[robert meldrum]

Different muscle groups at work Tony.............you've addressed the problem by strengthening ( inadvertently ) the weaker muscles which has religned your spine.

[andrew stone]

i have used a device called the bacnumptyber - dont laugh!
apply pressure to the area of the back that hurts- does seem to help by apparently working on trigger points in the muscles

[andrew stone]

that should read bacnumptyber

[The Great One]

Hi

Having had a prolapsed L5 disc in 1999 i have also suffered back pain (didn't know if I'd walk agaian)

With Sciatica it may not be that at all!

It will more than likely be your Piriformis muscle in your bum cheeks:

The Piriformis muscle is one of the small muscles deep in the buttocks that rotates the leg outwards. It runs from the base of the spine (the sacrum) and attaches to the thigh bone (femur) roughly where the outside crease in your bum is. The sciatic nerve runs very close to this muscle and in some people (around 10% of the population) it passes straight through the muscles' fibres! If the piriformis muscle becomes tight it can put pressure on the sciatic nerve and cause pain which can radiate down the leg, commonly known as sciatic pain (see sciatica). It has been suggested that this condition would be better referred to as piriformis impingement due to the impingement of the sciatic nerve.

A common cause of Piriformis syndrome is having tight adductor muscles (inside your thigh). This means the abductors on the outside cannot work properly and so put more strain on the Piriformis.
Symptoms of piriformis syndrome:

    Tenderness in the area of the muscle.
    Pain in the buttocks.
    Pain which radiates down the back of the leg, usually into the hamstrings and sometimes even the calf muscles.
    It is common for pain to initially be confused with a hamstring strain or hamstring origin tendinopathy. However there will be no area in the hamstrings which is tender to touch.
    Reduced range of motion of the hip joint, especially into internal hip rotation.


For those who have Sciatic issues, go to a sports massage therapist and suffer no more, same for those of you with shoulder pain. Don't forget you are constantly tensing your muscles while you are doing your job.

Martin

[John Kelly]

Lynn has suffered from back problems for over 15 years. She used to visit a Chiropractor twice a week at 30 quid a shot. They told her she would eventually reduce her visits to monthly then 6 monthly. Never happened after 2 weeks she had to go back again the pain was so bad. I was getting a bit sick of this and couldn't understand how some quack could manipulate your back and exepect it to heal. Proof is in the pudding after 12 years it was no better in fact getting worse. She took up pilates 2 years ago and you would not believe the difference. She has never been back to a Chiropractor and suffers no pain in her back whatsover. She has now even started doing 3 classes of Zumba a week which wouild have been unthinkable.
Don't think this is just for the ladies, there are plenty men in her Pilates class including semi pro footballers.

[Billy Russell]

semi pro footballers!!!!! You mean the newcastle first team!!!!! 

[wynne jones]

I think the worst thing for your back is being hunched over a desk all day. At least we get out and about and strengthen our core and have greater range of movement.

Wanding is good for you but some people over extend the stroke which in years to come will bite you.

[Tony Rowley]

Interesting reading, I dont suffer from a bad back but my wife does, badly, my house looks like a pharmacy the gp has given her so many different drugs over the past 10 months, none of which made very much difference.

She is in so much pain that she rarely sleeps through the night and I often find her sitting at the computer at 2,3,4 in the morning, and most of the time she walks like she has a wooden leg!

An MRI scan she had a bout a month ago shows she has and I quote " a broad disc bulge L4-5, with probable nerve root pressure" and has been told that the best thing for her is to have surgery.

Funnily enough a letter came in the post today for her appointment to see the neurosurgery team, scares the crap out of me, having someone touch my spine is enough for me so the thought of someone operating on it would fill me with dread, but I am not the one in constant pain.

Tony

[mark_roberts]

Funny I was thinking of going to pilates.  For me I find doing situps and strenghing the stomach muscles helps me.  Also trying to keep the weight off helps too.

Mark

[Dave_Lee]

I suffered years of bad back, eventually leading to bad spasms that required taking Diazapam to relax.
Then after another episode I went to Chiropractor and after 3 or 4 visits decided to stop. My back although stiffening up a bit occasionally has never gone into bad spasm since.
However one thing I did, which I think has made all the difference and eased the pressure of the job on my back is - I raised the tube handle on my wands and repositioned it just a couple of inches below the top bend. This gives a much more upright working position.
Dave.

[des]

I to have a bad back /stiff neck and i have found that using a 360i rotovac has helped a lot as i now clean in a up right position

[Elfyn]

I used to have a lot of lower back pain after carpet cleaning. I bought an "Evolution" wand just over 2 years and the problem is much improved. 

[robert meldrum]

Pilates is excellent and can correct pelvic distortions and build the muscle groups to maintain the correction in a similar way to the simple treatment I 've posted about.

the email address for the gent who helped me when the rest of the world said it couldn't be done  is

alexalign.uk@googlemail.com 

his site may seem to be full of waffle, but it's his take on life.............just scroll down the left to find pelvic corrector which is a device that allows you to correct and maintain the problem.

In the case of c/c it would be sensible to modify how you work and how you lift items.