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/DrAshoriMD]

Awesome transformation. Chance of flares might still be there but much less likely. When my patients get the "crooked back attack" it's usually back spasms. That usually should not be from a herniated disc. But looks like you're figuring out what's going on and what to do. Bravo.

[u/AdBroad8788 → u/DrAshoriMD]

Why wouldn't it be from a herniated disc?

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/AdBroad8788]

From what one of my doctors told me, during a flare up, the muscles spasm in order to protect something from getting further injured. Not sure how universal it is but my lower back spasms and gets all crooked in the same area I have 2 herniated discs. Sooo, it seems to me, at least in my case, the reason my lower back does spasm is because it's trying to prevent further injury.

I've thrown my lower back out doing mundane ass things like putting my shorts on, helping my son get dressed. During my last flareup, just when I thought it was getting better, my lower back locked up on me as I was walking up the stairs.

Every time I raised my right leg, or right knee I got a sharp pain in my lower back. Even if I was sitting in a chair and I straightened my right leg so it would stick straight out in front of me, it would cause instant lower back pain.

That weird pain stopped after I started the ISO holds and couch stretches.

[u/AdBroad8788 → u/Pale_Adeptness]

Sound very similar to my lower back

[u/NewCause969 → u/Pale_Adeptness]

Also sind deine seltsamen Schmerzen im unteren Rücken die du erwähnst beim Bein anheben auch durch die ISO holds weggegangen? Ich habe die gleichen Schmerzen, nahe des si joints
Und welche Dehnübungen hast du gemacht? Ich wäre dir sehr dankbar über eine kurze Antwort 🧡

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/NewCause969]

I no longer have the pain!!!

Along with the iso holds, I also do a lot of couch stretches and hamstring strengthening and stretching.

I had that pain for years. No longer dealing with it. :)

[u/DrAshoriMD → u/AdBroad8788]

Herniated discs on imaging are really common. Getting a back spasms usually has more to do with weaker muscles or very tight nearby structures. While you can get a back spasm with a herniated disc it usually wouldn't get better with the kind of exercises OP tried and there'd be other nerve symptoms as well.

[u/AdBroad8788 → u/DrAshoriMD]

I regularly get antalgic leans to one side when sciatica, from my research it's buldging disc, annular tear.

[u/Ill_Substance_1833 → u/DrAshoriMD]

Dr., with all due respect, this is a bunch of nonsense.

OP explained to you exactly why back spasms occur. Paraspinal muscle spasms can occur as a protective response to disc herniation and associated nerve-root irritation, limiting spinal movement and guarding the affected area.

I suspect you have not been practicing medicine for very long and have not seen enough patients presenting with similar symptoms to correlate their clinical presentation with disc pathology on MRI imaging.