Herniated disc is a serious disease of the musculoskeletal system that affects all areas of daily life. The patient has to completely reconsider the usual rhythm of existence, taking into account the emerging restrictions. Many patients are interested in whether it is possible to do popular abdominal exercises with a herniated disc. These questions should be asked to your doctor or an experienced exercise therapy instructor. Rehabilitation doctors who are involved in the rehabilitation of such patients insist that standard popular abdominal exercises cannot be done, but there are many other techniques and types of physical activity that allow you to maintain excellent shape.
When pumping the abdominal muscles, the back muscles are involved. Many people do not adhere to the correct exercise technique, which causes cartilage, bone, and connective tissue to suffer. If you perform the movements correctly, then no restrictions will arise, but this must be done in a specially equipped room under the supervision of an instructor who knows about your problem. Only when you have completely mastered each movement can you start exercising at home.
Execution technique
There are many nuances to correctly performing the exercises (the complex is compiled individually for each patient), the main ones will be listed below.
Orthopedic doctor, 12 years of experience. If there is a herniated disc, all exercises must be performed without unnecessary jerking, so as not to provoke pain.
Do not exercise for a long time at once, for example, performing 10 approaches of 100 times. You should start with a minimum, gradually increasing the load and number of repetitions.
Pain is a bad sign. If during training you feel discomfort in the lower back, stop the exercise and consult your doctor.
If the hernia is in an acute stage, training is strictly contraindicated. You can start or continue them after completing a course of treatment and relieving inflammation.
Avoid sudden movements. You should not twitch and pump your abdominal muscles. Everything needs to be done smoothly and carefully. Try to raise and lower your torso as slowly as possible, this will give you better results.
When performing exercises, you need to ensure that your pelvis is always pressed to the surface. When it comes off, you shouldn’t pump your muscles.
Orthopedic doctor, 12 years of experience. Before performing any exercises with such a diagnosis, you must consult a doctor.
Contraindications for performing abdominal exercises
Lack of physical activity negatively affects the condition of the muscles. However, some cases of lumbar hernia prohibit any load on the abdominal muscles.
Study the points in which it is strictly contraindicated to pump up the press during a lumbar hernia. Period of exacerbation . In case of inflammation and pain, the patient is recommended to provide complete rest to his back. Any exercise can only make the situation worse.
The last stage of the disease. Typically, such abnormalities can only be cured surgically; physical activity is strictly prohibited for the entire period of examination and recovery.
The occurrence of pain and discomfort during training. A hernia is a rather serious disease, so the patient should listen carefully to his body. Any unpleasant sensations should alert you and force you to stop training. Perhaps too much stress has been placed on the already weakened muscle tone.
There are no alternative exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles in these cases . The patient should temporarily stop exercising and wait for remission. To maintain your general condition, you can hang on the horizontal bar and do rolls on a fitball.
Rules
To get the maximum effect from training, you need to do a little, but every day. There are many types of exercises with a fitball for the abs, but only one is suitable for a hernia.
Twisting on a fitball is one of the simplest exercises. First you need to place the ball under your back, then from this position slowly raise your head, neck and shoulders. If you are a beginner, especially with an intervertebral hernia, then 2 sets of 10 times will be enough for you. You can gradually increase the number of repetitions with each approach. The main thing is not to overdo it.
Why pump up your abs?
If the back muscles form a certain frame and hold the spine in the correct anatomical position, then pumped up abdominal muscles help in the proper functioning of the internal organs of the retroperitoneal space. They also perform a stabilizing function, maintaining balance. Largely thanks to the abdominal muscles, correct posture is formed.
With age, muscles become flabby. Daily active sports can correct the situation. Physical activity during intervertebral hernia is not prohibited, and even recommended, but you need to do it carefully, observing the basic principles of safety.
If you work out all the muscles of your body in the gym, then you don’t need to pump up your abs separately. This area is involved in almost all exercises.
Sometimes you need to pay special attention to your abs if you are preparing for a competition or want to highlight the beauty of a flat stomach.
Many patients with intervertebral hernia come to the gym to lose weight. But you must remember that 80% of the effectiveness of this process depends on correcting your diet. Professional athletes and fitness trainers often repeat the phrase “we lose weight in the kitchen.” Before you start actively pumping up muscles, you need to form the right diet and new eating habits, then the process will go faster and without harm to health.
Contraindications
During some periods, it is strictly prohibited to perform abdominal exercises. The main ones are listed below.
- During an exacerbation of the pain syndrome, it is strictly forbidden to engage in any physical exercise. The patient should be completely at rest.
- If you are in the last stage of a pathological process, then it is unwise to engage in any kind of exercise. This will only make the situation worse.
- If you feel discomfort during or after exercise, it is better not only to consult a doctor, but also, most likely, to postpone training.
