Back in Action » sciatica

30-Day Free Trial of the 10-Minute Sciatica Program

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:18:03 +0000

30-Day No Risk Trial

If you haven’t seen our website already, for a limited time we’re offering ALL customers a 100% free 30-day trial. No hidden fees. No shipping charges. Just a 30-day free trial on our standard sciatica exercise program or online sciatica exercise program.

Are we crazy? No, we just believe in our program so much that if it doesn’t help you, we don’t want you to pay for it! And what better way to prove it to you than with a free trial?

Learn more…

- Bryan

The Perils of Travelling: Why Airplanes Cause Sciatica Pain

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:32:00 +0000

I just recently returned from a visit to Washington DC. It had been the first time in a while that I travelled with heavy checked luggage (carrying books and clothes for a friend). Thus, I had forgotten all the ways airline travel could cause sciatica pain.

When I checked my ginormous suitcase, it was over 60lbs, so I had to remove some of the stuff and put into my backpack carry-on. So there I was, with a 50lb suitcase and a 25lb backpack, lugging them on and off the airport shuttles, subways, buses until I reached my final destination in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of DC.

Sure enough, my sciatic nerve was in pain the next day because of all that lifting, jerking, and additional weight on my back.

MISTAKE #1 – Not using my rolling carry-on with wheels. I thought I would be smart and only have my backpack carry-on plus the checked luggage. I had originally packed a roller carry-on, but was able to shift some stuff around to just have the backpack and large suitcase. What I should have done was leave the backpack at home and instead use the roller carry-on.
MISTAKE #2 - Bringing a heavy suitcase in the first place! If you can, avoid bringing any heavy suitcases and instead pack light. In this case I had volunteered to bring lots of heavy items for a friend. I wish now I would have just mailed them UPS or not brought them at all, because my sciatica pain made me less able to enjoy walking around DC.
A friend’s father that has severe sciatica pain has a little trick he uses when he travels; he wears as many layers of clothes as possible so his luggage is light! Although he probably gets hot and uncomfortable, at least he’s not in pain the next few days! I prefer just packing light to begin with.

In addition to my mistakes on my last trip, here are a few more tips about travelling and keeping your sciatic nerve pain away:

If you’re going to be travelling, be sure to get up and stretch every hour or so. Sitting in that cramped airline seat can not only make you claustrophobic, but also put lots of pressure on your spine.
Also, don’t forget to do your 10-Minute Sciatica Program stretches & exercises even when you’re travelling. I know it’s hard to do when visiting friends, relatives, and other cities, but you need to keep doing them to stay pain free.
If you’re going to a city where you’re going to be walking a bunch, wear proper walking shoes. Avoid wearing sandals, heels, or any shoes without ample cushioning.

I’m travelling again in a few weeks, and for the sake of my pinched nerve, I can guarantee I’m not going to make the same mistakes again!

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

Piriformis Pain Journal – Document Your Journey to Become Pain Free

admin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:22:00 +0000

So after trying everything – doctors, chiropractors, physical therapy, OTC painkillers, prescription painkillers (Vioxx), spine surgeons (but not surgery thank goodness), yoga, and pilates – I knew that my pain would come and go, but I didn’t know why. So I decided to start keeping a pain journal to help me figure out what activities were causing the pain.

You can hear about some of my pain journal findings in our bonus audio course, Sciatica Pain Tips & Strategies. Because everyone has a slightly different cause of their pain, it might help if you start keeping your own. Find out what activities cause more pain, which ones don’t cause any, and which ones are questionable.

I discovered that sleeping on soft mattresses made my lower back tight. I found out that shoes with heels (i.e. work shoes or Nike Shox) made my pain worse. I also found out certain activities didn’t cause pain – sand volleyball, freestyle swimming – but others did – breaststroke swimming, tennis. Walking didn’t hurt, but running did. Of course this was before I created the 10-Minute Sciatica Program, where I’ve now been able to return to most activities.

But give the pain journal a try. See if it helps you learn more about your pain and what’s causing it. It did for me.

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

Vioxx for Sciatica?

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:48:00 +0000

Vioxx – a COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Vioxx
is also related to the nonselective NSAIDs , such as ibuprofen and
naproxen. Vioxx is a prescription medicine
used to relieve signs and symptoms of arthritis, acute pain in adults, and
painful menstrual cycles.

Once I found a doctor that could correctly diagnose that pain in my butt and leg (i.e. “you have sciatica”), he promptly suggested two things I could do:

Physical Therapy – I’ve already done that and it didn’t work. Plus, I was traveling a lot for work so I couldn’t stick with it. In retrospect I wish I would have tried the physical therapist he recommended.
Painkillers, in this case Vioxx – ooooh, so you want to quickly relieve my pain without me having to work for it? Where do I sign up?

So yes, after trying doctors, 12 ibuprofen per day, and physical therapy to fix my sciatica pain, I was ready for something to finally work. So when he told me Vioxx, a new drug that had a knack for reducing pain in arthiritis patients, could help me too, I was an easy sell.

That’s how I got started on Vioxx. I started taking it in the summer of 2001. Like some of the other bandaids I had tried, this one worked when I first tried it. I was back to playing tennis, ultimate, and running.

