Herniated a disc at L4-5 last weekend and am wondering what recovery is like for anyone who's gone through that. I've had back issues on and off for 10 years (which is what got me into lifting) and I thought I was getting a handle on them but clearly not. Also not sure if it was shitty form or my fricked up back or both that did me in which is a little annoying.
Online it looks like ~6 weeks to recovery but not sure what long term effect on lifting will be. I work out for health/looks and don't give a shit about strength so I think I might give up back squats, and either switch to front squats or split squats, idk. Not sure what a good replacement for deadlifts will be. Otherwise I don't think I'll need to change much (hopefully)
For anyone who's had this, what was the recovery timeline like, how did you get back into lifting, and were there any long term effects?
Pic is more severe than mine since I only had mild nerve root impingement according to MRI
too long didnt read. i'll tell you my experience hope it helps. i have a fricked L5-S1 like most people do but the difference is that im 26 years old. always had back pain, even before lifting, just from doing simple tasks just like sweeping the floor or doing the dishes. i thought to myself why does my back hurts just from shit like this and yet i see people in the gym with atrocious form still walking pain free and i think it's genetic because people in my family suffers/suffered from back pain, even my grandma had surgery for a herniated disk. anyways when i started out in the gym i fricked my shit up with poor form like most do. time passed and i healed, got back to lifting heavy and here i am pulling 360 and squatting 275. shit takes time, be patient, it does heal it just takes time. if it hurts, dont push it, it's not ready yet. one thing im sure: dont get surgery, that's a death sentence for your back most of the time. dont be afraid to lift heavy, in the long term its better to have a fricked but strong back than a fricked and weak back
forgot to add: a very long time i was avoiding deads and squats because of back pain, you know what healed/made my back feel better? squats and deads, i know it sounds irracional but it is what it is
too long didnt read
>dont get surgery, that's a death sentence for your back
had same issue, got back surgery, am good now
consider yourself lucky
Same, double microdiscectomy on L4-L5 and L5-S1. Everything worked out fine for me.
OP take it very easy these next few weeks, maybe even months. Replace back squats with Bulgarian split squats, get rid of deadlifts, and try and do core exercises every gym session.
Dead hangs and lat pulldowns are also goldy for spinal decompression, so long as you don't initiate Black person form on the latter.
Godspeed.
>here i am pulling 360 and squatting 275.
Are you a girl?
>too long didnt read
>proceeds to write out his life story that nobody gives a frick about
moron zoomer.
PEE PEE POO POO PEE PEE
>Online it looks like ~6 weeks
Dear god no. Whatever doctor told you its a disc should have also told you you're gonna be rehabbing that shit for 8-12 months, even more if you smoke
I mean symptoms of pain with sitting/standing. I definitely plan on lots of rehab before I go back to lifting regularly, and I don't smoke. Starting a new job in a month and will need to be able to be on my feet for hours so hopefully I'm much improved by then
saw orthopedics and they said I don't need surgery but if it isn't getting better could get steroid injections but the plan for now is just pt
>newbie egolifter falls for the "you need to squat/DL to get big" meme
>snaps his shit up for life
Tale as old as father time himself.
Ive injured myself twice, both of which was not during a lift. Once when I tripped on some plate while carrying a plate back to the rack. Another during a warmup where I got a bad cramp and this somehow gave me an injury.
Also Ive gotten many injuries from just jogging.
I have so called "spine hypermobility" so my lower back was fricked after one year of lifting. There is no recovery really. You just have to stretch and don't do stupid shit again
I've had three herniated discs in my neck, had to have surgery to remove all of them. Overall they went really well, I lost about 10% of my range of motion but I'm pain free.
Hey OP
I had a microdisectomy about two years ago, got injured at work. As soon as I woke up from surgery I had instant relief, night and day difference.
I had pretty bad sciatica, right leg was constantly on fire, and my foot was numb.
Since then I've been doing BJJ and Muay Thai comfortably, and recently transitioned back to weight lifting with no problems yet, but I've been avoiding deadlines squats because I'm worried I'll frick myself up again.
13% disabled now lol.
not reading all that, but you're fricked for life lel.
We told you not to do the reddit lift
Ignored back pain for 8 months at my L4/L5, when I finally saw a doctor I could barely walk and it was too late.
