tests will be enough to identify if the problem is an irritated sciatic nerve.

The Lower Back Pain Toolkit
Reliable and up to date information about back pain

By Paula Fitzpatrick Published: 7/18/2008

Uncover the Hidden Truth about the Sciatica Nerve – Sciatica can occur anywhere along the route of the sciatica nerve, but is most commonly felt in the back of the thighs and in the calves. Causes of Sciatica can be a result of direct trauma to the sciatica nerve can vary widely.

The Main Causes Of Sciatic Nerve Inflammation – The Main Causes Of Sciatic Nerve Inflammation.  [...]

Technorati Tags: Causes of Sciatica, pinched sciatic nerve symptoms, sciatic nerve symptoms, symptoms of sciatica, what is sciatica