When you are stuck at the desk do the same thing that is recommended during air travel:

I call them ‘butt-ups.’  Squeeze your buttocks; make the buttock muscles tight so that you get pushed up.

If you did this several times, you would look like you are bouncing.  Do it several times in a row.  The muscle contractions get the blood and lymph fluid moving.  You can do this with large or small squeezes.  You can also alternate sides–left, right.

Also, to help reduce the swelling in your legs, at other times, lift one foot and rotate the ankle several times.  Alternate legs and directions.  Also do toe lifts (lift your toes toward your knee.)

If you are able to stand for a few minutes, do a couple of toe raises.  And lift a leg behind you.  Lift one leg at a time behind your body to stretch out the front side.

You should have enough room behind the back of your chair seat and your thighs so that you can slide your fingers between seat and thigh.  That way there is no pressure on your thighs.

But you don’t want to have too much bend in your knees, either.  The solution may require some trial on your part.  Sometimes sliding the  feet forward a bit helps.  Or maybe you can create a seat with a downward tilt to it by placing a folded towel on the seat and see whether that helps?

Or maybe lots more standing breaks?

http://www.simplestrengthening.com/2008/03/30/legs-feeling-weak-or-achey-how-balancing-can-help-your-legs-get-stronger/

That link will take you to an article about  how to balance on one foot.  That uses ALL the muscles in your leg and so squeezes the blood and lymph vessels to keep the fluid moving.

Also, if you notice that you are leaning forward in your chair to do your reports or desk work,  strive to sit more upright and create less angle between your thighs and abdomen.  Maybe you can pull your chair in closer to the desk?

I know there are all of these various issues that we have to adapt to as we get older like vision issues, etc., but sometimes making little adjustments or adaptations can make a big  difference in our comfort and in our future comfort.  That’s why you want to take steps now to reduce that work-day swelling–to keep your blood vessels healthy and flexible.

And here’s the overall picture of how we want to be:  Strong back side but soft calves, head over our shoulders rather than in front, breastbone raised.

And walk!  Walking is excellent for legs.  Get a free report here about the secrets of happy walkers:  http://WalkingSmart.com

I hope these steps will help you start getting rid of the swelling in your legs soon.

Dr. Andrew Weil is an alternative M.D. and he suggested there is no cure in a recent article but he had several suggestions.  I do, too.  I’ll share mine in a bit.

Dr. Weil said:

1.  Stop smoking.  Smoking impairs blood flow to the legs.

2.  Avoid caffeine and alcohol.  They can both make symptoms worse.

3.  Take a calcium/magnesium supplement at bedtime.  He suggested 500 mg of calcium citrate and 250 to 500 mg of magnesium to calm muscles.

4.  Exercise, stretch or massage your legs.  He said this helps most people who have mild restless legs symptoms.

5.  Take a hot bath to relax your legs.

My mom said she’d drink mineral water to settle her legs.  The minerals would have been the reason it would help.  Calcium and magnesium are minerals.

Here’s my own personal restless legs story:

I started taking a liquid mineral supplement many years ago.  About 7 months later I had a mild bout of restless legs and I thought:  “Hmm.  I haven’t had this in a long time!”

I sat down and actually made a list of seven different health issues or complaints that I was either no longer experiencing or, like this restless legs episode, was barely experiencing.  Seven!  I wasn’t missing a single one of them, either!

Of course, when something doesn’t bother us, we don’t think about it.  We only notice things when they are causing us discomfort of some sort, right?

The thing is, it appears that most of us are deficient in both minerals and vitamins.  Your body needs certain nutrients to be healthy.  If you don’t give your body what it needs and wants, you will have symptoms.  Your symptoms could include restless legs.  Mine did.

That little episode of creepy, crawly legs was over 15 years ago and I haven’t experienced it since.

Some people expect an instant response from supplements but that’s not often the case.  It may take months to get the relief you seek.  That’s why I told you it took me 7 months.  Actually, it may have been much less than that but it took that little episode for me to realize the restless legs had been gone.

You can also talk with your doctor about a variety of medications that are available.  Me?  I’d much prefer the natural way and skip the side effects.

And I don’t think we need just a nightly dose of minerals when we have symptoms.  Rather, I suspect we need continual supplementation or an extremely, extremely healthy diet (or both) to avoid, prevent and treat such things as restless leg syndrome.

Sciatic nerves are really large.

They are about the thickness of your index finger and run from the lower part of your spine through the bony hip area. The nerves pass through thick muscles in your buttocks, one on each side.

The gluteal muscles are the powerful muscles in the back of your hip (your buttocks). One of those muscles–a deeper one–is the piriformis. The piriformis muscle can be a cause of the nervy pain in your hip and/or leg. When it is, it is often called “pseudo-sciatica.” (Pseudo means false.)

