[quote]florin wrote:
I’m in a similar situation.
Don’t lift any weight until it’s healed. If you’re not lying down flat, don’t lift weights.
Don’t overhead squat.
Do 1-leg exercises. 1-leg squat, 1-leg presses, and so on. For the 1-leg squat, depending on how heavy and strong you are, you may not need any additional weight, or at most a dumbbell in one hand. I’m thinking to try Waterbury’s method and do 1-leg squats fast, with no additional weight.
Even so, I feel 1-leg deadlifts are a bit too risky. Maybe I’m chicken, but I’d rather heal up fast and get right back to normal.
Then use the machines a lot, if it’s not painful. Leg extensions, whatever.
I quit working the abs too. I just don’t want any strain on my lower back for a while.
Don’t do anything that causes pain. Pain means Don’t Do It.
My doctor told me to grab the chin-up bar and just hang there a couple minutes or so, and relax. This will help the disc “sneak” back in place.
At home, you can grab the top edge of a door and just hang there flat for a while. I do that several times a day. Put a pair of socks between your hands and the door if the edge is too sharp.
I did all these things and was pain free in a couple of weeks. Yesterday I did seated triceps extensions like a moron with 130lb and it hurt a little bit. But it’s already better today.
Keep in mind: it will take a few months at least before you’ll be able to lift heavy while standing up.[/quote]
First of all thanks to everybody for the replies. I’m finding out there are still ways for me to exercise legs, cuz all of these were unknown to me.
The 1 leg squat / split squat is definitly something i’m going to try with weights. the 1 leg deadlift seems like an exercise which demands a lot of balance and it also puts some pressure on your knee but it seems very useful without any weights.
The streching bit is great and i’ve heard of it before on a website, somebody called this technique : ‘to deload’ - hanging from a door or by pushing yourself with your hands by your sides from a chair, letting your spine hang down - causing the vertrabrae to spread and helping the disc to mobilize itself inward. I’m going to do this a few times each day and before every workout.
Regarding your post florin, all the other exercises which i use to target other bodyparts have been adjusted to minimizing back pressure to almost zero.
But there are a few that i’m not sure about: Cable crossovers for instance (either for upper chest/ side laterals for shoulders)Do you guys think this is an exercise to avoid (although both are done with relatively low weight.)?
I’ve already switched the cable side laterals to one-arm lying down dumbell raises for each shoulder + one cable side lateral at a time (to reduce the pressure on the back when working both of them at the same time).
Regarding biceps exercises - all are done with precher bench - either hammers or just regular curls.
Regarding another shoulder exercise - dumbell presses are done with a bench at 60 degrees angle and a raised chair +another bench to set my legs on so i can make sure my back is exactly glued to the bench.
So if you guys think this is okay, please tell me.
Thanks.