Herniated disk... 3 weeks out of the gym, but back in the it tonight!!!

Figured I would share my misfortune, been a rough last few weeks staying out of the gym. About 3 weeks ago I am not sure what I did as never get initial pain from the injury, I herniated a couple of bad disks in my lumbar region I am assuming this is what it was anyways since it has happened in the past, degenerative issues from all the years of catching baseball, and deadlifts. Anyways about 6 hours after the gym I started getting nerve pain down my legs, all too familiar. So I told my girlfriend I think i hurt my back again ugh hope it doesn't get bad. Well 3 hours later I couldn't get up once I would sit down without slowly hunching my back up, kinda like it wouldn't straighten out walked like a hunchback for days. Luckily at this time I telecommute out of my house for work, so that was super nice, or i would have burnt some serious vacation time.

Then came the real nerve pain guess it was pressing on them in my spinal column, I even had some issues with when i would move a certain way my body would get the shivers, like uncontrollably like I was super cold, but then I would move a certain way (go lay on my side) and the shivers would go away, I guess the disk or whatever was going on moved back to take the pressure off the nerve? It was kind of scary but i rotated 400mg ibuprofen every 4 hours to help deal with the pain, and I went through a lot of pot haha (havent smoked like that in years) it really helped relax me though and make me "ok" with being damn near bed ridden.

I know some of you have bad spines/back problems. Any of you have these issues just out of no where without even really knowing you got "hurt"? I know it was pure misery for 2 weeks, I couldn't even ride in the car with the bouncing it just made me hurt and have more nerve pain down my legs. I was going to go to the doctor just to get evaluated, but it has happened before, minus the shivering part that kind of freaked me out. My insurance sucks unless its something major so it would have costed me a few hundred bucks for xrays I know they would want to do etc. and I have expenses to move cross country in 3 months so money is tight at the moment, just stayed immobile as much as i could and let it heal on its own.

Made this thread to A. Brag im excited to hit the gym again, super pumped to lift some light ass weight tonight haha, gotta get back in it slow again. and B. to see if any of you have these issues, how you deal with it, and if you notice anything that causes it.

how did the training session go brutha? As for me, most of you know i need a fusion between c4 and c7, i thought i had broke my back when it happened, but nope just blew out a few discs lol, arm went numb for weeks. Anyhow good to hear your able to train again

Jozifp103 said:

Story of my life brother. My disk pops in and out all the time. I'm starting to get a feel for what types of movements cause it to pop. Ive noticed:

-Squats (with proper form!) actually help tighten the muscles around the disc to hold it in.
-Planks also help tremendously keeping the muscle around the spine strong.
-Stretching your front hip flexors helps
-Keeping your back arched when sitting or laying down helps keep pressure on the back side of the disk, which keeps it pushed in.
Invest in an inversion table or gravity boots. Make it a regular thing to hang upside down for 5-10 mins 3-5 times a week.

Stay away from:

-leg presses! they cause your hips to tilt backward putting pressure on the front of your disc and opening up the back making it easy for the disc to slip out. Happened to me more times than I can count. You can feel it pop. So not fun.
-too much inactivity, especially lying in a reclined position

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haaaa.... so funny you said this. I have been having some horrible lower back pains. At first i attributed it to sitting in a uncomfortable seat during class for hours at a time. Then i thought maybe it was from working out side around the house doing yard work and such. But come to find out it's from leg presses. It sucks cause i like doing them. Going to try lighter weight and more reps to see if this helps. I also have herniated disc in c4-5 and c6-7 and any movement above the should killed it. Come to find out after having rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder alleviated the herniation pain. Now my left rotator cuff is torn and the neck pain is back. I can stretch my left arm and pop my shoulder and it instantly relives the pressure on my disc in my neck. Crazy how the nervous system works.

Presser said:

how did the training session go brutha? As for me, most of you know i need a fusion between c4 and c7, i thought i had broke my back when it happened, but nope just blew out a few discs lol, arm went numb for weeks. Anyhow good to hear your able to train again

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It went good, I took it super easy 20 minutes of steady state easy cardio, and a little seated chest press light, seated bicep curls, and some other misc exercises that I was confident would be safe. So far so good, fingers crossed.

