Apologies if this shows up in the wrong place, but i am in desperate need of advice. Long story short, former competitive natural bodybuilder … last show in 98 but training probably harder than ever.
Blew my back out - bad, 4 severe lumbar herniations at the age of 20 or so… found by MRI 5 years later after beating the S### out of it and just taking 16 ibuprofen a day. 2 ortho surgeons and 1 neurologist consults said surgery necessary ASAP. One more opinion took me to a specialist in jersey who said “don’t get cut until you have foot drop.” Backed off powerlifting but continued to train heavy in every way possible without loading my spine. Did pretty good until about 6 months ago … no foot drop or numbness but started having such bad hip/sciatica pain that i was literally dropped to my knees occasionally…
anyway, started coming here, began working more on my nonfiring glutes and poor posterior chain … pain is better (almost gone), but have resorted to taking ibuprofen again. So my question, anyone have any suggestions? Prefer to just fix this with training but not sure where to go from here. Using the foam roller daily, working on hip mobility, stretching piriformis regularly. This site has helped me tons, but i just need to see a light at the end… training is so important to me, but wife and coworkers are pushing me to stop. Thanks for any realistic advice anyone has to offer.