My partner doesn’t even have bad back problems and threw his back out doing that, so definitely make sure your form is good and consider getting someone who knows what they’re doing to help you if you’re starting a new exercise. He didn’t have any warning either, he had just been doing squats for a week or two and felt fine before it gave out. It took a full week of passing out on muscle relaxers to get him back up to speed, and he still needed physical therapy.

That said, I’ve done squats as part of my physical therapy program and it worked great. Form and not overdoing it is the important thing!

[–] NukedRat@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

That's how it works with the pain. There's no nerves inside the spine and when it slips it pushes on the nerves outside of it.

Think of a donut, if you push on one side of it the jam will spill out of the other side. Your discs between your vertabrea are similar so force on one side eventually will push the middle of the disc out the opposite side onto the nerves. This happens over time with bad forms with anything like lifting, with no warning until it happens.

It can heal as the "jam" can go back into the middle but the path it took doesn't heal so it's easy to do it again. If it's really bad and doesn't heal you might need surgery to fuse your vertabrea together, maybe the one above and below. That's why it's important to lift properly and try not to twist your body with weight, move your feet in line with you or in the direction your going.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 7 months ago

Oh sorry for being unclear, fortunately he didn’t have a herniated disc! It was a severe muscle spasm in his lower back that pinched a nerve, which is why the muscle relaxers fixed him up.