Do them standing and dont let your torso move - its a great core exercise in addition to being good for your back.

Everyone seems to come to Don Cha, when they face an injury or have questions regarding one. I figured I might as well, too.
Hope you don't mind.

I have a herniated disc (central prolapse is the fancy medical term I suppose) at L4-5 causing sciatic nerve pain on my left leg/hip/glute and rare tingling on my left foot. On a scale of 1-10 the pain is 1-3 in the mornings, 0-2 in daytime and 3-5 in the evenings. Nighttime/sleeping is fine.
Usually it's very hard to straighten my back when getting up after sitting on a chair / slouching on a sofa in the evenings, so in the evenings I walk around hunched over like an old man. (Backpack-walks mentioned later def help with this)

I have been seeing a physiotherapist for a few weeks but I'm coming to a conclusion that I'm wasting my time and money there.

I read your rehabbing-log both here at 2+2 and Cressey's forum - inspirational stuff!

I've read (well, almost) McGill's LBD and I'm thinking on putting together a rehabbing program for myself.
So far I've been taking short walks on uneven ground w a plate-loaded-backpack and that really helps getting back straight in the evenings.
My theory is that my back extensors lack strength and endurance and therefore after a long day they don't participate as much in the evenings and my low back gets more of the load. Backpack-walks seem to re-activate the extensors and reduce the pressure on the low back -> pain relief and being able to stand straight. My theory can very well be wrong, I dunno.

I've also occasionally been doing something that seems to be very close to McKenzie1&2, w/o ever hearing about them prior to reading your log.

Okay, this is getting in the tl;dr -territory so:

1.) Inversion table. I'm considering buying one, any suggestions on what to get or where to buy?

2.) With that very limited information I gave, do you have any suggestions on a rehabbing program? I'm thinking McKenzie's, inversion table / traction and backbagwalks.

Thanks.

Sounds like you're doing good things so far. I didnt do any of the backpack walking, but I do remember reading that is a good thing.

1 - This is what I have: http://www.amazon.com/Ironman-Gravit...0227840&sr=1-5

Its nothing special, but it worked well for what I needed it to do. I have no suggestions, other than to read reviews of whatever ones you're thinking about buying.

2 - What you said is good. I'd add in stuff like diaphragmatic breathing, planks (front & side) and bird dogs. You want all the core muscles to be strong and have endurance. Follow what McGill says. If you want more exercise/programming ideas from McGill for when you get farther along, read his other book - Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance.

In case you missed this link that was posted earlier in my log here, I made a log at Mike Robertson's site. There's a little redundancy with this log, but its more brief and has some great advice from some experts. http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/...herniated-disc

Good luck!

6/20

ssb squats
up to 260x2x6
ez

DL
up to 335 + 4 chains x 1
335 + 6 chains x 1
335 + 8 chains x 1 x 4 (this is ~380 at the bottom and ~480 at the top)

reverse hypers
90x12x3

standing 2 arm cable rows
125x15, 200x15x3
these are ridiculously easy compared to the 1 arm style.

PNF D2 flexion
20x15x2
This is the first thing I've done with my upper arms over my shoulders in a long time. I kept it very light & it felt good.

All right, I need to do some research on those, see what's available here in Finland or Amazon DE or UK.

Great. I'm currently doing weighted frontplanks (up to 39lbx30sx3 now) and ab-wheel rollouts as a part of my gym routine 3x/week. I also did side-planks earlier. I'll keep doing those and check out DB and that book.

Yes. I read it all already - great stuff.
I accidentally typed Cressey's forum instead of Robertson's forum in my earlier post.

Thanks, a lot.

McGill says more shorter sets of planks are better for muscle endurance than fewer longer sets. If you can do that much weight for that long, and if you can do roll outs properly without any pain, just do more rollouts imo.

If you feel like the planks are helping and want to keep doing them, do ~15 second sets and do way more sets imo. Something like 5 sets of 15 seconds, resting 15 seconds between sets, then rest for a minute or two, then do 4 sets, rest, 3 sets, rest, two sets, rest, then one set. I think this might be in McGill's second book.

