Sciatica & Back Pain Cure Center

Your back is the central supporting and movement system of your body, so if the muscles that surround and support it are unfit and inflexible you are much more likely to develop sciatica and back problems.

Your lower back, which is where many back problems occur, is supported by the so-called “core muscles”.

If your core muscles in particular are weak, it means your lower back is carrying a larger part of the strain of lifting and twisting and you are more likely to suffer low back pain as a result.

This is why a lot of back pain exercises focus on strengthening these core muscles, or at least “waking them up” and making them more flexible.

Sciatica Exercise - The Back Pull Down
This exercise is quite different to the run-of-the-mill back exercise but it is great at waking up back muscles that are often dormant.

It is best done with an elastic exercise band which you can buy from almost any sporting goods store.

As an alternative, you can use any household item that has some degree of elasticity e.g. an elastic luggage strap, an old bicycle inner tube etc. You can also use a rolled up towel, but the lack of stretch in it will make the exercise harder to do.

Sit upright in a chair with your back straight and your tummy pulled in. Raise your arms above your head holding the elastic band or towel in between them horizontally with your hands approximately shoulder width apart.

Stretch your arms up as far as they will go then slowly pull your arms behind your neck, keeping the elastic band or towel horizontal and with a slight tension on it.

Keep pulling down until the band is roughly half way down your back (if you can get that far). Rest there briefly, then raise your arms again until your arms up as far as they will go again. Remember to keep the band horizontal while you move it up and down.

Do the movements up and down slowly and steadily, don’t rush them. You can change the degree of difficulty and effect of the exercise by increasing or decreasing the tension on the band or towel.

If you pull harder to make it tight as you move up and down it takes more effort, but it has the benefit of working your back muscles harder and differently than if you do it with only light tension in the band.

Repeat the exercise about 5 times the first time you do it (depending on how fit you are and what your back tells you about the effect.

DON’T OVERDO it at first or you’re likely to end up sore and not inclined to do it again for a while and it is best done regularly.

Then you can build up the repetitions over time until you’ve reached 20, which is about as many as you will ever need to do at one time. (Feel free to do more if you want to though. I sometimes keep on going to 30 or more, especially if I’ve been sitting at a PC all day and feel stiff or tense. I might rest for a few minutes and then do another 20-30 depending on how I feel).

Remember the Better Back System gives you a complete easy-to-follow exercise and diet system for treating sciatica and back pain. Check it out here.

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Precise diagnosis of the causes of lower back and hip pain is notoriously difficult because your spine is a large and complex organ that is full of joints, nerves and ligaments and is heavily interconnected with the surrounding muscles that support it.

For example, a doctor or back specilist may look at the back X-ray of a somebody with severe pain and see nothing unuusal apart from “routine wear and tear”. On the other hand, people who are exeriencing no back problems may have X-rays that suggest they should hardly be able to walk!

All the major nerves to your body’s extremities start by running down your spine and then branch out to these other areas. So if you have a problem with your middle or upper back you may find it affects the strength or feeling in your arms or hands.

The sciatic nerve exits the spine in your lower back and connects with your legs - thigh, calf, foot toes etc.

If your back suffers injury or degeneration it can affect the spine’s structure and/or alignment of the vertebrae (bones in your spine). This can result in pressure being placed on nerves as they exit the spine via gaps in the vertebrae.

This is what happens with sciatica - pressure is placed upon the sciatic nerve which results in pain and/or tingling and/or loss of function in your legs.

In terms of lower back and hip pain, the lower back is an area that is frequently affected by injury, aging, degeneration or wear and tear because it is an area of high stress. Lifting, bending, twisting, sitting or driving for long periods all affect your lower back in particular.

Note:
Commonly, “L4″ and “L5″ are 2 vertebrae in your lower back that are frequently impacted by wear and tear or injury and a cause of lower back and hip pain.

Once your back suffers an injury, or loss of function through aging and/or wear and tear (for example one or more disks may become thinner or distorted in shape), then 2 things are liable to happen:

1. The surrounding muscles are likely to spasm or “freeze” in an attempt to protect the spine from the threat of (further) injury.

2. This wear and tear can cause the spine’s alignment and vertebral spacing to change, thus leading to pressure being placed on nerves in and around the spine.

Both effects are likely to cause pain in the lower back and hip areas.

