Is stretching to touch your toes a no-no if you have a herniated disk?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I have a herniated disk from doing a deadlift wrong. I still feel the pain even though it's been 5+ years . For the first year I could hardly walk upright. Now I can walk and run and do all that, but it aches after a while and I can always feel some small amount of pain down one leg.

I do frequent stretches where I'm on my stomach and I arch my back in reverse.

Unfortunately the back issue means I'm not very flexible when it comes to bending forward to do things like tie shoes, put on boots, etc. I'd like to work on this flexibility but is it basically a big no-no since I have a herniated disk?

 

[Instan00dles]

I am not a doctor but this is my personal experience from the past 2 years. I hurt my back at work and herniated 2 discs. Nerve pain down both legs and spent a year hardly being able to walk. I ended up needing surgery to fix it.

Since I am in the military I had access to all the physio I could ever want and bending forward as well as keeping yourself flexible is one of the best thing you can to. What you don’t want to do is bend forward AND twist or bend/twist with extra weight. Most disc herniations are a result of bending and twisting while holding extra weight. If you lower back, hamstring and hips stay too tight it can actually put more pressure on the disc that is bothering you.

Bending forward is part of my stretching routine but it is done weight free and under control. Biggest thing you need to do is figure out the difference between the pain you feel in your back. You could feel pain because you have been expecting pain for the last 5+ years or you could feel pain because your body is trying to tell you that what you are doing is going to cause damage. If its the first kind of pain then carefully ignore it and carry on. You will over time push the pain barrier further as you train your body, some form of chronic pain is because your body is expecting pain. If its the second type you need to stop and seek some medical advice.

The physio department at work runs a back rehab class; if you want I could scan and send you the book they gave me. It has helped me quite a bit, mainly about learning about pain and how to cope/ know when its okay to work through it.

 

[Koing]

I'd be very careful about this one. Only you know how bad your injury is and how much pain you feel.

Bending forwards you should feel a stretch, not pain.

I have a prolapsed L4 but after 6months of rehab and then another 3months of slowly building my up weights I got over it. I was out of action for a while though! That was 9yrs ago.

You have to build your trunk strength up and get your mobility better. This will help you out in the long run.

Koing

 

[purbeast0]

just use pain as judgement. if it hurts, don't do it.

as someone who had a partially bulging disc from squatting wrong, i would STRONGLY recommend getting (or at least trying out) an inversion table. using mine for 5 minutes at a time, 2x a day, for a week, made my back feel better in that week than it had felt in the 5 or so previous years after injuring it.

i never thought i'd be able to squat or deadlift again after injuring it, but now that i have a handle on it i've gotten back up over 400lbs on the deadlifts, and with no belt either. granted, i'm not nursing a shoulder injury so i'm not lifting, but that's unrelated to the back issue.

 

[Capt Caveman]

What's the purpose of needing to stretch to touch your toes? Stretch your lower back? Hamstrings? Glutes?

With a herniated disc, you don't want to stress your lower back. However, you can stretch your hamstrings and glutes without bending over. You can lay on your back, raise a single leg straight up and put both hands behind your knee and pull towards you. Rinse, repeat with your other leg.

I'd also recommend seeing a PT who can help alleviate pain with active release techniques and strengthen supporting muscle groups.

If you have pain running down your leg, you may have a pinched nerve. I have three herniated discs, a pinched nerve and more. I received a cortisone shot last week and the pain that runs down my left hip/leg is now gone. I ran 21 miles pain free yesterday and will be running in the Marine Corps Marathon in several weeks.

Tying shoes, putting on boots? Sit down and bend your knees to put them on.

edit - going thru my stretches tonight, you can stretch your lower back and glutes by keeping your hands on the ground and forming an A with your legs and hands as that will take any stress off of your lower back