Ultimate Guide to Exercises for Lumbar Herniated Disc Relief 2

Thanks for your question Rohit. While you have numbness in the “lower portion” and the thigh etc… I don’t recommend that you do any weights. You should try to do the cobra exercises ( not like in Yoga but the way I describe) harder. Also you should go the execises every two hours during the day.

If the exercises increases the numbness, tingling or pain than you are going too hard. You should stop the exercises.

Hope that helps your herniated disc.

Thanks for your question Fahad. I recommend doing the exercises first. If the exercises don’t help than do physiotherapy. Keep in mind if the exercises cause increased pain or pain further down the leg or buttock than you should stop the exercises.

Hope that helps your large central posterior disc protrusion.

Thanks for your question Pallavi. Likely you have an anterior or lateral disc herniation. In this case you should try flexion exercises like rising sun and toe touches. If they give you pain going down further into the leg or turns tingling into numbness or makes your pain worse, than you should stop.

Hope that helps your herniated disc.

Thanks for your MRI report Umesh. The report is detailed and seems well written. The disc bulge or protrusion at L5S1 is pushing on the left nerve. If you have pain going down the left buttock, thigh or leg than this is likely the culprit of your pain. As you can see from the report you have many things going on in the lower back. You have degeneration in the L12, L23 and L34 discs. You likely don’t have pain higher up in your lower back. Most of your pain is likely in the lower part of the low back around L5S1. This shows you that what you see on MRI doesn’t correlate with pain. You have correlate your present pain and your history of pain with the examination along with the MRI. Only then can you figure out where the pain is coming from.

In this case I would do the exercises in this article.

Hope that helps your disc bulge.

You are welcome Jagdish.

Thanks for your questions Dia. Your physio thinks the spondylolisthesis is causing the pain in your back since you have been given flexion exercises. It’s good place to start. When doing flexion exercises if you feel worse by an increase in pain or the pain goes further down the leg or tingling turning into numbness means that you are getting worse. If you get worse stop, rest a day then try extension. Same rules apply for extension. For either exercise you start by lying down as there is less of a load or weight on your lower back when you are lying down.

Hope that helps your disc herniation and spondylolisthesis.

Thanks for your question Ravi. Posture and getting up every hour will only help to prevent it getting worse. If you have a posterior disc herniation like the vast majority of people than you can be helped by doing extensions. It means you should do the exercises in this article. If however you have an anterior disc herniation it will not help.

Hope that helps your disc bulge.

Thanks for your question Lucy. So A & E is a British of the Emergency department or ER.

It’s questionable if you should of gotten an MRI as we still don’t know the effects on fetuses but it is assumed that it is safer than X-rays. Still they should have diagnosed you based on your history and exam since to be safer for the baby. Since you do have the information at least it does seem to prove useful this time around.

Second unless you have been recommended complete bed rest by your midwife or obstetrician for the baby’s safety than this is not the correct thing to do. Bed rest beyond two days does more harm for lower back problems and disc problems. I am not just saying this, this is back up by lots of research.

You should crawl, walk, stand, and sit but keep changing positions. Bed rest will make you worse as it expands the disc up to 72 hours. This means when you stand the disc gets squashed and puts tremendous pressure on your nerve. Thus more pain. Bed rest has not been recommended by doctors for decades for lower back pain.

At 20 weeks of pregnancy, unless your obstetrician has recommended against it, it is safe to lie prone or face down in your 2nd Trimester. I personally treat many women throughout their pregnancy and they lie face down until full term. However I usually use a doughnut shaped pillow (cut out of a circle). Instead you use cushions around your tummy. Than I would do the cobra exercises. However I would talk to your obstetrician first or your midwife as I don’t know the particulars of your pregnancy.

Hope that helps your disc herniation.

Thanks for your question Amy. First I assume that you have a herniation that is 12 mm and this is not the diameter of your spinal canal. There is a big difference. If the assumption is correct when the herniations are this big most people do have pain going to their ankle and even into their toes. Lucky you don’t.

Some exercises can make things worse and you may not realize it. To prevent aggravating your problem you should read this article. https://www.bodiempowerment.com/disc-herniation-part-1/
The exercises in the present article that you commented on are good for herniations that come out backwards towards spinal cord and your spinal nerves. If not they won’t help. So the question is are you doing the right exercises for your problem. If you have a anterior (forward) or lateral (side) herniation the exercises won’t help or will even make you worse temporarily.

As for going to a chiropractor and doing exercises. With the wrong exercises you will get nowhere. With the right ones you may get somewhere. Going to a chiropractor in your case may or may not help. If they are one tool chiropractor, not likely. If they use a lot of different tools it is more likely to help. eg. acupuncture, rehab exercises, manipulation, traction….

With large herniations many people start finding relief as the body starts to dissolve the part of the herniation that is sticking out. This happens with larger disc herniations as larger herniations go outside of the boundaries of the disc. When that stuff acutally ooozes out and “leaks” the body looks at like it is foreign material ( at least that’s what researchers think). Foreign material needs to be taken care of so it attacks it with the white blood cells.

So your body may help your self but if you have a small herniation none of this stuff will happen.

Hope that answers your question about disc herniations.

Thanks for your questions Kevin. Unfortunately even professionals use different terminology and it’s not as standardized as it should be. Strictly speaking though the stages of a disc herniation are disc bulge>>disc protrusion>>disc extrusion (uncontained – or pieces have gone beyond the wall of the annulus)>>disc sequestration (uncontained – but the pieces have broken off from the disc and usually end up in the spinal canal).

Diagnosis by MRI is not really professional. A diagnosis should be made first and an MRI is used to confirm this. Your doctor should have told you the diagnosis and told you we should do an MRI to confirm this to determine if you should be getting surgery only after doing exercises and rehabiliation.
Step 1. Diagnosis
Step 2 Rehab and exercises for your pain
Step 3 MRI ( MRI should not come before Step 3 as MRI often will show problems and mislead the diagnostically challenged doctor which leads them to say that this the problem. Many times it is not the problem. Research has irrefutably shown that MRI results don’t correlate to pain. eg. 30% of 30 years have disc hernation with no pain.

In other words I am saying if you have your MRI too early, I would question the motive. 1. financial 2. placating the patient 3. Diagnostically challenged.

Nevertheless try the exercises in this article first.

I am trying to make you an informed consumer of health, and get you to question your health care providers and their decisions.

If you have already been doing rehab and exercises you should disregard the above.

Hope that helps your possible disc herniation or disc bulge.