how in the fuck am i supposed to actually cope with lower back pain? i have two bulging discs and a disc protrusion and it severely limits what i can in the gym. pretty much everything i try leaves me with moderate lower back discomfort the next day. from lifting to jump rope to jogging to swimming, i always end up dealing with obnoxious low grade pain and stiffness. i even feel when i just stick to biking. biking ffs! the pain is not bad enough that i'm keeling over in pain but it is bad enough that it makes not want to go to the gym.
i've consulted with an orthopedist about this and he said because my bulges and pain are not severe enough that i most likely will never be a candidate for surgery. he claimed that back surgeons only take on people with crippling sciatica, and because i don't have any pretty much no back surgeon would want to bother with me. he gave me a list of core exercises to do which i highly doubt will make too much of a difference, and said if i still have discomfort after six weeks of doing the exercises that i should probably consult with a pain management doctor.
wtf am i supposed to do? am i supposed to just live with it? or should i go back to squatting and deadlifting, injure it to the point where i have crippling sciatica, and THEN demand surgery?
From what I've seen and heard from the literal thousands of people I've talked to in my life, usually when they do surgery on the back, it only gets worse. My mom's brother had a cage or something put in and the guy literally went mad. My neighbor had a cyst or something popped on his back near the spine and now he can't even bike. Dude basically sits at home all day. Sad sight to see.
Connor Long
>he gave me a list of core exercises to do which i highly doubt will make too much of a difference literal retard or bait? LOTS of people have fixed their back pain with core exercises. I fixed my posture too. Do them
what good are some core excercsies going to do for me when i have two bulgings discs and a fucking disc protrusion, retard? i looked over the meme exercises he gave me and did them today at the gym, they weren't challenging at all, i get more core activation swimming butterfly for a half hour than i do with this shit. it's literal excercises prescribed to people who never worked out or moved much in their lives.
this isn't muscle pain or pain stemming from a shitty posture or from sitting on a chair behind a computer 10 hours a day chucklefuck, this is grinding bone pain and nerve pain you absolute chucklefuck
Easton Allen
haha enjoy your pain bro
William Sullivan
isn't there some new back surgery that's works with micro incisions, though? i heard the procedure is only 45 minutes long and people are walking around half an hour after the procedure.
Anthony Thomas
i will you absolute low iq shit for brains
enjoy never having higher than room temp iq
Brayden Richardson
Wouldn't know. Perhaps. Hopefully people with back issues won't have such a rocky horizon ahead of them.
Ian Foster
core exercises shouldn't feel challenging the way most exercises (including abs) feel. People often feel like they're wasting their time doing them because you don't get that 'burn' feeling characteristic of other exercises. This is because they don't cause lactic acid build up. Instead it should just feel 'harder' after 2 min or 10 reps or whatever, like you've lost a little balance. That's a sign that you're exercising your core.
If you find the exercises too easy, you can always try modifying them. Try using just 1 leg, or adding a yoga ball, but do them every day without fail, you'll be surprised how much stress you can take off of your back.
>t. user who had terrible back pain for years, and it's just starting to get better because I got a proper exercise regimen from a doctor.
Samuel Peterson
Hey OP I've walked L4-L5, L5-S1 and S1-S2 partially out of my back, and the three lumbar discs directly above those are degenerating, but not bulging yet. I have severe sciatica at times, sometimes my legs and feet are just completely numb, and sometimes (eh, rarely) i have a pain free day.
Nerve blockers (gabapentin) didnt really help even mo ths after adjusting doses. Made me gain a bjnch of weight (went from 190 to 245) and feel tired all the time. I was prescribed muscle relaxers to take, but they make me sleep, so I avoid them as much as ppssible.
1- welcome to the pain. It will never go away.
2- dont focus on it. Seriously, stop thinking about it. Force yourself to think of other things when you find yourself gritting your teeth and wincing. Some portion of pain *is* mental, and focusing on it makes it all consuming.
3- stopndoing high impact exercises, or at least moderate what and how much you do. I still do hill sprints, but generally only once a week, and only a few times up the hill. I still squat and deadlift heavyish, but I never push even to technical failure. As soon as I have to (increase the length of a) pause between reps on deadlifts or squats, I call it a set.
4- physical activity is going to help more than it hurts. And yes, it will probabpy hurt. Like arthritic joints, your spine and core need to be strengthened with care.
5- biking and any sort of core exercise that involves the hip flexors is going to cause you pain. Stahp! Seriously. Tight hip flexors are bad for your spinal health.
Sorry you're in pain man. Keep moving and stay positive.
Luke Martinez
>i have two bulging discs and a disc protrusion How did you get it?
Joshua Morris
If you’re not willing to walk the risky path of re-learning to squat and deadlift pain free (something I’ve done three times now), then just do non-spinal compressing exercises. They’re usually not as good but it’s something. Bench, seal rows, face pulls, incline bench and curls, vertical pulls, I’m sure there’s more. Maybe even reverse hypers if you have access to one, unlikely though.
