sciatica

With my back....exercise is the key. If it's sore...a walk every day, plus stretches. Not sore...do everything but avoid back bends, especially sideways ones.

so after i suffered with sciatica for many years, and trying to live a normal life and exercising, i finally gave up and did nothing for several years to give my back a chance to rest and heal, as much as that was possible. I could screw it up just stepping wrong or sneezing, but after i was very idle for several years, i very very VERY slowly got back into weight lifting, And of all the lifting i do, the one thing that has basically cured my siatica and saved me from ever screwing it up again was building a rock solid core and learning to deadlift properly. this took a lot of years, and was a slow process and lots of skilled trainers watching my form. I was scared to death to deadlift a 5 lb kettelbell. But after learning proper form, how to bend over and pick things up, and training my body to lift with my legs and engage the right muscles, i've never had a twinge of pain since. And i previously lived with sciatica that i couldnt even get out of bed and cried all night long from the pain.