Hi everyone
Six months ago, I hurt my lower back doing deadlifts. I only felt some mild discomfort doing the sets themselves, but afterwards, I experienced severe local lower back pain. Walking was difficult, but fortunately, it improved significantly (yet not entirely) within a few days. Long story short, I probably did not treat my lower back carefully enough the following weeks, and as a result, I still feel some mild stiffness/soreness to this day. So I have not deadlifted and squatted for 5 months or so.
My GP is not much help (he has only now allowed me to have an x-ray), so I thought you guys could help until I find someone to take better care of the problem.
Do you think I have a herniated disc considering the persistence of my problem and despite the lack of sciatica (only local pain)? Weirdly, it seems to me that most bodybuilders get herniated discs without sciatica.
Is it a good sign that I seem to have a negative straight leg raise test or is the 91% specificity only applicable to new disc herniations? It seems weird to me if it was applicable to all 30%-ish of adults with disc herniations.
What exercises should I do? I can only think of McKenzie press-ups and Stuart McGill’s big three, but are these any good?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.