As anyone knows who has ever had sciatic nerve pain, it is extremely painful. Move in the wrong way and you will experience intense pain. Numbness and tingling may occur at any time. This makes it extremely hard to go about your daily activities or do productive work to support yourself and your family.



As soon as possible, you need to begin stretching and strengthening your muscles for sciatic pain relief and help prevent further problems.

Before beginning any exercises for sciatic nerve pain, get a diagnosis from a physician such as a chiropractor. You need to be sure you do not have a condition of injury that will be made worse by exercising.

Exercise your stomach muscles, but that doesn't mean start doing crunches and sit ups, these will make it worse and in fact may help cause sciatica. The hip flexor, piriformis, and stomach muscles are the most important ones to strengthen if you have sciatica.

There are 3 simple exercises for sciatica. They are

1. Lay on the floor, one leg bent and foot flat on the floor, the other leg straight. Hold your lower back flat against the floor. Raise your straight leg 8 to 10 inches off the floor keeping you lower stomach muscles tight. Hold this for about 10 seconds then lower your leg. Repeat with other leg. Remember to raise and lower you leg slowly. Try to work your way up to ten lifts a day with each leg. This will help strengthen you lower abdomen.

2. The piriformis muscles are the ones in your buttocks. These need to be strengthened to take the pressure off your sacro-Iliac joints, the ones that connect the base of you spine to your pelvic bone. One way to do this is place a rolled up towel at the base of your spine where the triangle shaped bone, (the sacrum), is. One end should be at about where your waist is and the other at or slightly beyond your sacrum. Make two fists and put them behind your head on the rounded area of your skull, (the occiput). Do this for about five minutes and then go for a short walk. This exercise will help take the pressure of your joints and spine.

3. Stretching your hamstring muscles will help loosen them and prevent stress on the sciatic nerve which causes pain. Lie on you back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Put your hands behind your knee and pull up your leg until it points upward, then straighten your leg until you begin to feel it stretch. Stop there and hold for around 30 seconds. Repeat 2 or 3 times. Do the same with the other leg. Repeat this 2 or 3 times a day. Don't overdo this exercise or it could make your pain worse.

The more you can keep active and exercise the better off you will be. Inactivity causes your muscles to get weak and therefor cause your back to get worse. Get on your feet and move around as soon as you can. If you feel pain while doing any of these exercises, stop doing them and consult a chiropractic or spine specialist.