Yoga And Sciatica Relief

Yoga is good for many things and two of these things are providing sciatica relief and the prevention of it. In this article I'm going to share with you what this ancient exercise can do for you with regards to increasing your core strength and improving your posture.

Lower back problems are a major health problem, especially in developed countries where sitting for most of the day is now the norm. Visits to the doctors and days laid out in bed could be decreased by strengthening the groups of muscles based around the abdomen, the back and the hips.

By sitting around all day, the muscles that support the spine can get very weak. This can lead to back pain as the nerves are no longer kept in place. It can also mean compression of the sciatica nerve by muscles that are out of place.

However, using yoga as the means to stretch and strengthen these muscles can prevent most back pain and give sciatica relief.

My cousin recently complained of terrible sciatic pain down the back of the leg. It was the ham strings cramping because the muscles around her spine were no longer strong enough to keep her spinal discs in place. She was in agony and was having to take a cramp preventative tablet every night before bed, and every day before driving.

When her disc felt a lot better, she was still getting trouble with her ham strings. They were too tight as she suffered from scoliosis. This is a condition where the design of the back means that the hips are held at an angle and this can cause further back pain and very tight tendons in the legs. The well-known Olympic athlete Usain Bolt suffers from this condition and has to be treated by physiotherapists to prevent his hamstrings from becoming damaged.

Going back to my cousin, she is now fit and well, because she decided to wait until the disc was back in place in her spine before she started to work on the strength of the muscles in her lower back.

So by practicing yoga for just 20 minutes every morning, she has managed to strengthen all of her core muscles so that her spine is once again supported.

She told me that she did the following exercises to help to strengthen her back and to give sciatica relief:

The cobra - lie on the stomach and lift your head and your chest up off the floor. Use your back muscles to lift you - not your arms or hands.

The locust - lift your head off the floor and lift your feet. Hold your arms down and outwards. Do not use your hands but use your back muscles to do this stretch.

The butterfly. Sit on the floor with your knees out and your feet together. This will open your hips and stretch your hip flexors.

So as my cousin says, just do twenty minutes of yoga a day to give sciatica relief. It makes a huge difference and she hasn't experienced any real back pain discomfort since and neither has she suffered from sciatica.

In fact, she feels and looks so good that I would like to suggest to her brother to start doing it too. Yoga gives sciatica relief - but it also gives piece of mind and wellness.