And if I didnt mention it before, if anything causes pain associated with your back, dont do that exercise.

6/22

ssb squats
up to 260x5x6
tiring. I used knee wraps on the last 3 sets.

DE bench
up to 165 + 4 chains x 5 x 5

reverse hypers
90x12x2

standing 1 arm cable rows
75x15, 105x15, 125x15x2

I like doing both rollouts and planks so I guess I'll keep doing both.
Re: planks: It seems a bit contradictory to do shorter reps for endurance. But then again doing them with only 15 sec rest between reps sort of turns them into one long rep I guess. Interesting. I will give that rep scheme a go.
FWIW I rest 60s between my current 30s reps.

Aye aye sir.
And thanks again.

Also, lately I've tried to really pay attention to not let my low back get into flexion under almost any circumstances. Obv it's a necessitity when doing certain tasks but I've really kept it to a minimum, even frequently eating while standing and overall sitting maybe 20% of time what I used to.

The short sets of planks (and side planks and bird dogs) - That's the type of stuff McGill says builds muscular endurance best. It could have been in his second book.

yeah, I try to avoid flexion, and twisting, and I try to not go too far into extension either (except when I bench now, but you shouldnt do that yet). I try to keep my spine as neutral as possibly squatting & DLing now, rather than arching it hard.

I've been doing less quad stretching, mobility work and direct ab work lately for a variety of reasons. Today I was noticing that my APT is coming back a bit - my quads felt tight, my glutes didnt feel as strong or active as should and my abs felt a little less active and weaker. I figured a good supplemental posterior chain/core/mobility/stretching workout work be a good idea today.

6/24

smr & mobility (more quad stretching than usual)

RDLs
145x5x2, 235x5, 285x5, 335x5x4

superset
offset KB step ups
44x10x2
and
reverse hypers
90x15x2

I cant/shouldnt do any ab stuff that activates my upper back muscles or lets my arms go over my head with much resistance, so I figured this would be a good time to try weighted planks with the vest.

front planks with 100 lb vest
15 seconds x 5
short 15 sec. rest between 1st 4 sets, then longer 30 sec. rest before last set - these got hard towards the end. This might be exactly what I need to do for direct front ab work a while, as I cant do fallouts or rollouts or jacknifes for now.

PNF D2 flexion - tall kneeling
20x15x2

tall kneeling cable lift
20x15x2

I feel better now than I did before the workout.

edit: nm found it

6/25

ssb squats
up to 260x2x6

ME bench
reverse bands up to 375x1 then 300x8, all paused

reverse hypers
90x15x2

RDL
up to 335x5x2

blast strap push ups
bw x 10 x 3
gotta keep my neck in good position on these

2 arm standing cable row
200x15x2, hung a chain on the stack - 222 x 15 x 2

6/27

The GHR got delivered today - woot! I did several short sets today before working out.

ssb squats
up to 260x6x6
I took long rests and used wraps on the last set. It seemed easier than 5x6, probably because of resting longer.

Between sets of squats I did a couple GHRs to show Yugo how to do them and my calves cramped up. The right one was pretty bad. That was unexpected, but it wasnt terrible and didnt ruin the workout.

DL
work sets went
365+4 chains x 1
365 + 6 chains x 1
365 + 8 chains x 1 x 4

GHRs
6 6 9

My calves are pretty fried. I'll probably feel the hammies tomorrow.

6/29

ssb squat
up to 260x2x6 - ez

DE bench
165 + 4 chains x 5 x 5
I started with sort of a medium/close grip. That seemed to activate/aggravate some of my neck muscles, so I gradually moved my grip a little wider each set until it was basically my normal grip width the last set, and that felt best.

GHR
7
right calf is too tight for this to be good for me right now, so I stopped

reverse hypers
90x15x2
This suddenly feels easier than before, maybe because of doing a bunch of GHRs the past few days.

standing 2 arm cable row
200x20x2

weighted planks - 100 lb vest
15 sec x 5
15 second rest for the 1st 4 sets again, then I needed longer before doing the last set again like last time.

some pretty good ideas in here:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_..._with_mobility

mobility drills between sets