This is Why You Have a Bulging Disc

Does this sound like you?

Do you dread seeing the grass in your yard get too long, knowing you are going to spend next Saturday pushing the lawn mower around only to have the rest of your weekend ruined by your back pain flaring up.

Maybe you decide to take it easy instead and get some paperwork done. But you find after sitting at your desk for a while your pain seems to be just as bad.

Do you tend to feel better when you walk quickly but walking slowly makes you feel worse.

Sometimes your pain may not be there at all. You may go weeks at a time and begin to forget you were even in pain. You feel confident, ready to take on the world again and get back to doing the things you love.

And then one day, perhaps while doing something as trivial as bending over to tie your shoes... Your jolted by stab in your spine.

Perhaps it's not just your back either. Maybe your pain radiates across your back, down your buttocks, into your groin, or down your legs. You might spend the next two weeks in agony until you start to be able to function normally again.

If some or all of this sounds like you, then there is a good chance your pain is caused by a bulging disc.

And I am going to tell you exactly how you got it.

Why is it important that you understand how you got a disc bulge?

Once you know why a disc bulge occurs, you will be able to understand how to heal it, prevent it, and get out of pain for good. Don't waste your limited time putting up with pain that can be easily solved if you take some time to understand it.

Most clinicians and therapists fail to assess and understand the exact nature and mechanism of people's back pain. If you are struggling with back pain and not being given clear guidance on how to get out of pain, then this is for you. Empower yourself with the knowledge of what is causing your pain so you can be in control of your recovery and prevent it from coming back.

The cause of your disc bulge

So, let's dive in. What causes a disc bulge? There's a simple biomechanical explanation: repeated bending under load.

Now, as simple as that may be, I know you are here for deeper insights than that. I'm going to explain exactly what this explanation means and guide you through how to turn it into practical solutions to your pain.

First, what exactly is bending? It's not complicated. You are probably imagining someone bending over right now, and that's pretty much it. To be more specific though, the bending we are concerned about is the bending occurring in your spine and the effect that bending has on your disc. To illustrate this, let's take a brief anatomy lesson:

Your spine is made up of bony segments called vertebrae that are stacked on top of one another. If our spines were made up of only these bones, then we would all be walking around very awkwardly with a stiff rod through our torso. This would have some advantages. We would be very rigid and strong - a bit like those giant strongman athletes you see that look sort of stiff and robotic when they walk. As helpful as it may be at times to have spines that were that strong, trying to bend over far enough to tie your shoes would be a nightmare. Having such restricted movement in our spines certainly isn't for everyone. Fortunately for us, in between each of the bony segments in our spine is an intervertebral disc.

Inter (between) vertebral (vertebrae) disc - a disc between the vertebrae.

Our discs are made up of an outer ring (annulus) that contains a gel like substance within its centre (nucleus).

The outer ring is a biological fabric. It is made of a fibrous material (collagen) that's woven together to form concentric rings. It is not too dissimilar to the fibres in your cotton shirt that are woven together, making a stronger material that holds its shape so you can wear it.

The nucleus containing the gel-like substance is pressurised, which allows it to withstand various forces so that we can move in all sorts of wonderful ways. A bit like how a car tyre is pressurised with air, allowing it to withstand the weight of the car and all the forces applied to it when driving.

When we bend our spine, the bony segments will compress the discs in different ways depending on the direction we bend. For example, when we bend forward, the front of our vertebrae will squish closer together, and the back of the vertebrae will open and spread further apart. Follow along with this for me - while sitting in your chair, slump over into a slouched posture. Notice how the angle at the front of your body has become closer together, while your back is stretched out. That same shape is occurring at each segment of your spine as you bend. This is important to understand due to the effect these bending postures have on our discs.

When our spine bends, the bony segments compress the discs into a wedge shape. This causes the gel substance in the nucleus to move in response to the changing shape of the disc.

Let's use an analogy to provide some insight into these mechanisms occurring within your spine. Think back to when you were a kid playing with water balloons in the backyard. What would happen if you squished one end of the balloon? How would the water inside the balloon respond to the compression you just created?

You reduced the space at one of the balloon, so the water is forced to move to the other end. But now what happens to the balloon at the other end? The material of the balloon becomes strained. This water has nowhere to go, so it is pushing hard up against one end of the balloon and it's working overtime to contain it within the reduced space.

The same thing occurs in our spines when we bend. Our vertebrae create a wedge shape that compresses our discs at one end, causing the gel nucleus to move to the opposite end and strain that fibrous material of the disc annulus.

This is how our spines are designed to work. Our discs are designed to become strained in this way as we move through a range of motion in our spines. The strain on the disc annulus provides some stiffness which helps us control our movements. It helps us to stop moving once we have bent over far enough, taking some of the workload of our muscles and helping us move efficiently through the world.

So, if this is how we are designed, why does this process lead to debilitating injuries?

Think back to that mechanical definition we started with. It is not bending alone that causes disc bulges but repeated bending.

We didn't evolve spending 8 hours a day loading boxes into a moving van or hunched over a keyboard staring down at our screens. In fact, a lot of the repeated movement patterns we follow in our modern lives may be inconsistent with how our bodies evolved to function.