Wyatt Morris
ostensibly from squatting, deadlifting (stiff leg deadlift especially) too heavy and too often with not the best form, along with working construction for a while
Jose Bell
A couple years ago i got my appendix removed and then 13 days later got t-boned by a chink going 70 through a red light. My back, neck, and abdomen were absolutely rekt because I was still recovering from the surgery. Exercise is the number one thing that helped me get better, and even so, the pain hasn't fully gone away in a lot of areas. It probably never will. I've just gotten better at dealing with it. If your back is too fucked up to do heavy barbell squats and deadlifts, then just don't do them. Do bulgarian split squats. Do single leg deadlifts. Do glute ham raises. Glute bridges. Keep trying different modifications to exercises until you find the things that cause you the least amount of pain, then just do those. I was 175 and lean before my car accident, went down to 150 and flabby as fuck over 2 years, and now I'm back up to 170 and even leaner than before. It's not easy but its possible. And the alternative is to just be a faggot and give up.
And for fucks sake listen to your doctor you autistic fucknugget. There is a reason they're a doctor and you're not. Core exercises improve your core strength, which improves the stability of your spine. Guess what will cause bulging discs to not be irritated? Having an extremely strong and stable core to support your spine.
Liam Morales
user i appreciate your posts but do you have any actual disk issues? like i said before, this isn't muscle pain, i highly doubt i'll get the same results as you did, as this user said i'm pretty much just going to have to find a way to live with it, it seems. breh i'm over squatting and dead lifting honestly, i can live with out it the problem is pretty much everything else causes me discomfort too
Asher Young
did the car accident you were in cause bulging discs? yes or no? >just listen to your doctor, bro bro he gave me a referral to a pain management doctor, in so many words he too basically said it's just something i'm going to have to live with
Angel Cox
Nothing disc related, but I have scoliosis, so it's not just muscle pain I don't think. The thing that causes me the most pain is the tendons(maybe?) connecting my hips to my spine being pulled way too hard on one side. For years I lived with it, and some days I couldn't get out of bed, but recently I've been sticking to the stretching/exercise routine and things have been going well.
I'm not trying to give you false hope, just saying please don't skip your stretches and exercises because you've decided you're doomed to live with the pain. Just try and stick with them for a while, I think you'll be surprised how much strengthening your core takes stress off your back.
Kevin Thomas
How long have you had the pain?
I got a microdiscectomy for a herniated L5-S1 a couple years back after trying meds, physical therapy, rest, injections, a chiropractor, and everything else. The surgery didn’t make my sciatica go away, and it also gave me worse back pain than I had prior to it (which I still have to this day).
I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t try certain things, but I’ll tell you this: DO NOT FUCK AROUND WITH SCIATICA. Do not attempt to make it worse so that you’ll get the surgery. I had some sort of nerve stimulation done to see where the nerve was damaged, it was the most excruciating pain of my fucking life. If I had to live with that I’d 100% kill myself. Do not fuck around with that shit.
If I remember correctly, the rate of people still dealing with pain years later is roughly equal for those who do and don’t get surgery. If the pain is fairly recent, there is a decent chance it will go away (could take months). In the meantime, do not allow yourself to get fat, WALK, and look up Stu McGill. Take it easy on lifting, maybe go to pull-ups/dips exclusively for a while if you can handle it.
Brayden Rogers
Bad oxygen in your spine, eat only potatos until your autism is gone.
Andrew Hill
>How long have you had the pain i've been dealing with it probably since early 2011. funnily enough my previous ortho gave me one of those nerve tests too and they came back normal. you actually experienced pain during one? wow, didn't know they can trigger pain. >don't get fat I'm afraid it's too late lol
Isaiah Myers
Oh, and I understand your frustration with the exercises they give you. You’re probably young and you’re realizing that most people with back pain are geriatrics so the exercises they give you are basically suited to them and not you. In all fairness, those exercises probably do help alleviate the pain in couch potatos or old people who simply haven’t exercised in a long time, I think you’ll be able to tell early on whether they help you or not.
Here’s another question: Does your back hurt more in flexion (rounding forward) or extension (bringing backward)?
Robert Mitchell
Okay, you’ve had back pain longer than I have. It’s possible it will lessen in severity if you lose weight but it’s probably going to be a lifetime thing if you’ve had it that long. I had to accept this, it really fucking sucks.
Jace Torres
>Here’s another question: Does your back hurt more in flexion (rounding forward) or extension (bringing backward)? both honestly. well maybe not so much in extension. i guess i can some bad pain when in extension the day after a squatting session. but otherwise no. i get pretty bad pain when in flexion regardless if I work out or not. especially when I lay on my stomach on one of those exercise balls. quite sharp at times actually. but again, no crippling pain or anything. but it's def there.
