The exercises seem to be helping! You asked about what I am doing specifically with SQUATS... I just use the 12 lb. dumbells. I stand erect, then just bend my knees to about parallel to the ground. The weight goes back on to my heels when bending, then I straighten the knees to go back to starting position. I have been doing about 20 daily.
I saw your recommendation to alternate days, so I am changing that to every other day.
Do you think it is good to do strength training before the sciatica is calmed down, or is it OK to do light training? I have been told that I will always probably have some pain because of the slight disc problem I have.
I hate to be the bearer or good news but I see sciatic pain aleviated on a regular basis by methodically and consistently attending to your exercise. There are certain cases of sciatic discomfort that are dire. If you have fusion around the vertebrae so that you can't decompress the irritant to the nerve or if you have scar tissue or free floating bone fragments: eeech! But typically, honestly more than 90% of the time in my practice the pain is minimized and often completely eliminated. Now the secret is the consistency, which showed up in another thread on this forum today. I do have a number of fused vertebrae due to accidents and some childhood illness. The only time I do have discomfort is when I 'get lazy' or distracted from my routine. Since I understand this it hasn't happened in many years.
The exercises I shared are a basic place to begin and as you can I recommend you create a more comprehensive program. I do a variation of the floor exercises to this day and as you can imagine there are many more and more advanced versions you would need to consider to continue to improve and heal. If you'd like to share more details of the disc problem and it's location and the amount of time you have been aware of it I can offer some more suggestions; off the top of my head I would like to give you a periformis exercise.)
Often people don't want to get into this on an open forum so you could send me a pm and I would answer you personally and also offer the solutions in more general terms on the forum site. It's up to you.
Sounds like you are doing your squats exactly right as long as you are not allowing your shoulders to round at the lowest point on your squat and when you lift that you are keeping your weight in your heel and squeezing your glutes which just bring your knees back. Try to be sure you are not creating the lift from the balls of your feet and your knees feel neutral throughout. 20 is a good number as long as you do two or three sets of them. Let the muscle rest for 30-60 seconds, either just resting or doing another exercise and then repeat. If you wanted to go up in weight in your sets but feel like the dumbbells pull you forward, take a heavier single dumbbell and hold it with both hands at chest level. This also encourages you to hold your torso straighter (not vertical, mind you, just more aligned from hip to shoulder)
Thanks!! I put this on the open forum, because the information might help others in similar conditions. I hear about a lot of golfers with sciatic nerve pain, and/or right sacroiliac joint dysfunction... of which I have both.
I can tell there is some pain alleviation, by doing the exercises you recommended, already.
Are you familiar with the McKenzie exercises for lower back and neck? I had a problem with my back that was helped by doing them. Now I'm starting to experience neck pain and was thinking about trying his exercises again.
Hope you received my reply that I am not familiar with this program. I will research it this week and try to respond toward the end of the week. Just know, if it's safe and the technician listens to you then you have an advantage. If you'd like to converse more on it before I find them please feel free to respond back and let's find out what you're actually doing.
Ok stimpson you opened yourself up to this. I am glad you found merit in most of my stuff but remember that I made no recommendations to water intake. I know I get sick of the formulas too, but all I said was not to forget it. Do you know that most people drink around 10 ounces a day. Your body needs a minimum of 80 for optimal function, that'f for a small, athletic woman by the way. Now you get some water in your food, you get some in your tea's, you get some in your coffees . . .But being outside creates a new demand, also.
You already know the body is 85% water (pick your resourse, this is conservative) and trust me on this . . once you want water, you are already a little dehydrated. Do you know the number one and two over-the-counter drugs on the market ? Headache medications and gastro-intentestinal products. Both of these conditions could be completely eliminated in the early stages if we would keep our bodies hydrated, i.e. drink enough waterI could get into a thousand antidotes but will save you the anguish. Just know that your point is well taken and I hope you will rethink the holistic implications of what 'enough water' means.
So . . . you can wait but when you're on the golf course you should dring one quarter of a cup for every fifteen minutes. Not to keep your palet quenched, but to keep your internal organs working at their optimum . Once your body has to call out for the nutrients it needs and has to create symptoms, even as simple as . ."Gee, I'm thirsty", that create stress within your internal organs and stress on your immune system. Just a thought
A detail really... To me all the fuzz about drinking lots water has one single effect: Crowded restrooms.
I beleive that when the body wants something to drink, it will let you know. Extra water will be rejected & want to exit ASAP.
But if it helps people avoiding sweet drinks (Coke etc) its excellent.
Was just a detaill. The other stuff you wrote was excellent.
I for one thought the same regarding water. Then I lived where the humidy was low (the desert). If you wait for the body to tell you you need fluids, it is too late. That is one example where the body can't warn you in time.
If you expound or use up fluids faster than the body can react to warn you, you will also find that you again are too late. The efficency of the body does have a tolerance to fluids being less than ideal, however there is point that when the fluids drop in the body, the efficency of the body drops.
For example in the desert, no sweat noticed, but yet it is being evaporated quicker than you can notice it forming. A cold drink sitting out in 104* sun and no condensation forming?
Drink plenty of water if you come to the desert or you won't be playing golf, you will be side lined.
Fully agree to that Vicky. On any golf round (I walk some 95% of my rounds) I'd drink 1-2 litres of water.
Lately I have too often people in their teens or late teens who'd drink 5-6 litres of water a day even if they are staying in a tempered office environment. They've "heard somewhere" that you should drink as much water as possible. That's when the restroom effect is all too obvious.
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