Bad back?

I had the same thing done L4/L5 about 12 years ago. It was bad enough that I needed emergency surgery and one horrible doctor waited too long so there was some permanent nerve damage. Regardless, I did manage to re-injure/herniate several of my Lumbar discs last year walking too much and lifting so you are right to take it easy. Since that time though, I have learned a couple of things. 1) Yoga is your friend. 2) Bodyweight squats are ok to do. Beyond that I simply live with the fact that my leg muscles won't ever be that big because of the limitation of not wanting to put more than say 25-50 lbs of weight on my lower spine at a time.

Yoga saved me from surgery again (along with some very painful injections last summer/fall), so look into yoga for Sciatic pain which is the exact stuff you should probably learn (I do Press-Up and Press-Up extensions daily to keep the discs in their places). Next, build your core. I do planks daily now, pull ups, push ups, etc. anything I can do body weight without added weight works. The stronger your core the less chance you'll ever have a problem again. I do have a weight bench, but will only do free weights on it while laying on my back to work on my chest/arms. Even then I limit it to no more than 45 lbs per arm. Mostly I do core/upper body strength along with body weight squats, jogging, walking.

varteaga26 wrote: »

Had a microdiscectomy laminectomy L5 S1 6 years ago...Fully recovered but definitely don't want a re-injury

I'd get a session with a physical therapist preferably one that works with athletes. Let that person see your images, assess your movement and tell you what you should and should not do.

Best of luck.

Leg press, split squats, goblet squats, leg extension, leg curl, lunges, glute-ham raises, stiff leg deadlifts, and swing squats. I have an arthritic back so I do not do standard deadlifts or barbell squats.