Annular Tear in Lower Back Disc
A little over 3 years ago I injured my lower back. The doctor diagnosed it as an annular tear in my disc. At first, it was difficult to perform daily tasks without experiencing pain.
I searched through the forums here and found a handful of threads regarding annular tears that suggested treating the injury with traction along with deadlifting and squatting. As such, once I was able to move about without pain I would get back in the gym and start squatting and deadlifting again. I would begin with only the bar and add 5-10lbs each week along with daily traction. Now to the problem.
Everything seems to go great until I get about 100lbs on the bar. As the weight gets up around 135lbs or so my back will begin hurting; either during the lift, right after the lift, or the next day. The pain after these squat or deadlift sessions is so great it puts me back where I started, unable to move around much, and certainly unable to squat or deadlift anything. I’ve repeated this process a few times over the last 3 years. Once my back starts feeling good again I begin anew. I get back under the bar, and only the bar, see steady improvement for a few weeks only to get hit again with back pain when the weight gets heavier. I’ve attempted variations of the squat and deadlift but with the same results.
Does anyone know of a different approach that has worked when dealing with an annular tear? Appreciate any advice. Thanks.
