Exercise experts please advise me!

Ask your doctor first, make sure your are capable of doing so without hurting so. But good news is previously made muscle gains are easier to gain back than to make them in the first place. If your doctor allows it Squats and Dead-Lifts to start.

Weights will get you there faster, but if that isn't an option for you check out the following:

Youtube: Body Rock TV - She is amazing at (mostly) body weight exercises.
Book: Convict Conditioning, if you are a book nerd and like to do things yourself this is a great read/program lots of body weight and lots of room for progression.

That is a good change, keep at it!

I have been on here over 3 months now and MFP is a big part of my life.
I was doing 30DS and then was doing Ripped in 30 when I herniated a disc. So for 3 weeks I was out of action completely, this was just before Xmas and now my arm/back is pretty much ok although still having some physio every few weeks because it's about 95% better but still vulnerable.
I am desperate to get back to exercise as I've lost all my tone and my abs.
What exercise can I do to tone up and get fit? I get married in 5 months and want to look my best.

Hello Sky

I have suffered with a herniated disc a few years back so I can only go by what I experienced.

I used to walk on my treadmill, building up the walking speed (eventually got it to 10.2kpm speedwalking). However, that wasn't enough for me and after about three or four months, I (very carefully and gingerly) jogged on the treadmill. That first jog session, I only managed half a mile before my back started to ache. The next training session (I trained every other day), I upped the jog to three quarters of a mile, then the next session, one mile. Once I had jogged on the treadmill by the way, I would complete that particular session with walking as I had done before starting to run again.

Once I managed one mile, my back wasn't aching and I could gradually increase my training load and speed of running. I am happy to say that I have been running ever since and thank God, my back has held out and I pray that it always will.

The secret of success was to build up very, very gradually and never, ever push myself - after all, I was trying to recover from a slipped disc, the same as you are.

I know how you feel by the way, personally I was very nervous when I decided for that first time to "try out" a little jog, but I was so damned bored just walking I sort of threw caution to the wind lol.

All the very best to you :flowerforyou:

Thank you for your posts!
Decemberchild - do you ever have problems now with your back? I was told that pilates could help strengthen things. I also have bad knees so struggle with jogging I so don't want to lose this urge to exercise because then I'll end up back where I was

My back is fine now, but I have never lost that nervousness about it. You don't need me to tell you how horrendous herniated discs are that's for sure.

Pilates, I have never done, but I have done Callenetics (which somebody told me was very similar) and Callenetics was a Godsend to me, sort of brought everything back in line.

Swimming would be good, I used to swim a fair bit and that definitely strengthened my back, but I would stop if it ached too much.

Has your Chiropractor given you strengthening exercises to do at home inbetween visits?

Yes she gave me this elastic band and I have to do a couple of minutes of gentle stretches with it.
It's driving me mad because I seem to have lost a lot of strength in it, for example I can't open a bottle of water. I have to get my son to do it for me!
Will look into callanetics.

Definitely keep up the band exercises. Regarding the opening bottle of water etc, don't worry, I was the same, lifting a kettle full of water was dicey to say the least. It is surprising just how much we use our backs for everything, I don't think people quite appreciate just how much the back is needed for everyday actions actually.