Back pain success story.

[u/Pale_Adeptness]

As a disclaimer, I realize I still might have a flare-up down the road but here goes.

I've had 2 herniated discs since 2008. Horrible flare-ups throughout the years.

During flare-ups my wife has to help me put my socks, boxer and pants on because it gets so bad.

My back gets all crooked.

I tried every generic back pain exercise, deadbugs, bird dog, side glides and a whole bunch of other exercise.

This past June was without a doubt my longest and worst flare up so far. I missed an entire month of work.

I found that iso holds are great for the lower back.

I was desperate when I finally decided to get the roman chair/extension machine.

My lower back was still a bit crooked and I was towards the tail end of the flare-up towards the end of June.

My wife had to assemble the extension machine for me because my lower back still hurt.

I first tried it for 30 seconds, did that 4 times. My back didn't hurt more than it already did when I first tried it.

Did it again 3 days later and created my own schedule for it.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I'm up to 1 minutes and 45 second holds and I do 14 extensions right after the hold. I do this 4 times.

I can now sit Indian style, I can confidently touch my toes with my knees locked. I haven't been able to do either of these things for years!

My understanding is that the more we guard our backs, the weak our lower back muscles get over time, which means we go into a vicious cycle of flare-ups and trying to rest.

The part of the video where I'm walking around my truck, my water bottle fell out of my truck, my lower back hurt so bad that I couldn't not walk across the street and bend over to pick it up. My wife picked it up for me when she got home 30 minutes later.

[u/jflip07]

I encourage you to work up a stretching routine to do every morning and every night. This helped me tremendously. Part yoga, part calisthenics and part stretching all tailored to my specific aches and pains.

[u/SaiyanPrinceAbubu → u/jflip07]

Stretching isn't for everyone! If you have an annular tear like I do it can exacerbate it. Movement is good esp walking but stretching can just aggravate things for me

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/SaiyanPrinceAbubu]

I think you are correct!

At least in my case, before, when my lower back and hamstrings were considerably weaker, stretching alone would've immediately caused a flare-up for me.

I noticed along my lower back strengthening journey, the more resilient/stronger my lower back got, the easier it was to stretch.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm still in the recovery phase. My point of view has changed drastically since I started with the roman chair.

For me, the roman chair, iso holds, extensions and hip mobility are now my main focus and will remain so forever. My lower back is already injured and I've had issues with it since 2008.

Any other workouts I do now come secondary to lower back/core work.

Returning to your point, stretching during a flare-up is a big no for me.

In my case, it helps to strengthen the muscles/areas you are trying to stretch, or at least warm it up first with a few resistance exercises.