Exercises for the abs
The human abdominal cavity consists of 4 muscle groups:
- straight (from bottom to top along the entire length of the abdomen);
- external oblique (continues the external intercostal muscles);
- internal oblique (located under the external oblique muscle);
- transverse (located horizontally on the sides of the abdomen).
They are fixed using an aponeurosis (tendon plate).
Abdominal exercises involve all groups of the above muscles , tighten the stomach and make it flat. The functional purpose of the abdominal cavity and its constituent muscle tissue is the same in both women and men: maintaining posture, protecting the spine and internal organs.
The abdominal muscles play an important role in supporting the spinal column, especially with a lumbar hernia
Exercises aimed at strengthening the straight, oblique and external supporting tissues of the abdomen are important and necessary not only for aesthetic purposes : the internal organs are saturated with oxygen, a reliable corset keeps them in the correct position.
People with pumped up abs never have problems with posture, therefore, they maintain the health of the spinal column for many years. Therefore, many modern techniques offer a wide range of this type of exercise for patients suffering from lumbar hernia.
Exercises without equipment
Not only thanks to the fitball, you can tidy up your abdominal muscles. To do this, there are a lot of exercises, for which you only need support. Below is a list of the most effective loads of this type.
- Leg raises while lying on your back. You need to lie on your back, then fix your hands behind your head or under your buttocks and lift your legs one by one, without putting them on the floor.
- Lying straight leg raise. This exercise differs from the previous one in that the legs are raised not one by one, but at once, thereby complicating the training.
- Twisting the body while lying on your back. To begin, lie on your back, then lock your arms behind your head. Then twist, reaching your right elbow to your left knee and vice versa.
Plank exercise
The safest and most effective exercise is the plank. The impact on the muscles is static, the load on the spine is minimal. The essence of the exercise is that you need to lie on your stomach, then rise on your toes, straighten your arms and hold your back straight for 30-60 seconds.
There is a lighter version of the exercise, when the support points are on the knees and elbows, but the back should always remain straight, starting from the neck to the tailbone. You can’t lift your pelvic muscles upward, this way you remove the load from the abs and transfer it partly to the limbs and partly to the back. When you take a static pose, you will immediately feel your abdominal muscles. Only due to their tension is it possible to stay in the required position.
You need to move on to side planks only after you learn how to perform the classic exercise correctly. Getting to the desired position is carried out smoothly without jerking movements. There is no need to move your body forward or backward in the plank, transferring the load to your arms or legs. You cannot bend at the lower back. Imagine that your entire back is an ironing board. It should be perfectly smooth.
What is a herniated disc?
This diagnosis is associated with the condition of the intervertebral discs and joints of the spine. “A disc herniation occurs when part of the nucleus pulposus of the disc extends beyond the fibrous ring, that is, its membrane,” comments Alexander Kolesov, sports medicine doctor, physical therapy doctor, manual therapy doctor, head of the rehabilitation department of the MEDSI Clinical Diagnostic Center on Krasnaya Presnya .
“There are several stages in the development of a disc herniation: protrusion (protrusion of the fibrous ring), the disc herniation itself, and sequestration, when a fragment of the herniation is torn off from the main part.” Hernias occur for various reasons: due to posture, as a result of injuries, etc. The main symptom of a hernia is acute pain. “These are, as a rule, sharp, stabbing pains that lead to a sharp limitation of mobility (“impossible to get out of bed”) and radiculopathy, when the pain spreads along the nerve due to its compression by a disc herniation,” explains Alexander Kolesov.
Sometimes the pain can “radiate” to the arm and shoulder girdle (if the hernia is located in the cervical spine) or to the legs (with a lumbar hernia).
“Low-intensity pain is more often associated with myofascial syndrome, which occurs from decreased physical activity and prolonged work at the computer,” adds Alexander Kolesov. “In such people, MRI of the spine also often reveals disc protrusions or even hernias, but this is rarely associated with compression of the spinal nerve directly.”
Vacuum or pump
In rehabilitation and recovery practice, the vacuum exercise is actively used among fitness trainers.
It is especially effective for women, because in the process of performing it not only the abdominal muscles are tensed, but also self-massage of the internal organs of the peritoneum is performed.
You can perform the exercise while lying on your back or standing. Some trainers recommend starting to master it from a lying position, others emphasize that it is better for patients with a lumbar hernia to do it standing. This reduces the load on your back. To get a good feel for your abdominal muscles, you must first have a back support. If you are afraid to do the exercise while lying down, stand near a wall.
