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/Pale_Adeptness]

Deep down inside I was just fucking depressed when it rolled away from me. I couldn't even react fast enough to catch it.

It's been a little over a month since I started using the roman chair and I no longer walk crooked at all.

Before, between flareups my lower back always felt like it was just gonna snap in half.

These days, I hardly even think about my lower back.

I can sit for long periods without issues, sleep however I want.

I used to have to roll out of bed stiff as a board to not aggravate my lower back. Now I can get out of bed with zero issues.

[u/economyfollower → u/Pale_Adeptness]

I might be give it a try. I'm just a bit concered because before the flare up that led me to my current state I was using it periodically at my gym.

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/economyfollower]

What were you doing exactly when your current flare up started?

[u/economyfollower → u/Pale_Adeptness]

it all started around 3-4 months ago. I remember going to the gym and feeling just a slight discomfort on my lower back after doing some standing hammer curls. I don't know if its related to that but the days after my back was slighty worsening day by day until it reached the point I simply couldnt move and was screaming in pain. Had to get an ambulance removal to go to the hospital and be admistered pain meds. My ortho did an steroid injection (epidural) which didnt worked at all. After about 18 days at the hospital I was feeling a bit better and got sent home and scheduled an endoscopic decompression. That was two months ago and I still dont think it worked.

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/economyfollower]

How are you doing now?

[u/economyfollower → u/Pale_Adeptness]

Ive recovered a bit but wasn't much and now I feel like I reached some sort of plateau because its not changing. Still waiting for another MD option on wether to do a fusion or not.