If you have suffered from the sometimes crippling pain of sciatica, you are not alone. The sciatic nerve is perhaps one of the most commonly problematic areas of the body for otherwise healthy people who spend long periods of time sitting or standing. Luckily there are simple lower back exercises you can do to remedy even the most severe sciatic pain.
Here are instructions for one of these lower back exercises that you can perform at home, at the office, or anywhere there is room for you to lie down. This exercise can be done in bed, but a firm surface is more effective.
- Begin by lying on your back on the floor.
- Bending the knees, place the bottoms of the feet on the floor at about a hand’s-length distance from your bottom. Your knees will be pointing up at the ceiling.
- Now stretch your arms down the length of your sides and place your palms and forearms on the floor next to your hips. It is important to keep your face and eyes pointed straight up at the ceiling to prevent neck strain.
- Taking a deep breath, lift the hips off of the floor and raise them to form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Keep your palms and forearms gently pressed into the floor while allowing the buttocks muscles to relax. Use the quadriceps and other muscles in your legs to hold up the hips, keeping the gluteal muscles at rest.
This exercise can be done in repetitions, breathing deeply as the hips ascend and exhaling as they return to the floor. Or, once the hips are in place, hold them there while breathing deeply and slowly. You may hold the position for thirty seconds to one minute, and then lower the hips and rest for a few minutes. Then repeat. Like many other lower back exercises, repeat several times a day to see the best results.
