Should i run with herniated disc

Variances in weight, stride, coordination, and posture make it impossible to say whether running is good or bad for back pain overall. For those of us who find running to be painful or uncomfortable, even walking briskly has significant benefits for spine health over abstaining from exercise altogether.

Keeping a healthy level of movement, even at a walking pace, can improve disc health and lubrication levels in your spine. Talk to a doctor before beginning an exercise program if you suffer from back pain. The ultimate goal behind treating back pain from running is to correct weaknesses, imbalances, and physiological irregularities that contributed to the pain.

The treatment goals are to reduce or prevent disc or spinal nerve stress, relieve pain and maintain normal function. Depending on your level of pain your doctor may recommend conservative treatments, such as stretches and exercise , chiropractic adjustment, or over-the-counter medications. If your pain is severe enough to keep you from normal activity, your doctor may recommend a minimally-invasive pain management therapy to relieve your debilitating pain.

Should I Run with Back Pain? Running is Great Exercise. But What if it Causes Pain? Related Posts. October 21st, Both are important indicators of tissue quality and structural strength of intervertebral discs. Moreover, runners who ran at least 50 km per week exhibited thicker discs than the two other groups. Using special imaging techniques, the authors even found that the positive impacts of running on discs was greater on the nucleus, its central part, which is associated with disc herniation.

This study is the first one suggesting that human intervertebral discs can actually adapt by means of anabolic and hypertrophic reactions. Optimal stress could be somewhere between 0. Therefore, the authors conclude that repeated compressions applied during running may in fact be beneficial for lumbar discs.

Running may even represent one of the best activities to get your back stronger, including your discs. Early diagnostic problems led to incorrect initial diagnosis in three runners.

The conservative treatment program consisted of controlled rest, anti-inflammatory medication, alternative exercises, and a gradual return to running in 6 to 12 weeks. All runners were treated with Williams' exercises. Eight were put in traction as inpatients, and seven were given injections of epidural steroids.