Herniated Disc at L4/L5

[tikalosh]

was doing deads last week and in my second set lifted the bar to standing position and kinda arched my back, right when i did the last sixth of the movement felt an intense pain in my lower back. went to the physio 2 days after and she said its a herniated disc meaning the soft gelly like material between the vertebrae crushed and is kinda bulging out. Right now there's like a low grade chronic pain in my lower back that worsens every time i flex my back. its at the level of L4/L5

just wondering if anyone else has had this, how long this shit takes to heal and if, once healed, i wont be able to do heavy deads/squats anymore?

right now i'm farkin depressed as doc said i cant gym for 2 weeks. i'm gonna do upper body against docs advice and c how it goes.

[orange]

That pain is called sciatica, or radiculopathy, and is caused when the pulpy nucleus of the disk presses on the sciatic nerve roots. Number five is the first disc above your scrum, so it's right in your lower back.

Do you have full feeling in your big toe?

[tikalosh]

nah dont think its pinching nerves, no numbness/tingling down my legs or lower back. doc said if that was the case mri and surgery might be needed, luckily not. thank G :pray: just a localised chronic/sub acute pain. hurts in any position except when i li down

[orange]

Ok, you are probably looking at light exercise only from the time the pain eases. And it takes 4-6 months for the disk to totally heal itself. Any heavy exercise during that time risks a flare up or additional damage.

Did you get a physio referral via ACC?

[tikalosh]

i can do 4-6 months no deads or squats but what about upperbody/upperback/legpress, just no exercises that place strain on the lower back?

yup got it covered by ACC and seeing physio for third time 2moro

[Android]

i can do 4-6 months no deads or squats but what about upperbody/upperback/legpress, just no exercises that place strain on the lower back?

yup got it covered by ACC and seeing physio for third time 2moro

make those seated row machines your best friend (the kind where you sit and rest your chest against a pad you know the ones?), various grips and build a freak'n awesome upper and middle back while your lower back recovers mate.

Take it easy working hammies to, switch to lighter weight high rep work so you don't strain your lower back. Maybe Legs in general switch to lighter weight higher rep, can't be bad for you many of us build muscle doing it this way.

[weener lad]

Feel your pain fella, I'm currently dealing with a similar problem (moderate rupture not herniated L4/L5 region).

Firstly as you will know avoid sitting like the plague and do plenty of those Cobra stretches (lay on stomach hands under shoulders and push up keeping hips on floor). I am currently getting in about 10 of these buggers every hour odd and my back has improved ten fold in a week.

When it comes to work outs it really does depend on you. As long as your not sitting and or putting pressure on your lower back you will recover quickly (however avoid leg press, deads and squats).

Good luck with your recovery and just remember a full recovery now (not doing leg workouts) will mean a relapse is less likely :nod:

[Gym rat]

ouch

[AlBundy]

Yep maintaining your lumbar curve is essential when doing squats/deads. I too have felt a pinging pain in my lower back when my form gets sloppy and the vertebrae put pressure on the descending nerves. Kinda exercise where you gotta leave your ego at the door.

[nzmusclemonster]

Be careful with your back. Don't turn into this guy.

[psi_brg]

in 07 i my disks L3,L4,L5,0 so 3 disks were prolapsed and puncherd this took me a little over a year to get over as they were crazey stuffd up mri scans the whole works later and a few refused surgerys to fuse my spin and or cut the access disk away from my nerves later....im back fighting fit and stronger than ever with a core that could hold and elephant haha. just take it easy dude do the exercises that they give you and or ask acc to pay for a personal trainer to help you get rehabilitated and you will be sorted

[Android]

in 07 i my disks L3,L4,L5,0 so 3 disks were prolapsed and puncherd this took me a little over a year to get over as they were crazey stuffd up mri scans the whole works later and a few refused surgerys to fuse my spin and or cut the access disk away from my nerves later....im back fighting fit and stronger than ever with a core that could hold and elephant haha. just take it easy dude do the exercises that they give you and or ask acc to pay for a personal trainer to help you get rehabilitated and you will be sorted

is there way to get this for healthy people you think :pfft:

[laurasaur]

I had similar thing last year and it took me a good 4-5 months to get back 80% of my strength. Now I'm scared of doing it again so my deads are still only around 60kg where as before I was close to 90... oh well.. I'm sure I'll get there again sometime soon...

[psi_brg]

yea definitly a "weak" point of the human body so easy to stuff up and very hard to get back especially if you have done a number on it, think positive and do what you do because its all about you and you will triumph

[tikalosh]

cheers for the replies

good to know i mite be back to normal in a few months, was afraid of not being able to go heavy on the compounds n e more.

atm just gonna focus on upperbody exercises, no legs except seated calf exercises, for the next few weeks. hope my quads/hammies/arse dont disappear into oblivion

physio said my hammies are real tight which causes me to lift things with my lower back more so i'm gonna have to work on flexibility more. my lower vertebrae also don't move very independantly (ie back is straight when bending down as opposed to having the natural curve) and the deep abdominal muscles that give you that intra abdominal pressure is a bit unco and weak. so my exercises include strengthening these and getting my back more mobile.

on a side note one of the sports physios at the clinic said that stretching before a workout makes your muscles weaker when doing weights so it should be done after a workout and also everyday for flexibility.

[psi_brg]

yea man ya learn some good stuff that will stick with you for life outa this its all comensense but we always forget to do it untill xtreme nerve pain is involved.

mate hammy's gotta keep them flexable and i totally agree stretching afterwards never before warm up yes but no streches,

inner core=great strength when u get it back

[Foundation]

Yes the ol spine is something that needs caring for, thats for sure...

Sorry to hear bro, hope it heals better and stronger.

I myself have a compressed C1 and C2 or is it C2 and C3, forget now, had tingles in the shoulder blade to shoulder area, alot of pain in the upper back area on either side of the spine running up to the lower neck, a bit of pain but bearable, made it hard to get outta bed, gotta roll onto one side before getting up, pain looking up and down as well as side to side.

Injury occured when I was doing incline bb press, whilst struggling with my last rep in second to last set I lifted my head off the bench as I was straining my arse off then something gave, didn't think nothing of it untill the next morning, stiff neck, pain, dammit!! went to physio, no free weights for a few weeks, needed a break anyway I guess.

[tikalosh]

thanks for all the help, just one more question.

given i cant train legs or any excercises that put downwards pressure on my spine - basically i can just train chest/arms/upperback/limited shoulders/limited calves - and for cardio can only do x-trainer and bike probably no high intensity cardio (HIIT)

should i be bulking or cutting atm?

don't just wana maintain as there's no real progress in doing this. was recently doin a cut and am currently sitting at around 14% at 95kg.

[gazza]

thanks for all the help, just one more question.

given i cant train legs or any excercises that put downwards pressure on my spine - basically i can just train chest/arms/upperback/limited shoulders/limited calves - and for cardio can only do x-trainer and bike probably no high intensity cardio (HIIT)

should i be bulking or cutting atm?

don't just wana maintain as there's no real progress in doing this. was recently doin a cut and am currently sitting at around 14% at 95kg.

so seated calf raise, leg extensions,seated leg curls would maybe be possible.

just keep eating healthy mate and try and hold things where you are at?