Written by: Dhairya Udeshi, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
As a Personal Trainer, I get to work with clients with almost all kinds of unique health challenges. Today, we are going to discuss disc injuries and how it affects people’s health.
There are various disc injuries, such as Disc Inflammation, bulged disc, and a slipped disc or herniated disc. If it happens in the neck region (cervical spine), clients will have symptoms such as migraine, neck pain, frozen shoulder, tightness on the shoulder blades, numbness in the arms, or loss of strength in arms compared to before. If it’s a slipped disc, there would be nerve compression ranging from the neck to the elbow.
Similarly, for the Lower back (lumbar spine), disc injuries are the same. Except the symptoms would include numbness in the legs, tingling sensation on the feet, pain, and tightness in the knee, pain in the lower back, tightness on the glutes. If it’s a slipped disc, there would be a nerve compression from the glutes until the leg.
Now, the question is that what is the best way to treat it. According to doctors, physiotherapy and pain killer tablets and injections are the best treatment for such injuries. Doctors highly recommend not to do weight training at all. A physiotherapist will only show the clients various stretches that would strengthen the surrounding muscles of the disc. However, with study and experience of all these years, I realized that these are just temporary solutions, and the pain and symptoms would be back again if they would do anything strenuous, such as lifting even slightly heavy or cleaning the house.
Weight training helps build up strength and pumps blood in the surrounding muscles and nerves around the disc. This would help to protect and keep the discs hydrated, which would reduce the chances of herniation.
Now the question that would arise is, “won’t be lifting weights put a further load on the herniated disc?” As a Personal Trainer, my job is to ensure that the workout is being done smoothly, putting no pressure on the disc and ensuring that we also achieved the desired result of strengthening the surrounding muscles.
This is mainly done by using very light weights and repetitions ranging from 10 to 15 per set. For injuries relating to the neck, the training would do workouts below the shoulder level at least for the first 2 months. That would include exercises related to the Biceps, Triceps, and Legs mainly. The idea is to increase the blood flow around the arms and neck and strengthen those muscles. No exercises related to push and pull, as this would trigger the pressure on the disc and neck muscles.
Similarly, exercises relating to lower back injury would include mainly seated straight and lying down flat exercises. I do this so that there is no pressure on the lower back, and surrounding muscles of the lower back muscles get strengthened. Clients will start seeing results in 2 to 4 weeks where stiffness would have reduced considerably, and their strength and flexibility would increase over a period of time.
Exercises to avoid would be Weighted Squats, Leg Press and Deadlift, as it directly pressures the Lumbar Discs.
It is very important to stretch the full body before and after the workout—particularly the areas which are stiff and painting the most. Stretching increases flexibility and strengthens the muscles around the disc.
I hope this article was helpful for all those having challenges dealing with disc injuries. If you would like to have further consultation or for 1 on 1 Personal Training, you can follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Also, visit my website for further info.
Dhairya Udeshi, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dhairya Udeshi is the Executive Director of Shape Up LLC, UAE. His company focuses on providing Personal and Group Fitness training services either in the Gym, Outdoors, or Online training using a video call service. It depends on the client's preference. Dhairya's idea has always been to provide clients with many flexible options and make it easier for them to choose their preferences.
Dhairya's aim has always been to build a big network of clients and potential clients as his mission is to help more and more people stay fit and healthy. This is why he implements the strategy of charging 20-30% lesser than the market rate and providing clients with even better services with more flexible options for places to work out.
With 8+ years of Experience in Health and Fitness, Dhairya has trained over 500 clients with all kinds of Health and Fitness challenges such as Running a marathon, Playing at the national level, Heart issues, Disc injuries, Spasms, Arthritis (Both Rheumatoid and Osteo), Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Depression and Anxiety.
Dhairya is also a Life Coach, and he takes care of the mental health of his clients along with their physical well-being. With his belief that he instills to the world that Mental well-being is as or more important than Physical well being his Clients are more than willing to take up Coaching sessions along with Fitness training sessions in order to focus on their all-around development. Very few kinds of companies provide this kind of service.
