Sciatica from L5-S1 disc.... choosing a treatment option

Deal with this on a daily basis with my patients. A fitness forward PT is your best best. If you are in BR I would look into places like Delta PT, Moreau (specifically on Sherwood it in Walker)

All of them want to actually help people live active and fitness minded lifestyles

What kind of exercises help the most? Did injections a few years ago and they didn't help much. This year I pulled something again and it keeps flaring up every few weeks.

I've seen two PTs while dealing with this and both were the same.... exercises and stretching. Both of which Google will show you. Only thing I've seen PT good for is being used as a forced means tof doing something that most may not make the time for.

But this disc issue sucks, and having to stretch slash exercise for 30min just to pyt on a pair of socks makes it worse.

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I've seen two PTs while dealing with this and both were the same.... exercises and stretching. Both of which Google will show you.

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A lot of PTs use the McKenzie method and don't know an alternative if that doesn't work. It's hard to find a good PT. Try that first but if that doesn't work you need to find you're underlying issues. Opening up the hips worked wonders for me.

Some of the exercises I used to avoid surgery:
ATG Split Squats
DB Pullovers with a lot of thoracic extension
Trap 3 raises
Back Extensions
Standing QL Extensions

Couch stretch
Elevated pigeon stretch
Posterior stretch (calf/hamstring)
Elephant walks
Dead hangs

On the back extensions I just started with iso holds at the top and then progressed to single leg iso holds at the top. I did those for months until I had regained full tolerance of extension. Now I'm doing full range reps on the back extension to start focusing on regaining flexion. I'll eventually progress to single leg reps and then load them with weight.

If you're too flared up to even start the exercises above, the McGill big 3 is a good way to calm things down for a bit, but in my opinion it doesn't help get back strength through range which is what you need if you're active.

I've tried 4-5 injections. 1 worked but the rest didn't. The problem with injections is that you don't know if you're getting better or just masking pain so if you're doing a rehab program it's hard to tell what's working or when you've pushed it too far. In my opinion I would only get an injection if your pain is so bad that it's completely ruining your ability to sleep and recover. Try exercise first and see how it goes. I did surgery and it worked but it didn't last forever. Give yourself at least a year of really trying to fix it before going that route

I got my disc bulge from squatting heavy weight with unsafe form. The pain was terrible for an entire year. At first I thought it was just a bad lumbar strain, like most other people think when they tweak their back. X ray obviously didn’t show anything, but the MRI showed a disc protrusion in my l5 s1.

The best thing you can do is stop doing whatever is aggravating the injury, and take NSAIDs. Mine was an overuse injury from lifting so I simply stopped squatting and all lower body lifts were out of the questions. Eventually pain the subsided after 7-8 months of rest and I was pain free.

The pain from a disc bulge is not so much a “sharp” pain as it is a dull, achey pain. I couldn’t sit for more than 20 minutes without getting a dull, achey pain in my lower back. Whenever that happened, I simply got a heating pad and laid down on my bed and rested in the supine position. Eventually the ache would go away