Herniated Disc and Post-Fusion Friendly Leg Workout: Follow Along!
Finding a safe leg workout for herniated, bulging discs or post-surgery can be hard.
You’re scared to death to make a bad exercise choice or slip and cause more pain and damage than there was before.
This leads to more inactivity or a sorry workout program that makes you feel weak and yields little to no results.
I lived this reality for years and actually lost A LOT of muscle mass myself due to this exact struggle.
What I want to do today is take you inside my private studio and walk you through my own personal leg workout.
After rupturing my L5-S1 Disc 8+ years ago I have had good leg days and bad and have come to realize with the right exercises, frequency, and dose you can still have a GREAT leg workout even with a disc injury or history of spinal surgery.
In this video I’ll show you:
- The critical warm-ups that I do and WHY I do them.
- The specific lower body exercises I pick and WHY I pick them.
- The order of my exercises from the warm-up to completion and WHY I think it’s the best order for post-surgery and low back pain warriors.
- Along with insider tips and tricks for maximizing your results and minimizing your pain.
What Leg Exercises Are In This Follow Along Workout?
The first portion of the video goes through all of my critical warm-up steps for a sensitive low back.
Be sure to watch it all the way through because I explain a lot!
Leg Exercise One: Goblet Squat
One of my favorite go-to herniated disc and post-surgery leg exercises.
Go as heavy as you can safely.
Leg Exercise Two: Single Leg Static Kettlebell Lunge
Another go-to lower body exercises you will see in my weekly workouts. You can really challenge the glutes with this one and go as heavy as you want.
Leg Exercise Three: Kettlebell Straight Leg Deads.
This is an intimidating exercise for those with sensitive low backs so go with a weight you feel confident in and build up over time. No need to go crazy and use a ton of weight.
Can I Lift Weights With A Herniated Disc?
You can absolutely lift weights with a herniated disc you just have to keep a few things in mind.
Below are three important ones but I cover more tricks and tips in this week’s video above.
ONE: Understand that not all exercises are created equal and what works for your buddy or your body before the injury may not translate successfully now.
You have to give up on trying to keep up with the fitness norms you see in the gym.
You don’t have to do singles, doubles, or triples on heavy lifts like squats and deadlifts to prove that you’re strong but also to see results in the gym.
The more and more I talk to seasoned fitness peeps the more I hear them talking about training smarter and taking care of their body in the gym than ever before.
TWO: Change up the order of your exercises.
Typically now I will save my bigger lifts for the end of the workout. Yes, my body is a bit more tired but I won’t have to push as much weight to get the same effect.
Less weight means happier joints and body.
THREE: Prime the body better than ever with a solid warm-up.
I did a video on warming up you can check it out here.
The more your body is prepped for the task at hand the better the results will be during the workout. Weird spasms, tweaks, and strains can be avoided by taking more time to get the body ready.
Just because your buddy can warm up in under 5 minutes doesn’t mean you can. It’s okay to be different and take the extra time to keep your post-workout life pain-free
Can You Do Squats With A Herniated Or Bulging Disc?
I personally am not a fan of barbell squats. They can be pretty technical and not favorable for those who are already in pain from a herniated or bulging disc.
I do believe there is nothing wrong with wanting to be able to get back to squatting after a herniated or bulging disc I just wouldn’t be in a rush.
If you’re having low back pain when doing squats I would first dial back your weight and see if just doing that helps. If so then stick to that weight and really work on technique and being consistent as you increase the weight.
If you’re looking for other leg exercise options to add to the video above you can check out the video below!
