Piriformis syndrome is an irritation of the sciatic nerve caused by an inflammation of the piriformis muscle. This often feels like a deep aching pain in the buttock, or a radiating sharp nerve pain that extends along the middle of the hamstring muscle in your leg. Some people even feel numbness and tingling right down into the calf and toes. These symptoms can be accompanied by low back pain and worsen after prolonged sitting. This is where it can often by misdiagnosed as a different injury and left untreated. The symptoms of often mimic those of many other injuries such as a herniated disc pressing upon the sciatic nerve, and various other hip or back problems. To be sure you have piriformis syndrome, the problem should be properly investigated by a medical professional to rule out more serious possibilities. You must also understand that this condition will become chronic if left untreated, so getting started with a treatment program straight away is critical. Rest and anti inflammatory medication may help in the beginning to reduce pain, but will not provide the solution to getting rid of it for good. A very carefully designed exercise program, that focuses on treating the cause, is the only effective way to deal with this injury. Even surgery will not address the real problem, which you will see in this article has a lot to do with your glutes (buttock muscles), your hips and most importantly how you move!

Balance training, for most people we see when they first come to the gym is often a very difficult task and for most even quite scary. This is especially true with older adults is needed now more than ever! Senior Fitness classes are popping up everywhere as there is becoming more and more a need to improve mobility in function with the older population. But balance and stability training is not just for old people! Sports and Rehabilitation this skill and type of training is critical for achieving success and improved performance or for getting out of pain. The common theme to all of these areas is if they had spent a lot of time developing this skill earlier in life it would not be a problem later on! This does not mean we all have to start standing on swissballs or doing circus stunts. Having a good understanding of what balance is needed for YOU is the key. In this article we will look at what happens when you lose this skill, defining what it means and how you get it back or make it better than it has ever been before.

As many of you know, all of us at No Regrets are continually revising our knowledge, education and skills in order to find the latest research and methods to help our clients get great results. Most of our important tools are found in books, and many of them are old books not recent. Here are the top 5 books that we commonly refer to and that we know are essential for understanding health. For there are so many diet books, exercise tips etc it is hard to know what is right or wrong. These books provide the answers people are looking for and have helped us tremendously over the years.