L5-S1 hernia friendly workouts.

[Daghda]

Hy.

I've been diagnosed with a l5-s1 disc bulge. The intesity of my exercising has decreased since then. Nowadays, my workouts consist of pushups, pullups, McGill Big 3, some band exercises for shoulder and pecs, dips and some elliptical.

Does someone has some experience in this kind of lesion and can tell me he insights?

Thanks!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Hy.

I've been diagnosed with a l5-s1 disc bulge. The intesity of my exercising has decreased since then. Nowadays, my workouts consist of pushups, pullups, McGill Big 3, some band exercises for shoulder and pecs, dips and some elliptical.

Does someone has some experience in this kind of lesion and can tell me he insights?

Thanks!

Welcome, @Daghda !

I am sorry about your back. I suffered from lower back pain intermittently for 9 years. It was no fun!

When you are injured it is important to do work to strengthen the muscles which support the injured area. But it is also important to rest it. Especially during the acute phase of an injury.

DAREBEE has a program designed specifically for strengthening the lower back and core. There are also a number of back & core-focused individual workouts. (That latter link won't be all back-focused workouts. It's searching the database for workouts with the word "back" in the title, where it's sometimes used to refer to the body part but other times is used as an adjective or adverb. That link will, however, help you narrow down the search.) My best advice would be to print off some of these workouts and share them with your doctor/physio/orthopedist/other medical professional helping you to rehab your back and ask for guidance on which exercises are safe for you to do at this time.

There is hope for healing. But you need to be smart about your recovery. (I was not. I continued to do too much on top of my acute injury and made the initial injury very much worse as a result.)

I wish for you a speedy and more importantly thorough recovery.

 

[Nitrous828]

Hy.

I've been diagnosed with a l5-s1 disc bulge. The intesity of my exercising has decreased since then. Nowadays, my workouts consist of pushups, pullups, McGill Big 3, some band exercises for shoulder and pecs, dips and some elliptical.

Does someone has some experience in this kind of lesion and can tell me he insights?

Thanks!

I am so sorry to hear about your L5 disc situation, I did suffer from an L5 disc back in 2007 it was so bad i could not sit or sleep without pain, my left leg and toes where numb! I ended up going for surgery after seeing 3 separate doctors (which if I knew better I would have avoided) but the pain was so unbearable for me and pain killers do not work.

here is what I now know, that I wish I knew at the time, the causes of the L5 disc could be one of these factors (or all of them together):

-You do not support your lower back when you sit
-You sit for extended periods of time
-You don't maintain a proper posture while sitting
-You pickup heavy objects by bending your back instead of your knees
-You are over weight or occasionally carrying heavy objects
-Your lower back muscles are weak or not developed

my surgery recovery time was 6-12 months and I was told I cannot play sports again ever! which was really devastating at the time, I spent the first 3 months in bed.

I had to learn how to move, walk, sit, sleep, pick up, stand up and sit down the correct way which took a while for me to get used to, now I never sit without a back support pillow, always bend my knees when picking up things and hold heavy objects close to my body, and many more, but i focused on my sitting posture because that's what I mostly do at work.

I then focused on losing weight and maintaining a healthy diet, after 1 year I started to do some pushups and basic workouts, I quickly learned that doing lower back and core workouts improves my situation, and since i found out about Darebee the back & core program is part of my daily routine! i sometimes mix it up with core strength program, i noticed that whenever i stop doing these my back pain starts to come back, and as soon as i go back to doing them the pain disappears, so a strong lower back and core is essential in this situation.

the bottom line is that knowing how to move and do things the right way with a strong lower back and core workout would save you from going through with surgery, then again depending on your situation your doctor is the one who determines if you need surgery or not, but do not attempt to lift heavy objects, and if you had to don't extend your arms or bend your back. and adjust all your moves and sitting postures and you should notice an improvement, may take a month or two for you to see real results, but its better than living in pain, I suffered for 6 months before I did my surgery and another 6 months after to recover from it. I was 28 at the time, Im 44 now and never been in better shape, I thank God for this blessing everyday, and I wish you a swift and smooth recovery!

P.S. Please don hesitate to ask if you feel you have any questions, I really hate to see this happen to others after going through it and finding out that I caused it to myself.

 

[Daghda]

Thank you both for your answers!!

The first two months were brutal, with a progressing left buttock pain that made me quit my training (I was not a very fit guy until 8 months before the diagnosis. But that 8 months doing functional training really made a change on my health. And stopping because of the disc bulge was terribly disappointing). I needed an epidural block on august, with oral corticoids and neuropathic painkillers. That corticoids gave me a zoster infection on my left arm... Making the situation even worse.

However, I tried to keep my mood up and, after some sessions with a physio, start training again, little by little.

These days I'm getting stronger, but talking truly, I'm still a bit afraid of doing some exercises (for example, burpees).

I'll check the programs, guys.

Thanks agains, you both!!