Question
hi,
i'm an active 70ish woman - have been fairly athletic all my life.  currently major activity is golf, walk 18 holes once a week (life-long golfer#.  5 or 6 years ago, was told i have 3 bulging disks in my lower back - not sure which ones.  this was instigated by my trying to figure out why, when doing a volunteer stint in hawaii at a yoga retreat, i fell 4 times.  after many appts, 2 lower back MRIs, tests, workups, etc., conclusion seems to be that i have weak hip flexors and "maybe a nerve impinged slightly to cause weakness in your legs due to the bulging disks", or something like that.  since i can still walk just fine and am not in pain, nor have i been in pain like some folks with back issues, i have decided i'll just have weak legs, pick up my feet more when i walk so i won't stub my toe and fall, and consider myself lucky to still be on the right side of the dirt.
but...as i exercise, which i try to do 3 to 4 times a week, i've added, what i have been told or heard, things that should "strengthen my core".  after a year of rotator cuff issues, and finally doing p.t. for it and getting back to 99% "cured" #will know if it's 100% next summer when i swim...#, i've realized that doing the wrong exercises can be stupid, and there are probably some "right" exercises for lower back issues that would keep me going a few more years.  after golf, or yard work, my lower back does hurt, along with just general old-age stiffness, so if i can improve on that, i'd like to.
currently i do "crunches", and use the big rubber ball to do some other things that i assume are good for my "core".  but a little voice is telling me i could do more harm than good, like with my rotator cuff.  being on medicare, i still have a co-pay when i get p.t., so i'm looking for free advise if possible before going back to the ortho docs for p.t., which i'm considering.
i know the web is full of utube stuff on back pain, but that's where i got bad info on rotator cuffs, so thought i'd see if "all experts" can guide me toward keeping my core as strong as possible for as long as possible, with some simple and not too numerous exercises.  if indeed that's what i should be doing with 3 bulging disks???
thanks very much,
ellen

Answer
Hello Ellen,

I'm glad to hear that you recovered so well from your initial issue, but I do think I may be able to add some value here.

Strengthening your core is great, but it's important to understand the difference between muscles that are actually weak versus those that are "functionally weak."  Since you do yoga you probably understand the benefits of having a flexible body.  Ideally, we want to have strong and flexible bodies, and it is my experience that most people's structural problems come, not from being too weak, but from being too tight which causes them to be functionally weak. So my goal with you will be to help you find the few "functionally weak" muscles that need to be released so you can get back to 100%.

Without telling you too much of what you may already know, let me give you an analogy.  If you think of all your muscles like the rigging (ropes) on a big old-fashioned sailboat you can see that if some of the rigging (muscles) became inappropriately tight, they could torque and pull your structure out of its ideal alignment, and cause structural issues like lack of function and pain.

Since bones only go where muscles pull or hold them (bones are chunks of calcium that do not do anything on their own), bulging discs are often caused by bigger stronger muscle groups in your hips and upper legs negatively affecting your lower back muscles, which then compress your discs.  

In yoga, much of what you are doing is creating and maintaining appropriate space and freedom in your body by stretching the muscle tissue that gets tighter more easily as we age, especially when we are active.  All the strengthening you do is great, but each time you strengthen your tissue you also tighten it a bit, so you just want to make sure that you release the tight tissue.  Then you can have strong flexible tissue with is generally optimally functioning tissue.

All that said, I'd like to steer you to my completely free website where I show you in simple follow-along videos how to free some of the tissue that your yoga might have a difficult time accessing.  The website is:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/

I'd recommend you read through the homepage and then go through the main Lower Back Pain Relief page:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/lower-back-pain-relief.html
If you go through all the techniques once, you'll notice the ones you need to do and the ones you can skip in the future.
I'd also recommend you follow along with the videos on the Release The Front of Your Back page:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/lower-back-pain-remedy.html
You want to make sure your psoas muscle and your iliacus muscle on each side of the front of your spine are free.  If they're tight and you release them you will notice a big difference and your gold swing will dramatically improve.

Lastly, I would recommend you also check out the Tennis Ball Tune-Up page:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/lower-back-pain-remedy-tennis-ba
You'll be able to get at your tensor fascia late (upper side of hip) and your upper gluts (upper butt) with a tennis ball in a way that you usually can't when doing yoga.
Also, on the Site Map page under the Lower Back Pain section there are more pages to check out if you desire:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/joint-pain-relief-site-map.html

You sound like you probably just need a few techniques to set yourself totally free, so if you are willing to run through some videos to find out which ones they are, then I think it will be time well spent. All of these techniques can only help, and will not make anything worse.

I do hope this helps.

All the best,

Gary Crowley