First, just breathe steadily, feel how your lungs and diaphragm work. Saturate your internal organs with oxygen. Then exhale sharply until the last drop of air, and at this moment draw in your stomach as much as possible. Imagine how its front wall is pressed against the spine. Hold this position for a few seconds, then inhale smoothly, take a few breaths to restore your breathing, and repeat the exercise. It can also be complicated by pulling in the muscles of the upper and lower abs in turn. Dancers who practice oriental dances train in this way to learn how to do the famous “wave.” With a lack of oxygen inside, fat burning processes are activated. In this way you can quickly and effectively lose weight. This exercise is easier to master and is not as potentially dangerous as crunches.
You can also pump up your abdominal muscles while exercising in the pool. Swimming helps strengthen the muscular framework of the entire body. You should not give up playing sports if you have been diagnosed with a herniated disc, but now you should exercise carefully and safely.
How to relieve pain when twisting?
It is necessary to restore the tone of the abdominal muscles and balance the muscles of the lumbar region. Stretching the long extensors of the spine is useless, since they spasm only when the quadratus lumborum muscle is hypotoned. It is she who provides flexion and extension, bending to the sides. Its fibers extend from the last rib to the iliac crest vertically and also diagonally in two directions.
To identify an imbalance, three tests can be performed:
- Slowly tilt in both directions. The presence of spasm limits the range of movement.
- Ask someone to estimate the distance between the last rib and the pelvis. On the side of muscle weakness, the rib will be slightly higher.
- Assess the direction of the convex side of the curve in the lumbar region. The concave part corresponds to a weakened muscle.
After performing the tests, you need to stretch the spasmed muscle and strengthen the weakened muscle. You need to tilt towards the restriction of movement, while inhaling, turning your gaze towards the spasm, and as you exhale, looking in the opposite direction. Gradually increase the amplitude of the tilt. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the bend diagonally, sideways and forward.
Massage the attachment points of the weak quadratus lumborum muscle after a stretching spasm, as well as the costal arch in front, where the abdominal muscles are attached. Pain at the level of the lower edge of the last rib and the upper edge of the pelvic bone indicates that everything was done correctly. After the massage, evaluate the result: repeat the tilt, ask to evaluate the balance of the pelvis and the curvature of the spine. If the position of the bone landmarks is aligned, you can return strength to the press.
Strength training for spinal hernia: what is the point?
You really have to forget about some types of strength exercises for a hernia. “Here are the main restrictions in exercises with a hernia: it is not recommended to twist the spinal column, hyperextend it or actively flex it. Also prohibited are axial loads —running, squats with a load on the shoulders, etc.,” explains Sergei Kotov. — Strength training for spinal hernia should be strengthening and toning. Particular attention should be paid to stabilizing the knee joint and lumbar area, mobilizing the thoracic and hip skeletons.”
What else will be useful for a hernia? “I would recommend focusing on exercises to improve rotation in the shoulders, thoracic spine and hip joints. Then you can move on to exercises to strengthen your back muscles, which I recommend doing in a block simulator,” says Tatyana Kurmasheva. “This is a good opportunity to add strength load, increase intensity, but at the same time we do not have an axial load on the spine and we work with weights in three-dimensional space. We have more opportunities to strengthen the deep stabilizer muscles and use mobility exercises.”
We asked Tatyana Kurmasheva to compose and show us a set of exercises that can be performed with a herniated disc. “It consists of two parts: the first is mat exercises, they are based on Pilates movements and can be used as a warm-up before any workout. The exercises in this block are aimed at improving rotation in the joints and thoracic spine. The second block is exercises with a block simulator that strengthen the back muscles,” explains Tatyana Kurmasheva.
Is training allowed for a hernia?
Yes but not all. “In case of spinal disc herniation, loads associated with lifting heavy weights, jumping, martial arts and outdoor games should be limited. This is especially important during the period of exacerbation of the disease,” says Alexander Kolesov.
But Pilates, gentle yoga, exercise therapy and some strength exercises for a hernia are not prohibited and, on the contrary, can have a therapeutic effect. “Most often, hernias are accompanied by a certain “distortion” in muscle tension: under the influence of gravity and to maintain mobility, some areas of the back remain in hypertonicity, others in hypotonicity,” says Tatyana Kurmasheva, personal trainer, group program trainer at the Fitness Territory - Aviamotornaya club. . — A properly constructed training program helps eliminate this imbalance and bring all back muscles to normal tone. To begin with, it is important to do test exercises to understand where things are tight and where things are relaxed. And, based on this, build a workout and choose exercises based on mechanics. To relieve muscle tension where it exists and increase the tone of relaxed areas.”
Therefore, if you are diagnosed with a hernia, you do not need to stop training - adjust your program and continue training. Active movement will improve the health of your spine and your well-being. “Strength training for a herniated spine is allowed and indicated,” adds Sergei Kotov , master trainer at the Escalada fitness club . “By strengthening the thoracolumbar fascia, we stabilize the spinal column and thereby reduce the load on the deep back muscles.”