If the nerve is being compressed by the spinal bones, it is true sciatica. Nerves don’t like pressure regardless of whether it’s from bones or muscles. They like to be able to move freely, without pressure.   When nerves are pressed on they cause symptoms–pain or nervy sensations.

As is usual with most physical pain, muscles are often at the root of sciatica.  Your piriformis muscle can cause pressure on the nerve if the nerve passes deep to it (behind.) A few unfortunate folks have a variation in their anatomy that allows the nerve to pass directly through a “split” piriformis muscle. They tend to have a lot of pain but fortunately it’s not a common situation.

When the problem is caused by actual pressure from a spinal bone, you have to wonder why. Sometimes it could be a bone chip–a piece of bone which broke or was actually pulled off by tight muscles. In that case, surgery may be the only option to remove the pressure from the nerve. Fortunately, this is not a common problem, either.

When your muscles get “out of balance”–some stronger or weaker than others–you are setting the stage for pain. When you were a liitle child, your muscles were “balanced.” You were always using ALL of your muscles and that’s why they were balanced.

Over time, most of us stop using all of our muscles and begin using only sixty or so on a regular basis. That’s why when you do work that you don’t usually do–like raking perhaps–you say, “I discovered muscles I didn’t even know I had.” They were always there; you just had stopped using them.

If you compare your posture with the perfect posture of most little children, you can start to imagine why you have pain. Look at that little head held right over his body. Where is your head?

Look at that little spine with it’s perfect curves in the lower back behind the waist and in the neck. How are your curves in comparison? Too much? Too little?

If you have lost or over-exaggerated (sway back) your lower back curve, there’s a good chance that your muscles are causing pressure on your sciatic nerve at some place along the way. It could be the muscles near your waist or in your gluteal region.

The good news is that bodies heal all the time.

If you can get to the root of your pain and get rid of the CAUSE of it, you’ll have a good shot at becoming pain-free. Treating only the symptom is like putting a bandaid on a cut or taking an aspirin for a headache. It doesn’t change the cause of the cut or the cause of the headache. You want to get to the root.

Do you know why less back surgery is done now than used to be done?

Because so often the surgery didn’t address the CAUSE. It only was chasing a symptom–the pain–and after the patient healed from the surgery, the pain was still there.

You can discover more about sciatica at Back Pain Freedom.com (<– click here.)  There are lots of cool pictures so you can see exactly how your body works, how big your sciatic nerve is, the muscles around it, and learn more about those muscle imbalances I talked about earlier.

You have a smart body. It wants to be well. It just needs a little help from you right now to get rid of your sciatic pain.

Our ancestors used to run around barefoot. They ran through streams, through cold water and over rough grassy lands. They ran over rocks and pebbles. They probably had to run so they wouldn’t get eaten!

But, today we usually don’t have to worry about large animals chasing us. We wear nice shoes that protect the soles of our feet from stones and sticks and dewy grass. We don’t have to use the muscles of our feet and legs to stabilize us. Our shoes do that for us. Many of us wear shoes all the time, even in our homes.

Here’s Simple Pain Relief Tip #1 – The 10-Minute Tip

* Get a tennis ball, preferably, or a golf ball. Naturally, the tennis ball is softer and easier to press against, but the golf ball can get to smaller muscles.

* Stand up and balance yourself by holding the back of a chair or a wall, something sturdy.

*Support all of your weight on one foot.

* Place your other foot on the ball and apply pressure to the ball. Use a fair amount of pressure, enough so that you are aware of the ball.

* Apply pressure in long strokes from your heel to the ball of your foot several times. Keep moving the ball along the length of your foot. Press lengthwise along the outside of your foot, the middle, and the inside of your foot.

* Then move the ball from side to side. Press firmly but gently into the ball of your foot and the bottom of your heel.

* Keep rolling on the tennis ball for five minutes.

When you are done, put your “rolled” foot on the floor. See how much different it feels from the “unrolled” foot.

Now roll the other foot!

Here’s Simple Pain Relief Tip #2 – The 2-Minute Tip

I attended a presentation by a podiatrist. He likes people to be barefoot. He even did his presentation barefoot!

He had this quick and easy way to get circulation and movement back into all the muscles of your legs and feet.

Stand up and balance on one foot. To do this, lift one leg and tuck that foot behind your other ankle.

If you need to lightly touch the back of a chair or a wall to keep your balance, until you get used to it, that’s okay.

Balance on that one foot for one minute. While you are balancing, you will feel that you are using all of the muscles in your foot. You will feel your toes gripping and the sides of your foot trying to stabilize you.

After one minute, put that foot down. How does your foot and leg feel now?

Then balance on your other foot.

If you have really flat feet, without much of an arch, this will be a little harder than for the average person. Still keep practicing, anyway. It’ll be good for you.

Another benefit of this balancing act is that is will help you have stronger legs and be more able to keep your balance as you age.

And, the foot doctor pointed out, if you do this at a party, the conversation will seem much more interesting!