Get steroid shot and take it easy. See a physical therapist (not a chrio) in 4-6 weeks to learn to stretch better and strengthen the area. Call and explain your situation and they will know how far out to schedule you.
Do not let it get worse, sciatica, drop foot, etc. I let mine fully herniate/explode and now have permanent nerve damage in my foot. I can't jog anymore without pain but otherwise fully recovered. Get the surgery before this point if it comes to it.
Anecdotally, I had 4.5mm herniation of my T12 and my last MRI showed full reabsorption. I also had partial SLAP tears in both shoulders and the tissue healed on both sides. Both incidents I was told they would never recover non surgically.
How long for you to stop noticing the symptoms/reabsorption
I got an L4/L5 hernia in December 2022. When I was in Japan of all places.
It took about 6 weeks to get to a point where I was able to sit for an extended time without wanting to kill myself.
I have not made a full recovery yet and I do not expect that I ever will. Stretching every day helps alleviate most symptoms but I get a lot of stiffness and pain if I skip even one day of stretching.
I managed to return to lifting normally after a few months, but I wear a back brace and I stopped doing regular deadlift and squats altogether. My OHP is noticeably weaker because I don't want to push it much but except for that it's reasonably okay lifting-wise.
>L4/5
damn kids these days using filthy gaijin letters instead of glorious moonrune
I do high incline barbell press and shoulders are my strongest point. Barbell reduces the chances of acking yourself down to 0 but dumbbells can work if you're not stupid with the weight.
Resistance band standing presses can work in a jiffy (just treat it as a barbell) but you will need an extra tough quality band, specially if you're a manlet and can't stretch it that far. Due to how bands work there's little risk of you swaying and snapping your shit.
thanks! this is what I was hoping to hear. I figured it would be slow but possible. Not trying to powerlift or anything, just want to be healthy and active and not die at 60. Worried about the discomfort when sitting and standing but hopefully will continue to mend. With daily stretching how's your pain (and what stretches)?
yeah doing what doesn't hurt makes sense lol. What stretches do you like?
With daily stretches I feel no pain on most days. Discomfort sometimes yes, but no pain. I only get pain eg. when I sleep on a really soft mattress (mine is hard as frick).
The routine I've been doing is https://youtu.be/4BOTvaRaDjI
Injured my back on diddlys 8 years ago
shit's still fricked. It doesn't really go away. I lay in bed most of the day now. Life quality is shit. Can't afford to fix it thanks to Muttmerican "healthcare". Might rope
I have 2 slipped disc's at the bottom. Causes bad left hip pain when aggravated. Thr only change I've made was cut out heavy back squats because the pressure on my back squeezes the nerve
Still desdlift, still clean, ohp, etc
My advice is to find what doesn't hurt it and rearrange your routine. I haven't stopped training even a touch and it's been a condition for at least 7-8 years.
I did try all sorts of doctors shit, I ncluding the spine shot, but nothing helps and mu h as keeping hips stretched and keep moving.
God speed, OP
I got a herniated disc from doing work around the house lol. Took like 2-3 months before I was pain free. Walking 4+ miles a day helped a lot. I can no longer low bar squat or deadlift. I tried hack squats but the one in my gym actually made it flair up again. Now I do high bar with a belt and it seems to be much better. Actually I think strict high bar has helped strengthen my lower back a lot. But again you need the belt and you have to be a form nazi. The minute you start to fold you gotta stop.
it is so funny when i absolutely rail about loaded flexion exercises and deadlifts and people just brush me off saying im just fear mongering, then threads like this happen when someone is in absolute insane pain because of the exact problem I lay out.
You deserve your pain because you failed to listen to people talking about how dangerous loaded spinal flexion is. There are many exercises you can do to work your glutes and legs, you don't need deadlifts, they are too risky.
It will take at least a month to 3 months for the pain to subside if you are aggressive with your physical therapy. It will take 10 years for the herniation to fully heal. Welcome to chronic pain, enjoy your stay.
Maybe people brush you off not because youre incorrect but because youre an insufferable snarky butthole when you explain it to them like how your were with your reply here
I broke the part of my spine ligament that connects the round part to the little part that connects the spine together in a car accident. I didn’t even know about it until age 25 when I started having sciatic pain. Things are messed up L4-L5
I was also a fatass. I lost weight and started lifting and stretched a lot. It helped. But what I found really made any problems go away was quitting my desk job. I got a job where I drive a bit then walk a good amount all day. And I was surprised to find that my back stopped hurting completely.
what job involves walking all day?
