Hi Guys
I have not been cycling for a while due to a slipped disk. It has been suggested to me by my consultant that I can take up cycling again.
Has anyone had any experiences of having a slipped disk and cycling?
Any do’s and don’ts?
I will take it easy and build my fitness up
Cheers David

I had a couple of ruptured discs two years ago. The only thing I could do was cycle. So I did, lots and lots.

The obvious things are sort position to one of least stress and listen to your body.

Work up the mileage and back off if you get any negative feedback.

As I said, I had two fubared lower discs that were eventually fixed by knife and I couldn’t walk, run, skip, ski, climb etc. I did manage nearly 10k miles that year though so for me, no impediment.

(edit) mainly road miles so low risk of spontaneous combustion/mating with the scenery…

Same here, I couldn’t walk much or stand around for long but one thing I could do was cycle, so I did. Got better after about 6 months.

As a rule, if it’s not hurting,it’s not doing you any harm.

Backs are really complicated and everyone is different obviously.

However my experience is that MTBing helps make it better, too much road cycling can set it back.

However road can be less painful, precisely because I’m not doing all the twisty motions involved with MTBing (which are good for my back).

If the doc says it’s fine, get on it!

I had bad one about 5 years ago, and did the other side just 3 months ago abet pretty minor. All I could/can do was cycle (not running or footy) so I did/do. But XC, CX or road because an emergency dismount on anything slightly gnarly would risk twisting my back, which would be bad

I got back into cycling (and hiking/backpacking) relatively quickly in my recovery, cycling helps mobilise the lower spine again, seemed helpful when muscles were stiff from the initial spasm caused by the herniated disc.

Obviously I always have half an eye on the bike set up, I started back on a Cannondale Synapse (already relatively short and tall for a road bike) then flipped the stem up and fitted a 10mm shorter stem.

What seemed crucial was to keep lower back and hip/glute muscles nice and stretched, especially glutes I find. If they get short and tight they start to promote a rounding of the lower back which I don’t think is healthy!

Hiking with a heavy rucsac seemed like a miracle cure, I typically load my rucsacs top heavy, the effect of which is to pull you more upright as you hike. Being conscious of posture also, don’t lean into steep slopes as you hike up them, and equally, try to stay upright if you’re pedalling out of the saddle (spin classes are quite helpful for getting you into this habit, the teachers really like to emphasise engaging your core, to the point where you can almost pedal out of the saddle with one or no hands on the bars).

Thanks for the feedback. Seems as though there are no major issues with cycling so I will et on it. Hoorah!

Oh, forgot to mention, whatever you may think, Spin classes really helped me, meant I could keep fitness and motivation up, but also started by adjusting the bike to crazy short/high and gradually lowered and lengthened.

Also being on a static bike means you can incorporate some of the core stuff I mentioned above.

Enjoy!