GDollars,
You can do upper body exercises as long as they don’t recreate your low back symptoms.
During any exercise, try to maintain the normal lumbar lordosis as best as possible.
Also, as I responded to a previous post:
To give you a better idea of how to work back into a more intense exercise program, I’m going to have to know how your symptoms respond to movements.
So, I want you to bend forward, backward, sideways and rotate and let me know what movements hurt and if any of them increase your foot symptoms. Then bend forward 10 times in a controlled motion and assess whether your symptoms increase, decrease or stay the same with the reps. Then lean backwards 10 times and do the same thing. Also, without using any weight, squat down like you would if you were doing squats or deadlifts, do 5-10 reps and assess your response.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Take care,
Ryan