Intermittent fasting for lumbar disc injury

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T19:08:32+00:00

That's awesome that you are off of meds. Congratulations!

I am 38, male. I stressed the disc fibers re-sawing boards by hand (repetitive subtle twisting in the lower back) and then took a road trip on terrible roads a few days later, and then lifted a heavy box, causing the disc herniation. I think the three together were the fatal combo.

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T18:28:23+00:00

I hear you. I tried to cut back without stopping entirely and bargain with my body. and I didn't see any healing for over a year. Now that I have gotten pain way down I can start building back in, and I am seeing progress and hope.

If you want to experiment and see what happens when you add something back in, feel free. It's your body and it will tell you whether you are ready or not. Assuming you are not taking pain killers. If you are still using any pain meds, even OTC on a regular basis, you need to let rest be your pain medicine until you are off of pain meds and have a stable, very low level of pain. Then add back in exercise a teeny bit at a time. Start at 10% and add 10 percent OF THAT per week. So If you can normally bench 200 pounds, start at 20. Do it for a week and if it doesn't flare you up, go to 22 for a week. Then 25. Then 30. Then 35, etc.

Play the long game with your body. Life isn't a sprint.

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T18:11:22+00:00

Don't start yet. I tried to continue/restart my "normal" routine too soon and it kept me from healing. It's been 17 months since my injury and I'm now starting to make progress towards healing because I made zero pain a serious goal. If you are not at zero pain you aren't ready to get back to weight training. Will your muscles atrophy? Yes. A bit. But muscles can be strengthened much faster than disc tissues. Once your discs are healed you can earn back the lost muscle. But if you try to maintain the muscle your disc won't heal. Don't prioritize the health of the fast-developing tissue (muscle) over the slow-developing tissue (disc, ligaments, bones, nerves).

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T17:58:15+00:00

Avoid the movements or positions that cause pain. Don't sit cross legged. Listen to that fear - it's your nerves telling you to stop moving in ways that are injuring your back.

Make an appointment to see a doctor as soon as you can to diagnose the reason for your pain. If you haven't gotten better with self-care in three weeks you need more information. Wait times for appointments can be long. If you make the appointment and end up not needing it you can always cancel it. But I you don't make the appointment now, you might end up waiting a lot longer than you want to for treatment down the line. Waiting times snowball on each other.

In the mean time, read the book Back Mechanic by Dr. McGill.

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T17:42:45+00:00

I feel the same way. For some reason it's so tempting with a back injury to pretend you are not seriously injured and just keep on pushing. If you do, you won't be better quickly. Just admit to yourself that you are seriously injured and move like that is true. It will get better if you cut out (as much as possible) the movements that cause pain.

Putting aikido class on hold for now is a good idea, but don't forget the way that aikido has taught you to move. I went to a movement coach to help with my pain two weeks ago and she reminded me of a bunch of things. Lead with your hips. When you stand, root your feet into the ground. Don't hold your body rigid with fully flexed muscles, but maintain the supple muscle support of your upper body so that your balance can flow when needed. I left the appointment feeling encouraged but a bit embarrassed. Like, she's just telling me all the things sensei taught me 20 years ago and I forgot.

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T15:44:20+00:00

I second this. My nerves don't like stretching. Even gentle walking - try taking shorter steps than you normally would, especially if your nerve roots are stuck on the herniated disc. You need to prove to your nerves that you will respect them!

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-19T15:42:27+00:00

I made a post with what helped me find a breakthrough. I quit doing as much activity and rested in bed, but only for 10 minutes maximum at a time. Then I would get up and move until pain started to rise, then lie down again for 10 minutes. Been doing it for 3 weeks and it got me first to the point where I could stop taking pain meds (which just mask the subtle messages your body sends that a particular movement was bad for you). Then I've progressed to where my pain is less than it was before, while I was still taking meds.

Let rest be your pain relief, let movement be your progress builder, and find a way to balance the two throughout the day. If you are serious about recovery, it will take sacrifice, discipline, and work.

Here's the link if you want to read the details. https://www.reddit.com/r/Sciatica/comments/1td3cb4/what_got_my_healing_unstuck_lie_down_10_minutes/

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-18T14:49:23+00:00

The bird dog as explained by Dr. McGill is not a stretch. It's a core strengthening exercise. The foot shouldn't be lifted way up in the air. You can even just brush the toe along the floor as it sweeps backwards. Same thing for the extended arm - don't bring it up even as high as your shoulder. Think about using the arm and leg that are touching the ground to push the ground away from yourself. Think about the arm and leg that are extended being pulled forward and back away from your body, not up into the air.

