Herniated Disc

[rossi]

Thank you for the explanations. It's given me additional thoughts about my form which is not ideal. Better learn to do the exercise perfectly at lower weight than keep pushing so-so.

[Mantic]

That's the right attitude to have Rossi - ensuring that your form is correct will lead you to a stronger body and take you away from injuries. In any case, if you ignore the injury aspect, if you're not using correct form, you're not doing the exercise so you'll never benefit from it as intended. That sounds like a waste of time to me.....

Don't get me wrong - cheating upon occasion can have its place - but only when it's applied with care and consideration.

Good luck with your training : )

[cthowle]

Hey, lots of tight hamstrings etc here.plus, lots of back pain (30+ years). It is suprising that when I lift I do feel better not worse and when I lay off then the back pain does get worse. I bought the book Magnificent Mobility and hoping it will help. Also what about inversion? Any good feed back out there?

[yannick90]

I want to thank you very much and tell you that you are part of the reason why i registered to this site.

Don't get me wrong the site is amazing.

I injured myself back in 2001 doing squats and deadlifts with very bad forms, and it has been 8 years of hell until i found prolotherapy that got me back on my feet.

But within theses 8 yeas with all the so called back pain specialist that i went to see, some of them got me a lot worst mainly chiros.

I got an MRI in 2008 and it showed 2 dessicated disc L4L5 and L5S1, no degeneration online lost of water. I have been since then using glucosamine, collagen to try and rehydrate the disc, my medical doctor tells me its possible to do so.

I am afraid to squat again , my deadlfit is back to 220 pounds, i feel no pain after training, but i am afraid that if i push to hard i will injure my disc even more.

I am also trying to lose weight even if i am not that fat 224 pounds and 5 feet 10, i do have a solid base because i had been training for 20 years before my injury i am the same age has you almost 38.

I am glad to see that even with a situation worst then me you where able to start training again and going for the big ones, squats, deadlifts and my personal favorite standing military press.

Has for me i decided to take another route and doing P90X right now that i love, also i got myself an inversion table to try rehydrate the disc.

P90X has a lot of core training and all the weight lifting is standing so its very good.

Thanks again for your feedback and i really hope you stay injury free, for me my main goal is to get back into martial arts.

[Mantic]

Hi cthowie and yannick90

I only check the Stronglifts forum out now and then so sorry for the slow response

Just as an update, my back is in pretty good shape. I'm still training reasonably heavy, deads, straight leg straight back deads, squats, overhead press, etc and am 90% pain free. I have re-injured my back a couple of times over the last year (no obvious reason for the cause) but have recovered within a week on each occasion. The injury has caused a significant weakness in my lower back that just flairs up now and again, it's something that I have learnt to accept.

I'm squatting at least 120kilos which is no personal best but I don't push myself as much as I used to. Deadlifts are over 130 kilos and my back is solid doing them - my grip is the main limiting factor here (no straps of course). Overhead press is an easy 60kilos so not too shabby.

I've changed my attitude a lot - I'm no longer interested in improving on a weekly basis, more like fortnightly or even monthly. I don't lift as heavy as I can or use maximum effort. For me, it's all about a steady, reliable, improvement. The truth is, I have no interest in getting significantly bigger or stronger - I want to improve on what I have and get my body strong and healthy again but slaughtering myself in the process is not part of the deal.

I train with weights 3 times for 45 minutes a week and cardio (running, rowing, skipping) 3 times for 30 minutes a week. I do dynamic stretching after every session and I do static stretching for my hams every night. Improvement in flexibility has been slow but steady and I'm more than happy with that.

I haven't tried inversion apart from inverted crunches which were a little uncomfortable.

My advice is, as always, to train within your limitations (be they based on strength or pain threshold) BUT try to reduce those limitations. If you worry about doing squats, get a professional to check out your form or video yourself and compare it with the appropriate vids you can find here. EXPECT to improve and, if you work towards that belief in a sound and reasonable fashion, you WILL improve.

Hope I helped and good luck!

[guru]

I'm no longer interested in improving on a weekly basis, more like fortnightly or even monthly. I don't lift as heavy as I can or use maximum effort. For me, it's all about a steady, reliable, improvement. The truth is, I have no interest in getting significantly bigger or stronger - I want to improve on what I have and get my body strong and healthy again but slaughtering myself in the process is not part of the deal.

Wise words.