“I love you Vioxx,” I probably screamed out on more than one occasion. After several refills and about 5 months of taking it, I noticed that it helped with the pain, but it wasn’t really doing much else for me. The sciatic nerve pain kept coming back.

I read the warnings on the side of the pill container – take with food, don’t lay down after taking, don’t forget your Mom’s birthday, don’t take this drug. Hmm, although I appreciated the suggestive birthday reminders, I decided that I would probably be much safer just taking ibuprofen. At least I’d get to keep my stomach lining, wohoo!

So I kicked the Vioxx habit and went back to the good ole’ trusted source for killing my sciatic nerve pain, Ibuprofen (aka IB, advil, motrin, etc.).

Boy, am I ever glad I decided to stop taking Vioxx, because 3 years later, in 2004, the FDA came out with the news that patients who took Vioxx long term had a higher risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. It was one of those famous sayings, “Great, so I numbed my sciatica pain, but now I’m going to get a heart attack?” Soon after Merck voluntarily recalled Vioxx from all store shelves. Soon after there were multi-billion dollar lawsuits against Vioxx. And the rest is history.

I learned a couple valuable lessons from this experience:

New drugs are bad – they don’t have enough history to prove the long-term side effects. So next time a doctor says, “oh this is new, you should give it a try,” run for the hills.

Painkillers don’t fix the problem – over the counter and prescription pain killers may make you feel better, and sometimes reduce the irritation so that you can return to normal activities, they aren’t fixing the root cause of your piriformis syndrome and sciatic nerve pain. Only corrective exercises & stretches can do that.

Now yes, taking Ibuprofen from time to time won’t hurt you, and can help reduce sciatica irritation, but it’s a bandaid, it’s not a long-term solution.

I know we all want the “get rich quick scheme,” or in this case, the “get pain-free quick scheme,” but like all other “schemes,” they don’t last. Like the rest of life, the only way to hit the jackpot, is to work for it. In this case, that means breaking a sweat using our 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program.

And that is the rest of the story…

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

Sciatica Wars: Return of the Pain

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:56:00 +0000

“Luke, I am your Sciatica Pain”

So whatever that pain was that I had in the Fall of 2000, came back with a vengeance in early 2001. In fact, it was so debilitating I couldn’t play any Ultimate Frisbee or run at all. So I finally got smart and thought I would go see some University of Texas doctors. Although I can’t help laughing about it now, the doctors didn’t have a clue.

When I went in there to tell them about my pain, they didn’t know what was going on either!! In fact, after taking x-rays, they just figured it was a pulled muscle somewhere in my ass! So because they thought I had a pulled muscle, they told me to take 800mg of ibuprofen three times per day to reduce the pain, and put me on CRUTCHES.

So for 3 weeks I needlessly walked around on crutches because the incompetent doctors couldn’t diagnose what was causing my pain. They also put me on a physical therapy program, which I’ll talk about more in another blog.

First off, I should have gone to the doctor earlier, but I was trying to tough it out. However, I really wish I would have gone to some better doctors so I could have diagnosed what I had earlier. Unfortunately, that’s the way life goes sometimes, and we just have to learn not to make the same mistake twice!

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

What the heck is that pain in my butt?

admin — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:42:00 +0000

November 6, 2000 wasn’t just an ordinary day. I had been on a week-long business trip with IBM to Burlington, Vermont. In fact, you might remember the big news around that time was the disputed election of George W. Bush vs. Al Gore.

But the day didn’t start like any other. Immediately when I woke up, I noticed an unusual pain in my butt, literally. Now before that point, I had never pulled a muscle, never broken more than a finger, even with playing sports all through middle school, high school, and college. I had never experienced a pain like this.

So that day at work, I spent most of my time stretching my hamstings, doing a groin stretch (I must have looked pretty funny if anyone saw me). To no avail, the pain didn’t go away. “What the heck is going on?!?!” I thought to myself.

Had I known what I know now, I would have behaved completely differently. Instead of going to see a doctor to figure out what was cauing my pain, I just tried to tough it out.

In fact, because it was just the beginning stages of my sciatica, the pain went away after a few days, and I went back to my normal activities like running, ultimate frisbee, and whatever else I could do to get outside.

I even played in a weekend ultimate frisbee tournament and I was worried that pain would come back, but it didn’t. So I forgot about it, at least until the pain returned . . .

I imagine you have a story like this as well. Maybe you woke up with the pain like I did. Or maybe you were lifting something heavy. Or maybe you were just sitting and working.

What’s your story?
Let us know by leaving a comment below…

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

The New Back in Action Blog

Back in Action Institute — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:10:00 +0000

We know, we know. It took us too long to create a blog for Back in Action Institute. But better late than never, right?

So welcome to our new blog. Our goal is not just to brain dump on this blog, but instead we want an interactive forum, where we hear back from people who suffer from sciatic nerve pain or piriformis syndrome. So learn tip treatment strategies to manage your pain, share your tips with others through our blog, or just say hello.

We’re glad to have you as part of our community of people who have lived with and overcome their sciatica pain.

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program