How To Safely Exercise With Disc Bulges
If you have ever felt scared to death to exercise after being diagnosed with a lumbar disc bulge you’re not alone.
In fact, the majority of those leaving their doctors office after a lumbar disc diagnosis feel the exact same way.
You’re told to be more active but at the same time you don’t want to make your pain worse or cause more damage.
If you can relate to this then this article is going to be a game changer for you.
In this video, I am going to break down everything you need to know about building more strength in your body confidently even with a history of bulging discs.
Can You Workout With A Bulging Disc?
It truly breaks my heart when I speak to people who believe that working out with a bulging disc is dangerous.
They go years without really going after a more fulfilling and active life simply because they were told their spines were damaged or fragile.
I want to let you in on something that you should have been told a long time ago.
YES! You can work out with a history of bulging discs.
We all have different abnormalities in our spine and just because your MRI proves you have something going on doesn’t mean you’re broken or deformed.
When it comes to working out with a bulging disc there are a few rules I encourage my clients to follow and I break these down in today’s video.
These rules (if followed) will open so many doors for you to be able to confidently build strength and exercise more then you have before even with bulging discs.
What Exercises Should I Avoid Doing With A Bulging Disc?
We have to get over this idea that there are BAD exercises and GOOD exercises.
All exercise is good.
It’s just the exercises you’re choosing may not fit your specific situation.
For example: If you don’t really care to compete in squat competitions and don’t really care how much you can barbell squat then you don’t need to worry about keeping barbell squatting in your routine ESPECIALLY if you have a history of bulging discs.
I always encourage my clients to throw out what is unnecessary and keep what is fun, practical and sustainable for their body type and goals.
If you didn’t already know, disc bulges often get worse from excessive/unnecessary spinal compression. So if you think about it, if your goal is to reverse this bulge but still exercise and stay in shape despite it, you want to limit the excessive spinal loading in your workouts.
The two most common exercises people consider avoiding when dealing with bulging discs are:
==> Barbell Squats (I did a video on my thoughts on barbell squatting you can check out here)
==> Barbell Deadlifts
Both of these if done poorly can do some serious damage and if your already super sensitive from the bulging disc this could give you unwanted stress that just isn’t necessary.
So keep it simple.
Remove all barbell loaded squats and deadlifts until you have more control over symptoms and can improve the technique you’re using with these lifts.
There are lots of alternatives you can do that hit the same muscles groups without compromising your bulging discs.
Some of my favorite lower body exercises to do with bulging discs are:
Weighted Rear Foot Elevated Lunge
To name a few!
Stay tuned to this YouTube Series I am doing on Bulging Discs for more bulging disc friendly exercises for the whole body!
Can Exercise Heal My Bulging Disc?
If your exercise routine is built based on the idea of building resilience in the body and improving technique and form than YES, Exercise can play a massive roll in reversing a bulging disc.
The issue is how people use exercise as a tool. To often I see people suffering from bulging disc abuse their bodies in the gym thinking that they more they do the stronger they will become. This is far from the truth. Research has proven that to reap the benefits of exercise the amount of exercise and recovery need to be balanced. Too often put more effort into training and little into recovery to see the results they want.
For those of us in chronic back pain from bulging discs this can be a disaster.
My other thought on this is we have to become more aware of our imbalances in our training and exercise. If you haven’t been an avid lifter and simply getting started is where you are then its best to start with the safest approach possible.
Check out the Smart Strength Membership if this is you.
When left to our own devices we tend to only do what we know we are good at or life doing. Over the years this can wreak havoc on our bodies. Best way to solve this is to hire someone to write your programs for you or make sure your program is well rounded!
Thanks for checking out this week’s post. This is Video ONE of an entire series I am doing this month on exercising with disc bulges so make sure you subscribe to the webiste an YouTube channel to not miss a thing!