The Solution:
Here are ways we suggest you can treat back pain:

1. Get your spine back in alignment (as best you can allowing for injury and aging).
The options here include:
(a) active treatment from various therapists and specialists (physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors etc)
(b) doing items 2-4 below and waiting for healing to occur naturally
(c) doing a mix of (a) and (b) - this is my preference
(d) back surgery (be very careful with this)

2. Review your habits with the objective of eliminating bad movements and poor posture.

3. Improve your diet - eat healthy food and/or take a natural wholefood supplement

4.3. Strengthen the muscles that surround and support the spine. This treatment of sciatica back injuries is the focus of the the Better Back System.

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Firstly Qigong, which is sometimes written Qi Gong is pronounced (more or less) “chee kung”.

It originates from traditional Chinese medicine and involves the use of different breathing patterns with various physical postures and motions of the body.

Qi or chi refers to the energy flows that occur both within the human body and in the external world.

Qigong asserts that the body’s “energy field” is generated and maintained by the natural respiration of the body; gong means work applied to a discipline or the resultant level of technique. Qigong together means “breath work” or the practice of managing one’s breathing in order to achieve and maintain good health.

Qigong offers benefits for both health maintenance and health restoration i.e. it can keep you healthy if you already are, or help you get healthy if you’re currently not. This applies to back health and pain also.

Personally I susbcribe to the “whatever works” school of health maintenance.

nb. If you are interested in natural therapies try the Better Back System.

Qigong also has some esoteric or “metaphysical” aspects, but what is important is “does the practice do something useful for you”.

If the answer is yes, well obviously use it, if not try something else.

Qigong Exercise - Shoulder & Neck Stretch
If you get stiff in the shoulder and neck region this exercise is simple to do and is likely to make it better.

The great thing about this exercise is its simple and you can do it anywhere at any time for as long as you want.

Preparation:

1. Stand with your feet together and you back and neck straight.

2. Let your arms hang by your sides, palms facing your body.

3. Raise your arms to about a 45 degree angle (i.e. half way betwen hanging at your sides and poiting straight out at shoulder level), keeping them straight with your elbows locked.

4. Flex your wrists and raise your palms as far as they can go keeping the palms facing more-or-less down and your arms straight and your elbows locked.

Depending upon how flexible your wrists are, your palms may go as far as forming a 90 degree angle with your forearms. More commonly the angle will be greater than 90 degrees (it started off at 180 degrees with your palms hanging by your side).

The Movement
Basically the movement is like shrugging your shoulders. Move your shoulders up and down whilst keeping your arms straight elbows locked and palms raised upwards.

After you have done a few you will probably start to feel a hot and/or stiff feeling in your neck and shoulder area. This is fine, keep going remembering to keep your arns straight and palms bent.

Some people enjoy doing them to music. Something with a steady beat works well.

Keeping the correct posture and movement is the most important thing.

How many should you do?

Depends how fit you are and how much time you have. 20, 50, 100, 500 are all reasonable numbers for different people.

Once you get past a hundred or so you will probably start to sweat noticeably.

As always use your common sense. If you’re not particularly fit and decide you want to do 250, but feel like you’re going to die at any moment after 50 or so, its probably a good idea to stop!

Sciatica Exercise Video
You can also try this yoga exercise to help with back pain.

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Important Note:
Please read the medical disclaimer before attempting any exercises.

SCIATICA & BACK PAIN RELIEF EXERCISE #3

1. Stand with your feet about 45cm (18 inches) apart.

2. Slowly rotate your head and shoulders as far as you can to the left. DO NOT TWIST OR TURN RAPIDLY OR fORCE THE MOVEMENT. Stop when you feel tension or pain in the muscles of your neck and/or back.

3. At this point you will have turned somewhere between 90 and 180 degrees and be looking somewhere between to your left and to your rear depending on how supple you are.

4. Hold the position for a few seconds, count slowly 1-2-3-4-5.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.
The hold time gives your brain a clear signal so it can differentiate between your normal muscle tension and maximum achievable muscle tension.

5. Next slowly return to the straight ahead position and then twist to the right hand side (i.e. in the opposite direction) and hold the position again for a few seconds count slowly 1-2-3-4-5.

AND REPEAT

6. Do the exercise for a minute or two, 4 to 5 times a day and you can expect to see relief from most lower and upper back pain.

EXERCISE STANDING OR SITTING

When you do the exercise standing, twist your whole body. This involves the muscles in your hips and legs also.

You can also do the exercise sitting in which case it works best if you clasp your hands together on top of your head. Measure your progress by monitoring how far around you can get your elbow. This version focuses on the neck and shoulder areas.

The aim here is to see as far behind your back as you can. This way you get maximum rotation of both the neckbone and backbone. Repeat this for 5 minutes, but start out doing less if it makes your back pain worse.

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