Excercise you can do to help your Herniated Disc and Sciatica

Looking back, and even looking forward, the single most important and helpful thing was excercise to help heal my back, and to keep it out of pain.It is so ironic that the doctors were all telling me to rest at first, and I later found out that doing so actually made me worse!

Walking

The more I walked, the better my back was. The same holds true today. I remember the first time I really walked alot after the surgery. My cousin was graduating, and that day I was forced to walk a few miles. It was killing me, and by that evening I just wanted to die. I really thought I had messed myself up. But somehow, the following day I was a little better, and the next day better still. Over the past 3 years, I have noticed that if I don;t walk enough for a few days, my back starts letting me know. However, if I start taking long walks, within a few days I completely forget about my back problems.

If you don't have a treadmill, I strongly suggest you consider one. When walking with a bad back, there is a point that you simply must stop. You will know it when it happens, and if you are at home on a treadmill, this is no problem. But if you are walking around the block, that moment may just happen a quarter mile from home.

The McKenzie Method

( more on The McKenzie Method )

Robin McKenzie seems to be the miracle worker of physical therapy for backs. He is from Australia, and has developed this method that every physical therapist I have talked to highly respects. It consists of a series of excercises that are very simple. His book, Treat your own back, outlines the excercises. You can also find a physical therapist that specializes in the method. His excercises are very easy to do, and the key is doing them regularly.