Disc Protrusion

[Stoicao]

I've been dealing with an L5 mild disc protrusion and an L3 bulge. The L5 protrusion is still giving me some discomfort. This happened 9 months ago and I've been doing PT everyday for about 5 months. It's not horrible pain, but then again I don't really want to be doing rows or anything of the sort for my back. I'm slowly using really low weight for squats and DL to try to get back to form, but I seem to have reached a plateau in my progress with L5. I'm seeing a chiropractor now, but I want to know if anyone has any advice. Have you dealt with a bulge, herniation, or protrusion, and if so how are you doing now? Also, have you heard of spinal decompression working, and do you think it could work for me?

Thanks for any help you can give, I really just want to get back to lifting hard again and I'm willing to do anything right now to do it.

[FLbeach321]

spinal decompression is awesome! I haven't had to have it myself because other things worked before my Doctor became certified for it, but I've seen it work miricals. A good friend of mine is a chiropractor and he said it creates a vaccum to suck the disc fluid back into the disc. I tell everyone with major back problems to do it.

I have an inversion table and that will do the same thing as far as creating a vaccum. It's just takes more time, but it worked for me as well as chiropractic adjustments. I've also learned not to do several different exercises because it's not worth the abuse on my body, and squats is one of them (military press and straight bar curls are the other 2)

[Stoicao]

Thanks for the advice, tomorrow I'm contacting a chiro by me that does decompression. I really just hope it's covered by insurance, because if not that would suck. Nonetheless I'm doing core work and bouncing on an exercise ball daily, along with stretching to try to get this turned around. It's just a long process, but I just need help mentally to stay out of the gym and stop attempting squats and the like when I'm still healing. That's the toughest part.