I of course am not a doc, cant play one on TV or even with kindergarden kids...but I can say that I know all of folks who have good luck with Softride, TitanFlex and other beam bikes...



Though, I have broken C1, C2, and C5 (twice) - that count as being an expert?

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

No, just unlucky..or lucky depending upon the POV.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

If it wasnt for bad luck...



So my new Audi is in the parking lot at the office (this past monday) - an elderly man with one leg backs his Ford van up a full 250 feet to hit my PARKED car at the drivers side rear wheel...just rolled 4000 miles on the car...



That thing about luck again...yeah

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Your radiologist could be correct. Non symptomatic bulging discs are very common. All kinds of people have them and have no symptoms.

I had a guy come into my chiro office a couple of weeks ago with two bulging discs in his lumbar spine on MRI. His symptoms were pain in the low back and pain down one leg. His family physician told him he would have to go for surgery.

His real problem was a hypomobile sacro-iliac jt and piriformis syndrome determined by a physical exam in the office. Cured after 10 chiro treatments. The bulging discs had nothing to do with it.

The moral of the story - the bulging discs may/may not be significant or they could be an incidental finding. The MRI is just one tool to help in finding the diagnosis. It by itself will not likely tell the whole story.

I had a similar experience last century when I was in my mid-thirties. A mild buldge at L4-L5 worsened over two years time, even with application of many non-invasive therapies. A laminectomy resolved all the phantom pains and resulted in a full recovery. This experience also gave birth to the TitanFlex bike. So, after your surgery you will be eligible for the "founder's discount."

Cheers,

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Tom Piszkin
UCSD Triathlon Coach
@TitanFlexBikes
(619)334-7222
(619)328-1870 FAX

I also had an MRI last year due to recurring piriformis/sciatica issues. I had (have?) a bulge at L5-S1.

No offense to chiros, but I started with one and ended up ditching him as I had little confidence in his treatment regimen, or what he claimed to be true about my body. I did some of my own research and worked out the piriformis (which led to the sciatica) issues on my own by finding and doing focused stretching and trigger point work. Some chiros are smart enough to consider the full spectrum of cause and effect, and as someone else said, an MRI showing a disk bulge is just "interesting information."

Since that time I've just become more aware of when something doesn't feel right and then I tackle it right away and it doesn't turn into a much bigger problem. And I haven't seen another chiro in a year. So far so good.

If you've ever fallen and as a result have one side of your back that is tighter than the other or you just have muscular imbalances or you don't stretch enough or whatever, you can have issues with your back and then on down. For me, my QL was particularly tight, and once I was able to loosen it up a bit, then my work in the glutes area was able to stick. You need to work on everything in the kinetic chain that is involved with creating your problems.

My MRI results from 2004 very similar. I was having some LBP with various nerve root related symptoms. LB was really tight and I was faster riding upright than the drops for several months. I've had the symptoms on an off for at least three years, but never had any foot drop or loss of sensation. Just some numbness in the low extremity. The symptoms were and sometimes are different for my three events. I have a sport medicine background and know my neuro anatomy, but something was odd and I also have nerurofibromosits. The MRI was normal from the neurofibromositis side, but revealed slight but some disc pathology at L3/4, L4/5, and L5/S1.

See a good PT or Athletic Trainer with a good back rehab background. Forget the pain relief modalities(unless you can them free - the ultrasound does feel good, but I am not a fan of TENS and stuff) and focus on CORE and LB strengthen. I have seen some good links on ST for core. Avoid excessive rotation. I only have trouble now with increased training or when I slack of on LB/Core stuff. I saw a great back ortho and he just told me to continue on. I have been lucky that the pain has not kept me away from training. I train anywhere from 5 - 12 per week and TOP AG with usually top 10% finish.

I have worked with many people with similar results and those who want can usually perform fairly painfree. It is most of the workers comp who never get better. Good Luck.

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Lisa Walser-Anderson, ATC,CSCS

I had a nasty herination last year at L5- S1. I tried valiantly to make it on painkillers and phys therapy for a about a month but after not sleeping for 2 weeks and almost unable to walk I gave up and got a "nerve root injection". In my experience with back injuries (5+ yrs) the surgeons want to do surgery, the PTs want to do Phys Therapy and the Anesthesiologists want to do nerve root injections. No telling what my girlfriend's gynecologist would suggest.....

In the end it's very much "what works for you" and that includes money, time, schedule, family and a lot of other things.

keeping my core strong and balanced as well as lots of stretching (2+ hrs between the two in a 10 hour training week) seems to be good prevention.

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don't just do something..... sit there