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Comment by schnebbau | Hacker News Reader

I had a bulging lumbar disc - pure agony for 18 months. I had become used to carrying a lumbar pillow around with me everywhere I went. I couldn't lean forward for more than about 30 seconds without it being unbearable.

Then someone suggested I try dead hangs, stretching my hamstrings, and really cranking the McKenzie stretch. I'm not sure which one made the difference (all 3?), but pain was gone in 2 weeks.

Maybe it will help, maybe it won't. But since someone took a flyer telling me, I always share this with others in the small chance it helps them.

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McKenzie stretched helped me rehab a pulled muscle in my lower back (originally thought it was a disc).

Deadlifts also helped strengthen lower back muscles. Tight hamstrings from sitting on the computer all the time also didn't help. I'll try dead hangs.

Deadlifts are how I got into that mess. There are two types of deadlifter: those who have ruined their back, and those who haven't yet ruined their back.

Romanian deadlifts are much safer. Also hip thrusts and weighted back extensions are good enough unless you're a competitive power lifter.

I always followed proper form and didn't ego lift, even though my deadlifts were the highest weight.

I think on retrospect deadlifts may have been my issue to, I did the deadlifts that day and later remember going to pickup something off the ground and getting the issue. Not sure if the deadlift was the cause, but I always thought my muscles were sore/tired and lax, thus when I went to lift the thing my lower back stability was compromised.

I'll try Romanian deadlifts and those other exercises, thanks for that suggestion.

I'm pretty much exclusively an RDL kind of guy these days but plenty of people go their whole lifting career being fine doing deadlifts.

I just don't like the stimulus to fatigue ratio for them and spend more time with cables, machines, and dumbbells than barbells these days.

Do you have any links for how you did these stretches? I know someone that could do with trying this.

For hamstring stretch I find using a back extension station works well, doing one leg at a time (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61TQEGNUgQL._AC_UF894,10...). Let gravity pull your torso down, which will stretch your hamstring. If that's not possible, using the corner of a wall works too (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2U4ChnuL3JM/maxresdefault.jpg)

For the McKenzie stretch (https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e556aadfe97d3...), instead of just holding the stretch, do reps between laying flat and then going into the stretch. At the end of your final rep (I would do 8), rotate side to side gently when arched.

Dead hangs: hang from a bar for 30 seconds, completely relaxed. Then 1 minute of rest. Repeat 3 times. This decompresses your spine.

Thanks for the reply, will pass this info on.

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