Sucks man sorry you have the same shit.

Jozifp103 said:

Story of my life brother. My disk pops in and out all the time. I'm starting to get a feel for what types of movements cause it to pop. Ive noticed:

-Squats (with proper form!) actually help tighten the muscles around the disc to hold it in.
-Planks also help tremendously keeping the muscle around the spine strong.
-Stretching your front hip flexors helps
-Keeping your back arched when sitting or laying down helps keep pressure on the back side of the disk, which keeps it pushed in.
Invest in an inversion table or gravity boots. Make it a regular thing to hang upside down for 5-10 mins 3-5 times a week.

Stay away from:

-leg presses! they cause your hips to tilt backward putting pressure on the front of your disc and opening up the back making it easy for the disc to slip out. Happened to me more times than I can count. You can feel it pop. So not fun.
-too much inactivity, especially lying in a reclined position

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Thanks for the tips brother, its funny you say that, the day I believe it happened I started using a new leg press which was a little awkward, I only used up to 2 plates, literally 1 on each side to warm up cause of my knee pain i just wanted to get them going. It would not surprise me if thats what did it. I didnt notice anything until later that night, then it just slowly progressed. Going to try all these tips and do my best to keep that from happening again, went a whole year without issue so hopefully I can do it again Knocks on wood.

I hear you brother. I have back surgery almost 10 years ago and was told to go on disability. I didn't listen and have kept after it every since. I cannot do much of anything for legs and due to the permanent muscle and nerve damage, I just do what I can. I don't have any disk anymore and My L4/5 and S1 have fused. I just have to be careful and do what I can. Being healthy is the goal, of course we all want to get bigger.

Take it easy.

drtbear67 said:

I hear you brother. I have back surgery almost 10 years ago and was told to go on disability. I didn't listen and have kept after it every since. I cannot do much of anything for legs and due to the permanent muscle and nerve damage, I just do what I can. I don't have any disk anymore and My L4/5 and S1 have fused. I just have to be careful and do what I can. Being healthy is the goal, of course we all want to get bigger.

Take it easy.

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sorry to hear man thats tough. I hope it never gets that bad, Good to hear from you guys on your experiences on this though. Hope you can stay for the most part pain free brotha.

I was out seven months last year due to sciatica arising from heavy t-bar rows. The pain didn't hit me until later that night. I could hardly walk without excruciating pain. After I finally made it back into the gym I began doing back extensions to build up my spinal erectors to take some of the load off the vertabrae. That has been a year ago, and I haven't had a flare up since. Just take it slow and do the exercises that don't aggravate your back bro.

BEASTZ6 said:

I was out seven months last year due to sciatica arising from heavy t-bar rows. The pain didn't hit me until later that night. I could hardly walk without excruciating pain. After I finally made it back into the gym I began doing back extensions to build up my spinal erectors to take some of the load off the vertabrae. That has been a year ago, and I haven't had a flare up since. Just take it slow and do the exercises that don't aggravate your back bro.

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Good to hear man, yeah im taking it super easy, luckily im not trying to bulk or anything yet this year, just maintaining while changing body composition. I am going to really try to build up my erectors this year as well. I definitely want to avoid going through that again for as long as possible.

Just have to go slow and really focus on feeling the muscle. Sometimes, you can push it, but be very careful. The hardest this for me to do is sneezing. I have been for the last three weeks and then last week back flares up. Stay strong brother. You can do this.

Back pain just fucks your whole life! I have delt with it for 40 years. Really no shit I am 60 years old. Ha Ha. I broke my neck in a Olympic wrestling match in Denver in my early 20s. Had surgery to fuse C4 C5 together, not fun!
Sense then L4, L5 discectomy and fusion. All I can say say is keep lifting and keep stretching.
You may have to give up the heavy lifting but you can get a great pump from lighter lifts and cut your rest time down.