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Herniated/Spinal Injuries and Climbing 6-Nov-2014 At 9:40:26 AM Wendy

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A disc injury is not a disc injury is not a disc injury ... one of the funny things about them is they have so many different names which may or may not refer to the same thing. How bad they are can depend on size, location, whether they compress nerves, whether you have the support around them to stabilise them, whether you have bone deterioration around them ... so what one person's experience is might not be at all relevant for another. With that proviso, I had a bulging disc about 16 years ago now. My solution to recovery is be young and fit at time of injury, find a good physio and follow their instructions religiously. Aside from having the good fortune to be young and fit at the time, I credit keiranl's partner with the complete absence of problems from my back for about 15 of those years. When people talk about core muscles, they are often talking about fairly hard core work that should be secondary. Sit ups will not help your back. At least not in the early stages. Get a good physio to assess your very basic core stability. These muscles often turn off as a protective measure after back injuries and maybe not be activating when they should any more. The exercises to retrain them are very low key and almost don't feel like you are doing exercises unless you are paying close attention to detail. But they do wonders. Saying climbing is good for your core and good for your back is not untrue, but it's not going to reactivate those muscles without conscious effort, so you need to learn to identify them and turn them on. Then all the other stuff is rebuilt on top of them. Climbing hasn't been a problem for my back at all since the acute phase of injury and certainly the overall physical strength from it is great for prevention of further injuries (along with sensible practices!).