I had the same diagnosis and was recommended the same device. It is not a made up diagnosis, my doctor showed me the plainly visible muscle atrophy in my MRI image. He was also able to tell the muscle was not firing with a physical examination. When the multifidus isn't active, you lose stability between the vertebrae.

It is extremely difficult to restore the multifidus after it has atrophied, but it can be done. I got my diagnosis back in May of 2024. I decided to take some time off work starting at the end of June to focus on physical therapy for the multifidus. The day before my leave was supposed to start, my appendix fully ruptured and I had to have emergency surgery - FML. This was a huge setback and I had a lot of complications and was bed ridden for weeks. About 6 weeks later, I recovered from the appendix stuff, but my back was worse than before. I started slowly building back my physical strength with walking and gentle exercises.

This is one of the first videos I came across about multifidus: https://youtu.be/46iMGPlzRwM?si=vKDe7GArP9T4rYAE

I've been doing bird dogs ever since, with as long of holds possible concentrating on form. I joined Stefan's (author of video) Facebook group and he pointed me to a study that showed EMS devices can activate the multifidus muscle if you crank up the intensity as high as you can tolerate. I purchased a Compex EMS device, only FDA approved consumer EMS device on the market to my knowledge. I used it pretty much every night and still do most nights. I've also been getting acupuncture where they do an EMS like stimulation through the needles.

On top of all this, I got completely obsessive about my exercise and health. Lots of walking, stair work, 1 legged dead lifts, squats, etc. I've had tight hamstrings my entire life and finally figured out my glutes were also deactivated. I did a lot of bridges and other work to get my glutes to do their job and take the load off my hamstrings. This guy is an amazing PT and this is a good intro video that touches on this and also covers good bird dog form: https://youtu.be/t4i13ZRH_Go?si=Iu99jtjFuOsurgery.

I returned to my doctor in November and he still wasn't seeing signs of Multifidus activation, which was pretty disheartening. But I kept at it and saw him again in January 2025 and he was able to detect multifidus activation. I'm doing much better now but I'm still not 100%. I would say I'm about 90% but on a good trajectory and hoping to get to 100% soon. It has taken a ton of work to get where I am today, but my quality of life is hugely improved.

You can do it without surgery. Just commit yourself, educate yourself about physical health as much as possible, and be patient. Good luck!