Having said that, I’d like to focus on a particular type of sciatic exercises, which will probably be one of the most beneficial types of treatments for your sciatica pain: warm water exercises. Even though at the beginning of a sciatica flare up it is better to treat with cold rather than heat, once the healing process is underway warm water is very beneficial in a number of ways.

Taking a warm bath helps you to relax, it increases circulation and helps to loose tightened muscles; it also helps speeding up the healing process. It returns mobility to you, since the warmth makes the muscles more pliable. It is a good idea to take a warm bath for a while before starting to exercise (don’t go too long, since your body might overheat).

Now being relaxed and with loosened muscles, you could do some water exercises. These exercises are a lot easier to do than the normal kind, since being suspended in water takes most of the pressure from your weight off your spine, muscles, disks, ligaments and joints. This will also help reduce the pain that comes with some of the exercises, especially when you just started exercising and there is still some inflammation and stiffness present. It’ll also help with the fear of possible pain, which by itself can tense you up like a spring.

Water density will make your muscles work harder than usual, but will take weight and pressure off the rest of your body. A good starting exercise to help reduce pain and muscle spasms could even be just walking or marching in the water.

Warm water exercises and water exercises overall are a great starting point for exercises altogether after an acute sciatica flare up and other causes of back pain. Warm water exercises are some of the most beneficial exercises since you get both the reduction of inflammation due to increased circulation and the strengthening of the muscles that you will need to keep your back and sciatica nerve in good health.

In addition to water exercises there is a wide variety to exercises you can work you way up to step by step. But before starting your back exercises (now that you’ve spoken to your physician and know which exercises are for your condition), make sure you always start with 5 minutes of warm up; like taking a short walk or using the exercise bike, or even just march in place.

In the beginning you should probably only do gentle stretching exercises for your back and then bit by bit grow into back and abdominal exercises to build strength. It would probably also be a good idea to add in some low impact aerobic exercises, like swimming. When finding a good balance with all these exercises you use a wide selection of muscle groups and that in turn will help you to prevent future flare ups.

So in short: Sciatica and exercises go together, if you want to see long term relief from your painful sciatica. Always consult a back specialist before starting exercises or self-treat your symptoms and causes, so you know for sure what you can, should and shouldn’t do.

Learn more about sciatic exercise. Stop by Christina Meier’s site where you can find out all about sciatic exercises and what they can do for you.