We all know that exercise is very important and should be a part of our day, especially when you suffer from back pain or sciatica, but there is no dodging the fact that it takes time, often time we don’t have. Well there is another way you can exercise without allocating time to go to the gym or head off for a walk. That’s right you can do your exercise as you go about your normal day just by concentrating on what you are doing and using your body in the right way.

Watch the free video of my daily exercise workout done standing still.

Take walking for example, when most people walk they actually stroll using mostly momentum and don’t concentrate on switching their various leg muscles on and pushing off with them to go forward. Try it next time you have to walk any distance and purposefully use the heel toe action and different muscles in your legs to switch on and push off with each step. By doing this you can turn a 20 minute walk into more work than a normal 1 hour stroll Do it while you are getting to where you have to go anyway and you can save the time you normally spend going out to exercise.

If you suffer from back pain then this action can help retrain your weak or dysfunctional muscles to switch on and off again which is an important part of your rehab such as with the self treatment program for back pain and sciatica.

A lot of people spend their day sitting at a desk and end up with back pain or sciatica or at least a stiff body from the lack of movement. In fact it is often these people who end up with chronic back pain simply because they don’t give their muscles enough exercise as they sit for too much of the day.

Next time you are sitting for any length of time try to switch on the muscles around your hips and pelvis by putting your feet on the floor in front of you and pushing your buttocks down into the seat whilst holding a slight arch in your lower back . I am sure you will feel the muscles tire very quickly and it will be difficult for you to hold that pressure for any length of time. This will show you just how weak these muscles have become but by doing this regularly you will in fact loosen and strengthen these muscles and soon notice you can hold the pressure a lot longer than you could when you started. This will help you strengthen against your back pain or sciatica.

By doing this exercise you will also become aware of any imbalance you carry in the pelvis and attempting to hold the pressure evenly with the muscles on both sides will help you work towards correcting that imbalance. You will see much more about exercising this way, to correct any imbalances in your body, in my SLM Yoga DVD, part of the online self treatment program for back pain and sciatica.

If you are one of the luckier people, your job will involve your moving around most of the day doing a variety of different tasks as you go. Even if that is getting in and out of a car and walking short distances, perhaps up and down stairs, the odd bending movement and lifting or carrying things. The reason you are lucky is that you have a great opportunity to do a variety of exercises during your day and give your body a great workout just by carrying out your job.

For the next week take the time to think about what you are doing as you go about your day and consider the ways you can do the same things as you focus pressure on different muscles to give them a good strengthening workout. If you already suffer from back pain or sciatica this will help a lot but even if you don’t, these are perfect exercises to protect you against a back pain or sciatica problem developing.

Walk up the stairs more slowly and deliberately and make your leg muscles do all the work then sometimes run up as you push off with your legs so you get some cardio vascular fitness at the same time. If your job involves bending and lifting (a sure fire cause of back pain and sciatica if you’re not careful) be sure to use your legs to squat down and keep a straight back so as to strengthen your leg muscles and lower back rather than put strain on it. Treat the object you are lifting as a weight by sharing the weight evenly between both arms and hold it close to your body. It might not feel like a lot of effort each time you do it but the accumulation of lots of little efforts make a big effort and you will be surprised how much strength and fitness you gain without spending any extra time than you had been previously.

There are lots of ways you can turn your day to day activities into a good all over workout it just takes a little imagination and thought as you go about things until it becomes a good habit. To see lots of other ideas on how you can better look after your body and perhaps rehabilitate from back pain or sciatica START HERE

© 2007 S.J.Lockhart All rights reserved.

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