L4-L5 : disc degeneration with loss of fluid and circumferential protrusion
L5-S1 : disc degeneration with loss of fluid, narrowing of inter****tic space and right paramedian protrusion

Why is there no lordotic curve, are u getting tight muscles/pains?

OP's ass

They put a kind of foam roll under my knees which lifted my legs and kind of flattened my back out. Maybe that's why ?

NO!

I had a worse L4/L5 protrusion and a L5/S1 bulge around the age of 24 (36 now). It was the worst time in my life. If you search my username I've actually talked about it pretty openly on this forum, but through a combination of chiropractic, intensive stretching, and traction therapy, I was able to heal 95%. By that I mean, I almost never experience pain but I won't be deadlifting 600 lbs ever again and I basically don't deadlift of squat. Not to say you can't, I just don't want to take the risk since heavy deads and squats caused it.

Your other option is of course surgery. I chose not to go that route since it ends up limiting mobility down the line. For what it's worth, I have 4 family members that have had the surgery, 2 friends, and throughout playing sports collegiately a handful of teammates. The surgery does work and does provide ~ 50% relief of pain almost immediately. But you're unlikely to ever be the same and chances of needing additional surgeries is greatly increased.

Rather than having a surgeon lop off the protrusion (greatly increasing chances of further disc degradation and fusion), your best bet is getting the disc to accept the protrusion back into the disc. It is possible. It's not a perfect solution.... sadly, nothing is when you're faced with this.

Good luck bro. The 6 months I was going through this was by far the worst of my life. Take action now.

Whatever you do surgery should be the last last last option srs. Try every other remedy 5x before you let them cut on your spine srs

Inject some stem cells

Back pain CREW.

Your tour is far from over.

Youll find work-arounds and alternatives that dont give you pain.

I havent had back pain for several years now.... i also dont lift heavy anymore.

I haven't dl'ed or squatted over 225 in over a year now and I've come to accept that I probably never will again. Obviously that's not the most important thing, I'm more concerned about my health and ability to be active and relatively pain free going forward long term.

Currently I do a general all round stretching session every other day. I use an inversion table as well, but I'm not sure if it really does anythingThanks, I will search your threads

Yeah I don't think surgery is really on the table, even if it were something that I were open to. For a start I don't think they will be willing to intervene given that the pain is not debilitating.

To be clear, my symptoms come in the form of occasional dull aches, sciatic nerve pain if I push too hard lifting (which is pretty limiting nowadays), and also a notable strain in hip extension on my left leg (this is the action that produces the most obvious effect)

Location: France


It was over long before the gimpy spine

In on phucked lower back crew. I hurt it deadlifting and it's never been the same. Before that it was always tight though. Found some relief with physical therapy. But anything that strains it, whether it be too much flexion or extension, could be from sitting in the car for over an hour, the pain will come back for 2-4 days until I do my routine again. Went to get an xray and the doc said my back looks 30 years older than it should be.

I don't have much experience in back pain but I started watching a lot of videos from Eric Goodman - Foundation training. I do this video a lot. I hope it's not just stretching my angus for no reason

https://youtu.be/4BOTvaRaDjI

He had a fcked up back himself and was on his way to being a chiropractor, was facing surgery. Then smoked weed and started researching his own methods. I don't why, but I believe him yo

mcgill 3
core core core core

try reverse hypers (some people this worked for)

This.

Stretching is a dead end.

Finding exercises that strengthen & activate your muscles as prevention will be key.

Edit: also these exercises will seem gay and pointless, but they work.

Oh, man. You're at junior stages. You need to nip this in the bud ASAP.
Mine was entirely debilitating. Couldn't sleep, couldn't sit, couldn't lay, spent most of my time awake just pacing around grinding my teeth waiting for pain killers to kick in (I didn't want opiods, so subsisted on Advil and Alieve).
I'm not a depressed person. Always been happy and optimistic. That back pain ruined me physically, emotionally, mentally, etc...

You're where I was before I made it worse. I had the pain, it was rough, but manageable. I still lifted but stayed away from heavy compounds except bench.

I went to pool party and everyone was doing cool **** like backflips and slide jumps from 20 feet up, etc... I didn't want to feel left out and did it too (sloots were there to impress, after all).
I was sore after that for a few days but thought it would go back to normal. Then one day, the stupidest thing.... I was getting into my car and reached across myself with my right arm to grab the seatbelt and in the process slightly torqued by back. That was it. That was the proverbial straw on the camel's back.

