Back In Shape Podcast

Spinal stenosis isn't a diagnosis — it's a description of a narrowed space, and chasing the space instead of what's narrowing it is what keeps people stuck doing knee hugs and child's pose for years. If you've been told you have spinal stenosis at L4/5 or L5/S1, this episode explains why that's only half the picture. The real injury — a disc bulge or herniation pushing in f...

Sciatica isn't a diagnosis — it's a symptom description, and chasing the pain in your leg instead of the injury in your lower back is what keeps it coming back. If you've been told you have sciatica, a trapped nerve or a pinched nerve, this session explains why that description is incomplete. The pain running down your buttock, thigh, calf or foot is generated by an injury higher up —...

Your lower back rehabilitation works in three distinct stages, and the first one — protecting the injury — can start working within minutes, not months. Whether you're dealing with a slipped disc, a disc bulge, spondylolisthesis or sciatica, the exact term on your scan matters far less than you've been told. This session breaks down the three stages your rehabilitation has to go through to...

Walking feels like exercise for your lower back, but if you're relying on it to rehabilitate a herniated disc or recover from surgery, it's doing far less than you think.   If you've been told to "keep walking" to help a slipped disc, a disc bulge, sciatica, or your recovery from a microdiscectomy, this session explains exactly what walking does and doesn't do.   🎓 Join...

Lower back pain at night from a disc bulge, herniated disc or stenosis often comes down to congestion building while you're still, which is why getting up and walking around can settle it.   If you're searching at 2am or 3am because your bad back (lower back pain) is waking you, perhaps with a slipped disc (a bulging or herniated disc), degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis or arthrit...

A herniated disc doesn't mean you have to stop going to the gym, and being told to stop is often what keeps people struggling for months or years. If you've got a slipped disc (a herniated disc), a disc bulge, degenerative disc disease, sciatica or spondylolisthesis from training, or you're getting back to the gym after lower back surgery, this session is for you. It's for people w...

If you've got back surgery booked in weeks or months away, you've just had a microdiscectomy or discectomy, or you've been battling lower back pain for years and are weighing it up, this session explains what the operation is actually doing — and the job nobody gives you either side of it. (This isn't for emergency cauda equina symptoms — sudden loss of bladder or bowel control, sa...

If you've watched someone else with a far worse diagnosis recover faster than you, this session explains why — and it isn't because something is wrong with you.   If you've got a herniated disc, degenerative disc disease or spondylolisthesis at L4/L5 or L5/S1 and you've been comparing your recovery to someone else's, this is for you. Ten people with the exact same herniation wi...

If you've tried exercises for your herniated disc or sciatica and decided "they didn't work", this session explains why that's usually a mismatch of expectations, not a failed treatment. If you've got a herniated disc, a disc bulge, sciatica or you're recovering from a microdiscectomy at L4/L5 or L5/S1, and you've tried stretches, treatments or exercises that didn...

If you're in a herniated disc flare-up right now and wondering whether to wait it out before starting rehab, this session settles the question. If you've got a herniated disc, a disc bulge or sciatica at L4/L5 or L5/S1 and you're in a flare-up, you're in good company — the overwhelming majority of people join a rehabilitation programme precisely because they're in pain at that...

If sitting is the one activity that reliably sets off your bad back, this session explains exactly why — and what it can teach you about every other flare-up. If you've got a herniated disc, a disc bulge or sciatica at L4/L5 or L5/S1 and sitting has become one of the hardest things you do, this is for you. Sitting increases the load through your lumbar spine by roughly 40 to 90% compared with...

If you've got a herniated disc, degenerative disc disease or you're recovering from a microdiscectomy, this session explains why the answer is a firm yes. This came from a real exchange in the Back In Shape Program: a member doing brilliantly on her squats and hip hinges was asked by another practitioner, "but where are your core exercises?" That question is worth unpacking, beca...