Our biology evolved to withstand certain stressors. In many ways stress is necessary to live a healthy life. When you lift weights in the gym your muscles are placed under significant stress and become sore and inflamed for a period of time afterwards. However, with enough rest they will recover and adapt to become stronger. If you didn't give your muscles the rest they required, however and returned to the gym day after day performing the same exercises, the outcome wouldn't look so bright. Your muscles would remain sore, and their performance would decline until eventually they can no longer cope with the stress, resulting in an injury such as a strain or tear.

For a lot of us, the movement patterns of modern life repeatedly assault our discs with stress. Unfortunately, our discs don't always give us the early warning signs of damage like we receive from our muscles after a hard workout.

So what happens to the disc when we repeatedly stress it in this way? Before I give you the answer, let's go back to our water balloon. In this example, we are compressing one end of the balloon so all the water is forced to push up against the other end. The rubber material at that end becomes stretched and strained. Now imagine we repeatedly squeeze the balloon in this way over and over and over again. What do you imagine would happen? The material being strained is gradually weakened. If weakened too much, it will no longer be able to withstand the stress caused by the water, and the balloon will pop. There is a material difference between a balloon and our discs. However, the processes leading to a disc bulge is essentially analogous to what I have just described.

When we repeatedly stress our disc this way, the fibres that make up the disc annulus begin to delaminate. Meaning the fibres begin to divide into their individual layers.

If you have one, grab an old shirt that you don't mind damaging a little. If not, try to imagine this along with me:

Pick a spot on that old shirt and hold it between your thumb and index finder with both hands. Now stretch that spot by pulling your shirt in opposite directions with each hand. Then repeat the stretch but this time along the opposite axis (i.e. stretch is up and down and then side to side). Continue repeating this over and over, moving between up and down and side to side stretches. Pay attention to what's happening to the fibres in your shirt. Can you see how as they are repeatedly stretched, that spot on your shirt is beginning to lose its structure. The fibres are starting to delaminate and divide apart. You may even notice that spot starting to bulge out a little from the rest of the shirt. If you have the time and inclination keep going. You will see the fibres continue to separate until eventually there is a hole in your shirt big enough to poke a finger through.

This is what led to your disc bulge. You repeatedly bent your spine in a way that stressed your disc annulus to cause the fibres to separate until there was enough space for the gel substance in the nucleus that is supposed to remain contained by the annulus to bulge out. And if you have been in pain then it's likely when the disc bulges in this way it pushes on a nerve root that causes your symptoms.

The Solution

Now here's the exciting part of the story...

That shirt you put a hole in may be a lost cause. Unless you stitch it up that hole will be there forever and probably just get bigger. We can't stitch up a disc like we can with a shirt, but we also don't need to. Our biology is often much smarter than we are, and it has immense capacity to regenerate. We just need to learn to stop repeatedly straining our disc. When we do, with enough time the disc annulus will heal and stiffen. If you allow your disc to stiffen, it will help prevent the bulge from occurring that is causing you pain.

So let's get you out of pain. Think back to the water balloon. What do we need to do to take the stress off the disc annulus?

The gel nucleus has migrated to the back of the disc causing the annulus to bulge. We need to encourage the gel to move back to the centre and take the pressure of the bulge that's causing you pain. And I am going to give you a strategy to do just that.

If you're having symptoms right now, I want you to try something. If not, take note and give this a try next time your pain flares up. The aim of the following is to take compressive pressure off the disc and gently extend your lower back to encourage the gel to move in the right direction.

Go to your bed or find a comfortable spot on the floor and lay on your tummy.

Now find the most comfortable position for your head. Try turning it to face the left and then the right and notice if one direction is more comfortable. Try stacking your hands under your forehead. Try making a fist and resting your chin on top of it to extend your neck. Find whichever variation of these postures is most comfortable for you.

Then take some deep breaths and allow your body to soften. With every out breath relax your muscles a little more. Allow your abdomen to sink into the floor beneath you.

Notice your symptoms. You are likely still in pain but are things moving in the right direction? If so, spend the next 5–10 minutes in this position.

Then get back up and compare your symptoms to before you laid down. Has your pain significantly improved? Have the radiating symptoms that were shooting down your leg ceased? Perhaps there is some remaining discomfort in your back, but overall did that wind things down?

If so, congratulations! You now have a method to deal with your symptoms, and you understand exactly why it works. You no longer need to guess what you should or shouldn't be doing when your pain flare's up.

Share this strategy with someone you know that may also find it helpful!

If this did not help or certainly if this made you feel worse than you likely have other factors contributing to your pain than a typical disc bulge. Unfortunately, distilling all the variations of back pain pathologies into one article is a feat beyond my limits. But hopefully you can find a pattern of symptoms that fits you better in another article, along with the solution to your pain.

For those that did find success you may still have lingering concerns that I would like to resolve. You now have a strategy to reduce your symptoms when they occur, but how do you stop them from occurring in the first place?

As I mentioned above, for the disc to heal we need to stop the repeated stress we are putting it under. Continue reading so I can guide you through some movement strategies to avoid stressing the disc, prevent your symptoms, and allow it to heal.