A bulged or herniated disc is a common condition that affects millions of people. It is usually manifest as pain in your lower back that may or may not be accompanied by shooting pain, numbness, tingling, or burning down one or both legs. Fortunately – there’s a lot that conservative care including the right stretches and strengthening exercises can do to alleviate this pain. Today I wanted to share with you some of my favorite core stability and spine strengthening exercises that are ideal for a bulging disc.
WHAT IS A LOWER BACK DISC?
Our spine is made up of vertebrae bones stacked one on top of the other. Between each of these vertebrae you have a “disc“. These discs act as shock absorbers and also allow us to move. The vertebrae in the lowest part of your back are called “lumbar vertebrae“; the discs that separate these vertebrae are referred to as your “lumbar discs“.
WHAT IS A BULGED DISC?
Vertebral discs are composed primarily of two structures:
There is a tough outer layer made up of multiple layers of overlapping cartilage and an inner “core” that is primarily aqueous (water based). Often times we refer to this disc structure as a “jelly donut“ – a tough outer layer with a “jelly“ inside. This structure is key to enable the two functions listed above (shock absorption and movement).
Over time, the outer disc layer can develop areas of weakness. With the right forces, your inner “jelly“ can “bulge“ into the outer layer resulting in a disc protrusion or “bulged disc“.
When this bulged disc butts up against one of your lumbar nerves this can cause pain in the area and/or pain/numbness that radiates down your leg.
Keep in mind – not all back pain is created equally!
It’s crucial to mention that not all low back pain and not all disc pain is the same. Depending on exactly which diagnosis you have and what symptoms you present with I might recommend a completely different treatment plan for you. The exercises I’m going to present to you below are specifically for a “bulged”, “herniated”, or “protruding” lumbar disc. If you have a diagnosis of “stenosis” or “degenerative disc disease” these are NOT the exercises I would recommend. You can see the best exercises for stenosis or DDD when you click on this link: https://tone-and-tighten.com/how-to-treat-sciatica-at-home.html
HOW CAN I TREAT MY LOW BACK DISC PAIN?
The majority of lumbar disc herniations happen posteriorly – meaning the inner disc material bulges out the outer layer towards the back. Often this is caused by activities where we bend forward or lift a heavy load or rotate our spine just right.
If the low back disc is bulging posteriorly (towards the back) our goal is to move it back anteriorly (towards the middle) where it belongs. To do that, we want to introduce primarily extension-based exercises (bending over backwards) that are going to help this action to occur.
FIRST STEP – GET THE PAIN UNDER CONTROL
Our first step is to always get the pain/symptoms under control. We do this with stretching and mobilization with emphasis in extension to help ourselves out of this pain.
Covering these exercises is not the intent of this post as I’ve already done that in an earlier blog post. To see those “PHASE ONE” exercises in the treatment of this condition, please click on the following link: https://tone-and-tighten.com/how-to-treat-sciatica-best-exercises-for-sciatic-nerve-pain.html
SECOND STEP – STRENGTHEN AND STABILIZE THE SPINE IN THIS PAIN-FREE POSITION
Once we get pain under control and the sciatica symptoms are localized primarily to the lower back/buttocks, we then want to introduce gentle core strengthening exercises to hopefully alleviate some of your pain/symptoms. That’s the goal of this blog post- to demonstrate the right strength training exercises to stabilize the lumbar spine in this extension motion and hopefully help you out of pain.
MY BEST EXERCISES TO STRENGTHEN AND STABILIZE YOUR LOWER BACK
I’ll be presenting four of my favorite core extension exercises that you can do at home with zero equipment required. I will present them in a progression of “least aggressive/difficult” to “most aggressive/difficult”. Hopefully you will be able to do at least 2-3 of these exercises if not all four.
Quick caveat – if ANY of these are painful to your lower back or increase pain/symptoms down your leg stop immediately. That’s a sign that we’re progressing the wrong direction and need to consider taking a different approach.
1. Bridges
- Lay on your back with your knees bent.
- Contract your glutes and lift your buttocks up towards the ceiling.
- Hold 3 seconds and slowly return to the starting position.
- 3 sets of 10-20 reps.
2. Bird Dogs
- Start on all fours.
- Extend your left leg straight back behind you while bringing your straight right arm straight forward.
- Hold 3 seconds and slowly return to the starting position.
- 3 sets of 10 reps on each side.
3. Swimmers
- Lay on your stomach with your arms straight overhead.
- Lift your right arm and left leg up off the floor, hold for 2 seconds and slowly return to the starting position.
- Repeat with the left arm/right leg.
- 3 sets of 10 reps on each side.
4. Superman Back Extensions
- Lay on your stomach with your arms straight overhead.
- Contract the muscles in your back to lift your chest and both knees up off the floor.
- Hold 2 seconds and slowly return to the starting position.
- 3 sets of 10 reps.
You don’t have to live with back pain or disc symptoms. In fact, there’s a lot that conservative care including physical therapy, stretching, and strength training exercises can do to alleviate your pain/symptoms and help you to feel better. I hope these exercises help you to achieve your goals and to become stronger, healthier, and pain-free.
Check out even more or our great videos that will help you out with that lower back pain you might be experiencing:
If you have any questions or comments, leave them in a comment below and I will get to them as soon as I can!
Make it happen,
Jared