Guys, need advice here.

Last two months i was diagnosed with a Degenerative Disk Disease (DDD) which my L4/L5 disk got bulged and the disk between it look a bit drain (blackish in MRI). So i've been stop going to gym for a month or two since doctor advise me to reduce my gym activities and mentioned only to do bench activities (no independent weight activities and of coz no deadlift or squat! ). Since then, im trying to find the right pattern to achieve overall body training but lack of knowledge (my search on google does not help me a lot) put an end to my quest.

Can anyone advice or guide me on the right exercise?

Basically speaking, for me, you overdo yourself. Unless due to disease, body will recover/repair itself for normal wear but the repair rate different from person to person related to body condition. The older the person, the rate also goes down.

What doctor suggest is to reduce unnecessary stress related to that part of your body. Eat well balance diet. Healthy body recover faster. This is what I can suggest.

I had something similar happened to me late May this year, cervical spine injury. THough mine was because of the neck spine collapsing due to muscle injury (the muscle was not providing enough support for the bone causing it to collapse and pinched the nerves). The effect, lost alot of strength on my left arm (from 25+ kg overhead db press to less than 5 kg).

Went to the ortho specialist and weirdly was told that i can continue lifting since he said that if i were to join physio, i will be doing the thing anyway. But i did stop going to the gym for 8 weeks and did bodyweight exercise and using the dumbbells/ez curlbar that i have at home. Happy to say that now more than 90% recovered.

For your case, i'd suggest that you watch the Hodgetwins vids? Keith had similar problem with you and the twins literally avoided conventional squat and and any form of deadlifts (they do perform sumo squat with the dumbbell) and they're making gains just fine though. If you're not experiencing any numbness or strength loss anymore from any part of your body (usually lower body for the L regions), I'd suggest you start slowly instead of gungho into your old routine.

Also try seeing a chiropractor. it certainly did help for me.

Goodluck.

I had really bad lower back pain few years ago. At the time I was just starting doing weight training. Went to a specialist, took x-rays and he told me I had DDD, prescribed some pills and told me to come back next week. I didn't see him again as I wasn't interested in taking drugs.

Did a lot of internet browsing and found someone posting on bb.com that he had back pain which went away after doing db squats and lunges. I tried it and surprisingly it worked for me as my back pain gradually went away.

I'm not saying this will work for you, it may not. In my case, I figured out that db goblet squats and db lunges helped to strengthen my quads, hams, glutes and core area. These strengthened muscle groups would now be able to support my lower back much better. I still would feel twinges in my lower back if I lift something with bad form such as with rounded back but overall I've been able to manage my lower back. I can even do bb squats without any lower back issues.

This post has been edited by todak: Dec 23 2015, 05:27 PM

Sad to hear this, i myself suffered some back pain and are restricted to some workout. What about bodyweight excerise?