It went from an annoyance to a debilitating pain that changed my life for the next 6 months.

My point is, you're not in extreme pain (YET) but all it takes is one wrong move and BAM! There is an old adage amongst powerlifters. You don't blow your back out squatting 500 lbs. You blow it out the next day when sweeping the garage.

Be VERY careful.

But in the meantime, find a good chiropractic center (not a regular chiro) that specializes in this. Do tons of stretching a few times a day, get traction therapy, walk A LOT... do not be stagnant.

The YouTube channel "Bob & Brad" have some solid at home exercises.

This, so much. I paraphrased McGill in my post above.

I thought I had an awesome core because I did a ton a crunches and had abs. I had the learn the hard way that that means very little when it comes to core strength.

Planks, reverse hypers, and hanging leg raises are God-mode core exercises.

I blew both l4 and l5 disc's in 2015. It's not over but you have to completely Aware not to do dumb **** when your back feels good. I get flare ups 3 times a year. Some are worse than others. My worst is when I over compensate and stress out piriformis muscle which compresses on my sciatic nerve. Worst pain I've ever experienced. 10/10 was in tears.

Good news is there are some surgical options. One is a minimally inside incision called an ess or something similar. It's a newer treatment with a tiny incision.

The other option is a fake disc. The remnants of the blown disc are removed and the fake disc's is inserted. This is not a fusion. You don't want a fusion.

I've done physical therapy and I really don't think it helped. I don't want surgery but I've researched it. Will be a last option.

Time to Switch to trap bar deadlift like me, less Pressure on back

is that legit? how do u get it done?

Hope you get better bro!

But I had to lol...

The most common back surgery, srs. This not too bad. Seen so many, way worse. Lower your body mass. Keep exercising but stop gaining muscle and fat. You need to get lighter for more comfort. They probably want to do a micro-discectomy on you. It's 2hr operation with high success and low risk. The lower down your spine the injuries the less serious. That's because your nerves that branch out in pairs begin higher up the column from your neck and thoracic region.

If I got a back injury, I'd hope it's the same one you have srs. Been in the game 13 yrs mate. So I've seen lots.

This. But stretch and work on mobility as well.

Physical therapist here.

So what? The majority of people over the age of 30 will have some sort of abnormality show up on their MRIs in their back. "Degenerative" changes are normal as having gray hairs, you have them but they don't cause pain right? We know people can have worse findings but be completely asymptomatic.

Bulging disc's, herniated disc's around 90% will heal on their own with no intervention or surgery.

It seems like your symptoms are related to lifting. Quit lifting like an idiot (srs), if your back hurts or you get sciatica, it's most likely you're doing too much that your back can't handle it. You just need more recovery time (adequate sleep) or just reduce the weight (or volume). Deadlifts and squats (or any exercise) is great for your back and is perfectly safe as long as you're loading properly. Rhey are also great and strengthening your back and even increasing disc strength. You can have back pain doing ANY exercise if your back isn't strong enough to handle the load or if youre not grtting adequate rest.

Don't listen to all these idiots saying you need to get back surgery. Surgery has TERRIBLE outcomes because most of the time, the thing they are trying to fix isn't even really the issue (again, majority of people have Degenerative changes but no pain over the age of 30). And back pain is much more complex than that. We know not enough sleep, exercise, diet and even stress can contribute to back pain.

I don't think so... Disc degeneration isn't really something you can avoid. Everybody gets it sooner or later if they live long enough. Most adults have back issues whether they lift or not. If something causes pain, probably best to find a different exercise. Part of aging really.

I'm gonna need some red circles.

lol's

Location: France

It was over before it even began, brah

Location : Italy


I see.

I have had a couple of times in my life when I felt something "go" in my back which resulted in instant pain but then subsided progressively over the next few days. Both of those times was not during heavy lifting, but rather relatively moderate activity, although not something so benign as reaching for a seat belt or jumping in a pool. Unfortunately unless I live my life in a straight jacket I don't think it will ever be possible to totally avoid something like this happening again at some point.

I'm going to go back to my doctor with these results and ask for a referral. We'll go from there I suppose.

I have a lifting session planned for today. Some front squats and some hip thrusts, dips and pull ups. I might look into the reverse hyper as an addition to my dungeon.

Thanks for the x-ray pics, really useful as most of the misc are extensively trained radiologists

Spoiler!