I severely herniated L5 to the point that I had to have an emergency discectomy after 2 months of intense sciatica pain. I had been powerlifting for months until I had some minor sciatica pain from push pressing 245 with bad form. So I decided to give my back a rest since I had no previous injuries, but it was taking too long to heal, so after a months rest I went back at it. My first day back was squat day on 531, but I could only get up 315 3x after maxing out at 405 the month before. Then I went on to RDLs at 225 6x. After finishing those I knew something was wrong so I stopped. Then hell started.
Has anyone else gone back to powerlifting after a discectomy to fix a herniated disk? My doc actually told me that I would be fine to do anything I wish to do, that I was back to “normal.” I am just curious to see if there are others who are as crazy as me to continue the pursuit of powerlfting after a discectomy and what your stories are. Thanks.
The problem here is we won’t know why you have so much added stress on your disc in the first place. How’s your flexibility during a toe touch? How is your hip extension? If you still move with dysfunctions in your hips, it doesn’t matter how long your rest, squatting will still add too much stress to your disc.