Learn How to fix slipped/ manage discs

read time 1 min 45 secs

If you are here reading this, you would most probably be wanting to know how to manage your slipped discs or know someone who has slipped discs & wanting to help. Read on to learn how you can help yourself decrease pain & how to manage your herniated discs to increase quality of life. 

X- Ray of herniated discs

What is Slipped discs

Stages of herniated discs

Slipped discs is a laymen term to refer to as what is also known by a few names as it refers to the stages of your condition(s) as shown in the pic above. When the herniations happens, it disrupts life quality and bring on pain that leaves you remotely impossible to move & in some cases, this may lead to many other health conditions from lower quality of life by moving lesser, which dampens the body's ability to heal & get nutrients rich oxygenated blood flowing around the body to rid of any waste / metabolic by-products. Read more about sciatica here if you haven't.

How it (herniated discs) causes pain

Pic 2.1

Pic 2.2

Shown in Pic 2.1(top view) & 2.2 lateral view, you can see from the different angles how the herniation of the discs may lead to your nerves constantly being impinged & cause intense pain trying to move or just doing the simplest of activities. 

Top 4 causes of Slipped Discs

1. Sedentary lifestyle

Couch potato much anyone?

​Sedentary lifestyle pertains to you not moving much & doing the same thing day in day out, such as eat sleep, work repeat. No outside the comfort activities is done with regards to exercise or anything that increases your metabolic demands. ​

2. Weak Core

Your "core" consists more of just your 6-pack muscles

A strong core allows for a very stable environment for the spine to move through many range of motions without any vulnerability. If your deep stabilisers that surrounds your spine doesn't do its job efficiently, then you may have a weak & vulnerable spine. Sudden movements that occurs in sports or even a cough or sneeze may trigger that herniation to happen. From squatting to trying to stand up, if your core is weak it can't stabilise the spine & ensure that "everything in its place", thus increasing your chances of injury, doing the simplest activities!

3. Weak Glutes
The hip complex is made to absorb & distribute load / impact to the rest of the body. The glutes primarily work apart from movements of the hip, to help take some load off the lower potion of the spine. If you have weak glutes your lumbar spine suffers by taking too much ground force reaction. It doesnt get better when you decide to run as the forces increases from the ground up to your body, the force increase towards your lumbar spine. Try a simple standing test pictured below. Do this& bring one leg close to 90degree angle & stay to see if you can make it to 45 secs without fumbling all over. Passed? Do the next level & look around in the room or just about wherever you are in your environment & see if you can do it for the same time. If you can't then you would be best not running first before strengthening your glutes to help you stabilise your body & hope to take some load off from the lumbar spine.  

45 seconds - Standing Single Leg Test

4. Posture 
Need we say anymore on this? If you want to know more about how to improve your posture from the ground up, this read a short article here. Posture is everything, it allows us to distribute out impact, load and allows us to move efficiently, be it, for sports or daily activities. Posture is also a reflection of how we are exposed or what we expose ourselves to most of the time.
Are you depressed?
Are you sad most times?
Are you tall?
Are you a growing teenager?
Are you sedentary?
Are you injured? 
Are you always in front of a computer like you are now? 

Posture has no right or wrong, what makes it wrong is that you now have pain. When pain sets in, your posture is not optimal for your activities, mechanics of your body is faulty, it may be affecting how you move for a sport that leads to irritation & inflammation, which doesn't seem to recover or taking ages to do so! 

5 best exercises to do 

1. Dead-bug

Aim: To activate the deep stabilising muscles of your abs for the spine and pelvis

2. Plank

Hip always safer to go higher than lower

Aim: To integrate the posterior & anterior chain to fire simultaneously, strengthening the deep and superficial muscles of your core

3. Single Leg Hip Hinge

Always control going down

Aim: Integrating ground force reaction to help achieve proper firing patterns needed for stabilisation via the plantar fascia and glutes. Also challenged here will be your balance/ vestibular system, increasing your sensory receptors via the feet, and the core, in a dynamic manner to provide different vectors of stabilisations. 

4. Bird Dog 

Move with intent

Aim: To achieve simultaneous firing pattern of the anterior and posterior chain while working on resisting any for of rotation. Work will mostly be done via resisting of tilting the pelvis & lengthening the legs & arms, increasing lever / difficulty. Great for learning controlled movement before standing up. Usually done before standing up as it is a form of regression exercise for anything standing. 

Move with intent 

Any execution of exercise movement should be done with intent. The intent of why you are doing the movement, & how you should feel or what to engage & so on. When you're moving with intent, it makes you focus more on quality rather than quantity or just going through movements for the sake of it. 

Alternatively you can attend a class