It sounds backwards, but a big, angry-looking herniated disc often has a better recovery than a mild little bulge — and understanding why can take a lot of the fear out of your scan. Following on from the recent degenerative disc sessions, this one looks at the herniated disc and a genuinely counter-intuitive truth: the severity of what's on your MRI doesn't reliably predict how disabled y...

If you've got degenerative disc disease and you've been trying to "open up the space" with knee hugs, child's pose and other stretches, this session explains why it relieves you for a moment but never actually fixes the problem. Following on from last week, this is a deeper look at what's really happening in a spine with degenerative disc disease at L4/L5 or L5/S1. As a d...

Degenerative disc disease isn't a disease, and it isn't simply "getting old" — and being handed that label with no explanation causes far more fear than the finding deserves. If you've been told you have degenerative disc disease or disc degeneration at L4/L5 or L5/S1 — often alongside a bulging disc, a herniation or spinal stenosis — this session explains what it really is....

If you've got a herniated disc and you're scared to move, this session is for you — because that fear isn't irrational, and it certainly isn't "all in your head". If you've been struggling with a herniated disc, a disc bulge, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis or spondylolisthesis, you'll know the fear of moving and setting your back off again — and you ma...

If you're putting your back rehab on hold until your MRI comes through, this session is for you: the scan rarely changes what you actually need to do, so there's no reason to wait. So many people with a herniated disc, a disc bulge, spondylolisthesis or sciatica sit in a kind of suspended animation — doing nothing for weeks because they're afraid of doing the wrong thing until a scan o...

If you've been told you have anterior pelvic tilt or "too much curve" in your lower back, this session shows why that verdict is usually a guess — and what a real spine actually measures. Using a member's own lumbar X-rays (a neutral view plus flexion and extension), we walk through what your spine can and can't be measured to have. If you've got a herniated disc, a disc...

If you have been struggling with lower back pain, sciatica, or a herniated disc, you are likely no stranger to intense tightness in your hamstrings and glutes. The natural instinct is to stretch that tension away, but for the vast majority of sufferers, standard hamstring stretching is actually making the back injury worse. When you sit on the floor and reach for your toes, your restricted hamstri...

If you want to rebuild your back after a herniated disc — even after a microdiscectomy — the single best exercise is one you already do dozens of times a day: the squat. If you've got a herniated disc, a disc bulge or degenerative disc at L4/L5 or L5/S1, or you've had back surgery and you're wondering what to actually do, this session makes the case for the squat (paired with the hip h...

If you've got a herniated disc and you're not sure what you should actually be doing, this is the three-step recovery plan — starting from day one. If you've been diagnosed with a herniated disc, a disc bulge, a protrusion or a sequestration at L4/L5 or L5/S1 — or you've had sciatica down the leg and don't know where to start — this session lays out the plan. It doesn't mat...

The best stretch for a herniated disc isn't a stretch at all — it's gentle decompression, and the popular ones like knee hugs often make things worse. If you've got a herniated disc, a disc bulge, a slipped or degenerative disc at L4/L5 or L5/S1 and you just want to stretch the tension out of your lower back, this session is for you. When your back feels tight, the instinct is to hug y...

Is your back pain a disc or a facet joint? It's the question everyone chases — but the honest answer is that it rarely changes what you should actually do. If you've been told it's a herniated disc by one clinician and a facet joint problem by another — or you're trying to work out which one you've got at L5/S1 or L4/L5 — this session is for you. The tests people use to tell th...

Before you book another appointment for your herniated disc or sciatica, there's a simple test worth running at home — and it might change what you do next. If you've already got a diagnosis — an L5/S1 or L4/L5 herniated disc, a slipped disc, a disc bulge, sciatica — and you've already seen a string of clinicians, this session is for you. It isn't about the person who's just wo...

A chronically stiff lower back won't loosen no matter how much you stretch it — because the stiffness isn't the problem, it's a symptom of an injured spine. If your lower back is constantly stiff — worst first thing in the morning, easing a little once you get moving — and months of stretching, knee hugs, cobras and knee rocks haven't shifted it, this session explains why. Back sti...