It sounds like your level of pain is much higher than mine. I herniated my L4/L5 vertebrae about 7 years ago. I’ve had bulging disks, sacroiliac joint injuries, pulled hamstrings, yet I managed to make a very strong recovery. My recovery wasn’t complete back to my full capabilities, but I’m still much stronger than the majority of people.
Flexibility and core strength were the major contributors to my recovery. Specifically, when your hamstrings are tight they will pull on your pelvis which will pull it out of line and cause pain. A strong core will also take stress off your spine/back which helps tremendously as well.
If you’re in pain when exercising, perhaps you aren’t doing the right kind of exercises or perhaps you’re trying to do too much at this point. Walk before you run and crawl before you walk.
I’m sure you already know all this, but a few things I learned along the way:
1.) Sleep on your side. It will alleviate pressure on your back. If you have to sleep on your back, put a firm pillow under your knees. This will relieve stress on your lower back and flatten your spine. If you have to sleep on your stomach, put a pillow under your lower stomach. Again, the goal is to flatten your spine and reduce stress on it.
2.) Sit on your butt with your legs fully extended with your feet together. Have someone compare how long each of your legs are. When I injured my back, my right leg was half an inch shorter than my left leg. As a result, it was pulling on my pelvis which causes a ton of pain in my lower back. There are ways to correct this. My physical therapist showed me several ways to correct this myself. The easiest way is to stretch the upper thigh of your longer leg. My right leg was shorter (and also where I felt the most pain) so I would stretch my left thigh.
3.) When you walk, try flexing your abs when you’re in pain. It reduces stress on your spine and it helped me to relieve pain. It also will help strengthen your core even if it’s only a small bit.
For those of you with back pain, this may make you cringe, but this is how I hurt my back. I had actually tweaked it the week before, but this was the last meet of the year (and my career). I went down with 700 pounds and never came up. In my defense, I had done 675 two weeks before with ease and healthy I probably could have done around 725-750 pounds…..such is life.
