How to get back into excercise after back surgery

traybo

Up until November last year I had been working hard at losing wieght and getting fit. I'd lost 97 pounds, went to the gym 3 times a week and could comfortably run 5k. Then the sciatica pain I'd been suffering from got a lot worse and despite trying to (foolishly) grit my teeth and train through it I ended up having to go get my back looked at my the doc. To cut a long story short, in January I had 2 prolapsed discs at L4 and L5 s1 removed from my back. After a few weeks (under the advice from my phsio) I started excercising again - just walking and swimming to start with. My consultant advised me to try running around 6 weeks after the op but if it caused pain or discomfort to stop. I tried and it was painful. I've now waited a few more weeks and tried again - just a couple of mins running interspersed with walking on the treadmill. So far, so good. I intend to try and be sensible and work my way up gradually. My phsyio and the consultant have recommended pilates to strenghten my core muscles - ironically the physio thinks losing the weight might be a contributory factor to the disc problem - after years of being overweight my over-stretched muscles were weak and not supporting my back properly. However I find pilates very boring and no substitute for the feeling I get from a good gym session. I'm wondering what other excercises would be good for building my core strength and what weight bearing excercises on gym machines would be safe?