As many of those close to me know, I had a bad disc prolapse in my lower back about 1.5 years back. The situation was so bad that I couldn’t walk for a few months, with pain shooting down to my legs. After that I was very out of shape, with a lot of weight gain because even jogging/running would cause the pain to come back. After showing it to an orthopedist, it was diagnosed as a disc prolapse(herniated disc); most probably caused due to lack of strength in my abdominal muscles not being able to support the heavy load on my lower back.
Starting out
Well three months back I started with cardio, started doing abdominal muscles strengthening exercises and slowly started with weight training. I started out with splits and then transitioned over to the excellent Starting Strength program, with accessories added in mostly for the abdominal muscles and substituted the power clean for rows. However I couldn’t continue to ignore the problem which I had in the past and decided to go in for a MRI a couple of weeks back.
My MRI result
The MRI results were very positive. I however am keen to follow up with physiotherapy to increase the flexibility in my lower back. Yoga helps from what people have told me too.
Progress
Right now my lifts are as follows for 3 sets, >5 reps at 100 kg BW:
| Lift | Weight |
| Bench | 60 kg |
| Squat | 70 kg |
| Deadlift | 110 kg |
| OHP | 45 kg |
I know that isn’t very impressive but I am happy with the start. The diet needs sorting out, but I barely get much time, trying to balance work and lifting and I am struggling a bit with lower back flexibility and I need to go slow and careful since I absolutely do not want to tweak anything in my lower back again.
I am also trying out high bar squats and front squats for better balance. They seem to be helping me a lot. Trying to do more cardio as well but I barely get time for it.
E2E Networks sending me to SANOG 30!! 😀
SANOG 30 – One of the only decent internet/network related events in India
So I will be at SANOG 30 on all days from 10th July to 18th July which will be held in Gurgaon, which is about an hour away from where I live – Faridabad. I hope to see you there 🙂
I’m sorry if I have still not replied to your mail. I will try to do so at the earliest once I get some time. Anyways gotta run..