I work in sales where I walk into stores and check on stock of a product then talk to the store manager. It’s usually grocery stores so I can do quite a bit of walking in a day. I didnt think my desk job was causing my back pain since I workout at least 5 days a week. But not sitting down for 8 hours really made a difference, I’ve found.
Stretching, decompression and therapeutic excercises will fix it in three to six months.
It varies so widely from person to person that no one can really tell you. Your experience will be different than everyone else's. Your doctor will have the best guess.
I agreed with what you said until you said the doctors will have the best guess.
The doctors have no idea. The data for outcomes in the back relating to various treatment modalities is terrible and inconclusive. Surgeons will tell you to get surgery, rehab doctors will tell you to rehab for the rest of your life and live with the pain.
Some people get better and nobody really knows why. Others have pain and recurrence for life.
Since surgery has a questionable success rate and a high chance of recurrence (after 2 years, symptoms are same in patient who didn't have surgery) it is suggested not to get surgery unless you have cauda equina, muscle atrophy, or risk of nerve damage.
>Surgeons will tell you to get surgery, rehab doctors will tell you to rehab for the rest of your life and live with the pain.
rehab doctors know that surgery is very rarely successful, most surgeries end in chronic pain, so you either deal with the pain you have, or perhaps deal with another type of pain that may or may not be worse than the pain you started with.
People really don't realize how permanent injuries can be, which is why prevention is the best medicine
> prevention is the best medicine
This is a nice thought, and it is a good idea to stay in shape throughout life and avoid dangerous movement patterns, but a lot of people are genetically predisposed to back problems, and they become disabled from sitting at a desk in school then at working, or from sitting driving in the car, or herniate a disc after sneezing or picking up a <1lb item from the floor. Upright walking puts compression forces on the discs for our entire lives, whereas in 4-legged animals the discs aren't bearing a compressive load continuously. The forces in the human spine are especially bad at l4/l5 and l5/s1 to due constant flexion there as we move around and do housework or yardwork.
what you described is what happens when you don't actively try to prevent injuries.
Even if you have a genetic problem, modifications can be made. It can be something simple like sitting in a chair, sitting upright, and then bending over without flexing the spine or the neck for 30 seconds. That's enough to prevent a shit ton of back pain. Even more so, every 30 minutes, get up and stretch and preferably walk for a minute or two but if not just getting up and stretching will help too.
People just don't do it and then they degenerate. Movement is medicine, you don't move, you die.
Prevention would require a redesign of society to prevent cumulative wear and tear that leads to injury -- everyone has a standing desk for life, nobody ever bends at the waist, car rides are either very brief or we stand or lay in cars, truck drivers need to be replaced by software. Pilots stand or lay in planes. The idea of total prevention underscores the design flaw of our spines. They are imperfect and will fail for a lot of people.
it doesn't take that much. You can significantly reduce injuries by doing very brief bouts of exercise that gets your blood flowing and your muscles activating, much like I laid out, as simple as going on a walk or getting up and stretching after a while sitting. Whenever you go to the bathroom, do 10 bodyweight squats.
Look at physical therapy exercises, they are extremely easy and they are the absolute most you have to do in order to preserve your body.
You wildly overestimate the minimum amount of exercise needed to greatly reduce injuries, it's not going to remove them completely, but it will help.
>literally everyone on IST has a fricked up back
>still recommends squats and deadlifts
This place is the worst kind of crabs in a bucket huh?
Because squats and deadlifts are great excersies if you aren't a powertard or an ego lifter.
took me two years to completely recover from a major herniation.
do phys therapy, learn the routine they give you, and don't get lazy with it.
Get enough sleep. I can't stress this enough, my damage was from not sleeping enough, body couldn't recover, slowly wore everything out until I had a major issue.
I'm back lifting now, up to 1pl8 across the board, it's only up from here. It will get better, just don't rush it.
>Get enough sleep. I can't stress this enough, my damage was from not sleeping enough, body couldn't recover, slowly wore everything out until I had a major issue
can corroborate, made tons of my shit worse by fricking my sleep schedule
>1:55 AM
aight imma log out so I don't frick it up any more, damn libido while gf's on the fritz
WELCOME TO SNAP CITY, moron!!!
