Exercise can help relieve the pain and tingling associated with pinched nerves. However, be sure to consult your doctor before starting a new exercise program.
A herniated disc or spinal changes known as spinal stenosis can pinch a nerve in your lower back, sending pain down into the buttocks and leg. Practicing several types of exercise can help reduce this pressure and improve your posture.
La Clinica promotes holistic healthcare solutions by providing insights on the length of time it takes for pinched nerves to heal and how to manage them.
1. Strengthening Exercises
A pinched nerve in the neck is a serious condition that can cause pain in the shoulders, arms, and hands. Thankfully, it isn’t usually permanent and you can take several at-home treatments to ease symptoms.
One of the best ways to treat a pinched nerve is to strengthen muscle groups that support those areas that are most affected. If these muscles are too weak, it can lead to bad posture, which can then put additional pressure on specific areas and exacerbate nerve compression.
Exercises like gentle chin tucks can help. These exercises will strengthen the deep neck flexors in your neck and help to alleviate tension on the spinal nerves in this area. These exercises can also be paired with heat treatment, which increases blood flow to the painful areas and helps the muscles relax.
2. Flexibility Exercises
Nerves love movement and the ability to stretch. If you can get the nerve to move again, it will be able to unpinch itself and reduce irritation and inflammation that causes pain.
You can do static (holding the stretch) or dynamic (combining stretching with movements) flexibility exercises. It is important to warm up your muscles before doing these types of workouts.
Stretches that include rolling the shoulder blades forward and backward can help relieve pressure on the neck and shoulders that can be caused by irritated spinal nerves.
Performing these exercises in a controlled manner, with a set amount of time in between each roll can help the body adapt to the motion and become more flexible. This will then provide relief of the irritated nerve and help you feel better.
3. Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic exercises increase your heart rate and breathing to burn calories and strengthen your muscles. These activities include cycling, walking, dancing, jogging/long distance running and swimming. They use large muscle groups and require a high level of aerobic metabolism to extract energy (ATP) from amino acids, carbohydrates and fats.
When a nerve is pinched, it causes numbness, tingling or weakness around the neck, shoulders and spine. Symptoms are usually worse when moving the affected area and can sometimes be painful.
To test if an exercise is too strenuous, try to talk while exercising. If you can’t speak easily, you need to decrease the intensity of your activity. Talk to your doctor before starting any new exercise program. They may recommend a different type of exercise that doesn’t put as much stress on the joints.
4. Resistance Exercises
If you have a pinched nerve in the neck, exercises that strengthen your shoulders and lower back may relieve symptoms. This includes the shoulder roll exercise, which involves extending and rolling your shoulders forward and backward multiple times in a controlled manner.
Incorporating resistance training into your overall exercise program on a regular basis can help you stay healthy and active throughout life. You do not need to join a gym or invest in expensive equipment to get started, however. You can begin with body weight exercises like pushups, squats and planks or use household items such as gallon jugs of water or soup cans in a canvas bag to add resistance.
More advanced resistance-training exercises increase your muscle power, which can also benefit you in daily activities and sports. Additionally, regular strength training helps you maintain peak bone mass and delay osteoporosis.
5. Yoga
A regular yoga routine can help heal pinched nerves, as it is a low-impact exercise that strengthens muscles and reduces inflammation. In addition, yoga can help with balance and flexibility, both of which can improve spinal nerve function.
Yoga is also a great way to get a good workout without pushing yourself too hard, as it uses props such as blocks and straps to allow all body types to perform poses safely. This helps to avoid injury, especially when doing more intense forms of yoga such as hot or power yoga.
It is important to eat a healthy diet and get enough rest in order to facilitate the healing of a pinched nerve. Additionally, alternating between heat and cold packs can help to relieve pain.