Re: Can Someone Give Me Advice?-jcrows, I would Appreciate Your Opinion

Two specific exercises for sciatica:

1. Lie on back, draw knees to chest. Put your arms around your legs, or your hands on top of your knees or whatever you can do. Pull knees to chest and hold (about 5-10 pounds of pressure is good). Do a couple of times each evening.

2. For this you need someone to help you. It is better done lying, but I have done it with the other person sitting. Lie down and bring your heels together. Have the other person look to see which leg is longer (it is usually the longer leg that has the pain due to misalignment from the other leg being shorter). Have the person pull GENTLY, without jerking, for a 3-4 seconds on the shorter leg (at the ankle). The goal is to get the two legs equal. If pulled too much, the other leg, originally longer, must be pulled to match it. If you are sitting, just sit up in the chair and ask a girl friend to pull the shorter leg at the ankle. This is done once a day, and if it doesn't hold the first day, do it the second, and then whenever there is pain.

Either one of these exercises work right away, within a day or two, the second one being faster than the first, but the first can be done alone.