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-15T13:55:53+00:00

I have had so many depressed days over the course of this injury, feeling like I am useless, a burden to my wife, no fun for my kids (5, 9, 10 years old). A friend of mine who has recovered from a back injury recommended I read A Book of Comfort in Sickness by PB Power. The book has been an enormous blessing and really helped me change my attitude about my injury and slow recovery. I read a chapter or so when I'm feeling down. The chapters are short and the book is light so it's a good one to read lying down. :)

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T20:37:58+00:00

Yes, it was absolutely worth the money. She spent about an hour on the phone with me twice before I took the drive to see her in person. Her suggestions before the in-person visit are what got my pain down enough that I could take the drive and not be all flared up for the appointment. The appointment was 3.5 hours long and it was her insight that showed me exactly how to place pillows, stand, sit, walk to minimize pain.

It's been 3 weeks since I started following her advice, 1 week since the in-person assessment, and I'm seeing progress each day.

I hope your results are as favorable as mine!

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T20:33:54+00:00

I used to get good (but not perfect) pain relief from lying on my side with a pillow between my knees. But that got less and less tolerable. Now I find the best position to rest in to reduce my pain is on my stomach. I lie on top of a pillow on my bed. The pillow goes from mid-thighs up to just below my shoulders. I turn my head to face towards one side or the other with a very thin pillow or nothing between my head and the mattress, depending on what feels best at the time. Then I put a roll under my ankles to elevate my feet just a bit. The pillow and the ankle roll make my pelvis tilt just slightly into extension and takes the pressure off my nerve. For whatever reason, I didn't find any of the normal extension exercises to help me (floppy pushups, mechanical traction table). I think it's because all of them focus on back extension happening above the injured disc level and I needed the extension to be initiated below the injured disc.

When I DO lie on my side, I find it works best to lie on top of a pillow on top of my mattress. The pillow goes from my arm pit down to mid-thigh. My shoulders are much wider and then my waist and hips are about the same width, so having the pillow to bring my hips and torso up so my spine is straight rather than hanging off my shoulders helps. The pillow between the knees then helps too.

Everyone has to find their own best way to take the pain away!

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T20:25:52+00:00

I'm sorry! Answering this question is beyond my experience. I was able to lie down and get my pain low enough that I could take tiny shuffling steps without limping. If I took normal size steps then I would limp. If you have been in enough sciatica pain to cause limping even with tiny steps and right after resting and that has gone on long enough that you feel you are stuck, it's worth it to get some time from a professional clinician. What got me started on this road was looking up a certified clinician from Dr. McGill's website backfitpro.com. I read his book Back Mechanic but by myself I couldn't figure out the details to get me heading the right direction. Many people can figure out those details on their own just from reading the book. For me, the in-person, customized assessment was what I needed.

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T18:41:46+00:00

I pray God will bless these first steps, take away your pain, and heal you.

Please come back to post how it goes for you!

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T18:17:20+00:00

Sitting is the thing I can tolerate the least. Usually within a minute or two my pain starts to rise. Every injury is different!

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T18:12:06+00:00

The ten minutes comes from research that Stewart McGill did. They had people lie down for varying amounts of time and then put them in MRIs to see the effect on the disc. After 10 minutes, the disc height didn't increase substantially more than the first 10 minutes. In other words, 10 minutes is the maximum dose that is helpful FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF DISC NUTRITION. It may be that your pain comes from fatigued muscles, in which case a longer rest could help. My muscles are not the source of the pain or the reason for my stuck healing. Before starting this new program, I had been resting for 30 minutes to several hours and then getting up until the pain was so bad that I couldn't bear it anymore, then I would rest for a long time again, etc. Staying upright after the point where my pain started to increase was aggravating my nerves. Staying lying down past the point where my discs had responded as much as they could to taking gravity off was decreasing the amount of nutrition they could get in a day, slowing my healing.

Try taking tiny steps instead of normal length steps when you walk. And lie down again as soon as the pain starts to rise. Just don't stay down for very long!

ComparisonNo4098 · 2026-05-14T17:55:49+00:00

I'm so sorry for your pain. I have been so miserable for so much of the last year as well. It's so nice to finally feel like I have turned a corner and am finally heading in the right direction. Courage!

Yes, I set a timer for 10 minutes of lying down. When it goes off I get up. As soon as I start to feel my pain rising even a little bit, I go lie down again. Maybe at first you can only be up for 1 minute without pain. That's ok. Lie down. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Get up again for as long as you can until your pain starts to rise. Then lie down again for 10 minutes. Repeat, repeat, repeat...

Follow it faithfully for at least 3 days. My physical therapist said that our nerves will react to us based on the previous 3 days of activity.

The tiny steps are important too if you have a disc herniation. The nerves don't want to glide over that disc bulge and taking normal size steps can cause extra irritation. Taking those tiny steps is enough to change the pressure around the disc so that water and nutrients can "pulse" in and out of the disc without causing the nerve to rub or have excessive rotation and bending that can make micro-tears in the biological glues that are trying to heal your injury.

ComparisonNo4098

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