back injury/can't exercise

I started mfp in a wheelchair unable to walk a step, following surgery to pin my shattered ankle together. I lost the first 40 pounds not even walking.

Since then, I have had a few setbacks and am basically housebound and on crutches at the moment. So not much exercise still going on here! But I am losing weight! You eat at a calorie deficit to lose weight. Exercise is good for your mind and body, but not necessary to lose the pounds!

I hope you find some activity you can participate in but until then, please try not to worry about it affecting your weight loss. I understand the pain you are in. I herniated 2 discs in my back (L4 and L5) about 15 years ago. I didn't wish to go down the surgery route and have managed it since. The good news is, since I have lost weight, I am much less bothered with any pain or restriction from the discs in my back!

I hope this is useful. You can do this too! :flowerforyou:

I have issues with the same disk and I know how hard it can be. But as hard as it is, it's important to do whatever exercise you can because ultimately that will speed your recovery. My back hurts all the time, but it's even worse if I don't work out. Hopefully you are eligible for physical therapy and you should use their recommendations as a starting point and keep building as you progress.

i hurt my back years ago weight lifting. I have a few bulging discs in my lumbar (confirmed by MRI) and I'm pretty sure in my thoracic too (not yet confirmed).

I still deadlift and barbell squat, and it irritates my back BAD - I will soon be in a wheel chair probably. For me, I probably have to stop deadlifting and squatting and have to choose exercises that do not involve my back as much such as leg extensions, leg press, leg curl for legs.

Upper body exercises do not irritate my back as much such as bench press, chin ups, rope pull downs, lat pulldowns. Yet if I pick up a heavy weight such as two 80lb dumbbells for shrugs, my back will scream.

Glute bridges and planks are great for strengthening your core to alleviate lower back pain. Light walking helps too. You can also do a load of hamstring and lower back stretches. For pain ice helps, and for extreme pain a steroid helps such as Predisone, and some type of muscle relaxer like Xanax. NSAIDS like ibuprofen are useless. You can take some narcotic pain killers too if available, I mean despite the many problems and side effects with those types of drugs.

Really, you have to experiment and find what exercises do not irritate your back while using core strengthening exercises like glute bridges and planks to build muscle endurance in your lower back muscles (rehab). Stretch stretch stretch.

The list of my injuries from a car accident are insane but I was in a wheelchair for a long time with a broken hip in several places, nerve damage down my leg, lower spine damage, etc. PT helped a lot and they helped with the pain, what I found personally to help was yoga. I started out doing it in my wheelchair, mainly upper body, than progressed per my body's allowance. Now if I skip a day of yoga or my at home PT I have major pain, but doing it has kept my pain away and also the medications. I've avoided surgery and all sorts of medical things thanks to yoga! I highly recommend it and don't push yourself, listen to your body!

My injuries will require surgery in the end, I have been told there is no way around that, however if I keep up what I'm doing I can keep delaying it which is the goal! I was told I would never walk again without the help of a cane, I'm proud to say I haven't used my cane in over 4 years now (the accident was 5 years ago and I was in a chair for about 6mo, than to a walker, than a cane for a total of a year to walk on my own).

oh and talk to your PT and doctors about everything and listen. I didn't always follow their orders 100% but listened and took note and kept them informed. It can help you both push yourself to a faster recovery.

I injured my back a few years ago weight lifting, and doing any kind of exercise, even the stuff in physical therapy, was pretty painful. Not only that, it wasn't helping. I couldn't sit or stand for long periods of time. Honestly, at that point my only concern was healing, but if you really keep your diet in check you will lose weight, especially if you keep doing whatever exercise doesn't hurt you.

And, just in case you are interested, one exercise that lessened the pain a lot was tai chi (with someone who really knew what he was doing), and I only started healing from the injury after acupuncture (last resort; I was skeptical about it, now I'm not).

Sorry, i haven't tried to quote someone. I agree physical therapy is a must. I have degenerative disc disease, 3 herniated discs, and a permanent fracture of the L5 vertebrae. I had a series of epidurals. They really helped by not for good. A year later I did therapy. It hurt so bad at first, but as muscles got stronger and provided more support I was surprised at how good my back felt. Then therapy was over. About two year later I had an incident at work that twisted one of the vertebrae in my mid back. Herald again. Through therapy, we were able to turn it back. I've been doing great. I recently joined a gym and met with a trainer and told him of my back troubles and how I really want o strengthen it to avoid future injury and provide good support. Some days I can feel ice pushed to hard, but I can also feel that it is stronger and I am able to do more than I have in years. Don't give up. Don't do it in your own. Try to get physical therapy to show to proper form and appropriate exercise. There are many you can do at home. They gave me a resistance band to use at home and exercises to do to help increase strength. It is totally worth it to get professional assistance.
Good luck and don't give up.

Why no physical therapy?? If you can't do anything without pain, you need LOTS of physical therapy and supervision to get you to the point where the muscles will strengthen to help support the weak parts of your skeleton. Oh PLEASE go back to your doctor, tell her about your problem and ask about physical therapy. Take good care of yourself and good luck.

physical therapy isn't right for everyone, it can actually make things worse if you don't give it enough time ti heal on its own first. Talk to your doctor, but keep in mind it might not work.

I dislocated my knee cap a few years ago, spent several months 2 days a week in physical therapy. It didn't do anything, my doctor said that I probably have cartilage build up but because I don't have insurance and couldn't get an mri I was stuck with physical therapy( which was super spendy) best thing I got out of it was to live with the pain...Just putting a different point of view on things.