Get a god tier mattress and gigantic bed turn your bed room into sleep only room with perfect sleep hygiene, swim almost every single day the more the better, lose weight, less is more for the spine so do less with it but keep the muscles in shape, do blood work see if you need to supplement anything for your muscles and bones maybe add some collagen and vit D, drink milk, and never ever stress your spine again because if you do it'll be only downhill from there.
I had disc herniation when I was 18 from doing 2.5x bw dl. I am now 28. I had nerve pain to which only alcohol helped. It became troublesome to concentrate so I had two cortisone injection to the disc, which eventually made it livable situation. Though on both times I became paralyzed from legs for 30 minutes. The restless leg never went away, and sometimes the nerve pain would become bad. I tried medical cannabis but that did not really help. Standing desk had the most impact on my life, and avoiding long periods of sitting in general. I haven't deadlifted more than 2x my bodyweight ever since, mostly just because I am afraid. Sometimes I make the situation worse by fricking up the back while squatting, but unless you get immediately paralyzed then it's just an inflammation that goes away in a week or two.
The worst thing is that if you get restless leg, then there is a high chance you end up "sitting" on your leg, by crossing them or elsehow, to keep it steady. Over time this will bend your hip such that you will get an muscle imbalance in activation. To this date, I do not know whether it is a activation issue for bad sitting posture, or nerve damage that makes my other leg weaker.
I can still squat and deadlift reasonable weights, and run a half a marathon, so it's not an end of life situation, but it would also count out most people's wishes of doing competitive lifts. Doctors will usually tell you to keep on training, because the alternative is more detrimental.
Disc problems/back pain are common even in elite athletes. Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Lebron James...common in olympic athletes too.
It seems like most people end up having some kind of back problems at some point. Keep exercising, adapt, and learn to accept it. It may or may not go away.
Lads, I got some upper back / lower neck pain from my Jui Jitsu (no gi) comp on the weekend. I’m in the +97kg division so guessing it was from all the collar tie fighting with the big boys.
I had DOMS in my spinal erectors and lower back, but actual spinal pain at the top of my back/lower next.
Should I be deadlifting to strengthen the spinal erectors and bridging to strengthen my neck?
Starting to think comps won’t be worth it if I get pop a disc and get chronic pain for life
watch lowbackability and do the mcgill big 3, you NEED a strong core, non negotiable -- if you think it's strong enough, no. do the big 3
https://www.youtube.com/@lowbackability
Lots of core and make your own reverse hyper. Don't flex your lower back at all. Trust me I've been dealing with it for 2 years. At least now you'll know how to have a neutral back
>make your own reverse hyper
what do u mean?
The reverse hyper is a machine that helps to literally rehydrate your discs
let me guess anon you have:
>horrible body positioning.
>probably play video games in a chair
>50lbs +- overweight
>no regular exercise
>drinks or maybe occasionally smokes
>thank those stretching hanging back things actually work.
>35yrs old.
you need this:
1. stop smoking.
2. weight loss.
3. Do not do axial load exercises (squats, hack, press), choose isolated machine exercises (femorals, quadriceps, etc.).
4. perform lumbar strengthening exercises without weight bearing. There are some exercises called "Williams exercises".
If all of us had an MRI, the vast majority would come out with "lumbar hernias." It is a degenerative process that we will all have, some before others, it all depends on your genetics (relatives with herniated discs?), work (truck drivers, construction workers, this related to the continuous vibratory impact), underlying diseases (diabetes , obesity, rheumatic disease), medications, etc.
this is all part of the kirkaldy willis cascade of degeneration....
and above all...the recovery is long, and is hindered above all by psychological problems (stress, depression, "I stay the same").
As long as you do not have neurological compromise (numbness of extremities, loss of muscle strength, alteration in osteotendinous reflexes), the treatment is rehabilitation (Williams exercises...) and analgesia...decrease the intensity of your workouts...about everything avoids axial load training...
I hope it helps you... I am a resident doctor in traumatology and orthopedics... and low back pain is the daily bread of the consultation...
>As long as you do not have neurological compromise (numbness of extremities, loss of muscle strength, alteration in osteotendinous reflexes)
NTA but what if I do? What then?
if you have neurological involvement, more specifically numbness of extremities and especially pain, and night pain, which is what they complain about the most (here the lumbar level of your hernia depends, there is something called dermatomes and myotomes, which is the sensitive level ) then you can see the surgery option...