I blew out my C-4 and C-5 a few years back MRI also revealed a bone spur pressing on my spinal cord. The pain was horrible. sleepless nights etc... I suffered paralysis on my thumb and index finger on my right hand - There was absolutely no riding. Had to go through my HMO's therapy crap which was worthless. Finally when it was getting worse they gave me an Epidural Injection Procedure using X-ray. The first injection reduced pain by 60% three weeks later the second procedure alleviated all my pain. No more numbness in my hand and fingers, no pain. I still don't have the mobility I use to have but I can ride my bike with very little discomfort.

I'm only 28 but the MRI found bulging discs AND degeneration, which they thought was highly unusual for someone my age.
On top of that, I frequently got neurological problems like nerve pains and sensations all over my body and brain issues, and I'm pretty sure that's because I have spinal degeneration or MS or something but the MRI did not cover the rest of my spine, just the lower back.

But I've found a cure and have been pain free ever since.


It's a simple yoga sequence for spinal health that really brings me results. Even when I have extreme sciatica and it hurts to bend forward, I force myself to do this and it truly works for pain relief.

Start by standing tall with good posture, lift hands up into the sky, then fold forward and touch your toes. You can bend knees, or put your hands on your knees to help yourself down if it is too painful at first, but ultimately you want enough flexibility to bend over with straight legs. Repeat this many times in a row, until you feel the spine loosening up.

Then come down into Downward Dog ---> High Plank ----> Cobra. Repeat that sequence a few times, doing that in itself is really healing for the back. I found that even though the physio told me not to do forward flexion, doing the forward flexion poses in yoga REALLY helped ease my bulging disc pain really well. Something about these poses really helps.
Then go into Cat/Cow pose, as many times as you feel necessary. You should feel these poses working.

Do some spinal twist poses and stretches. I do very gentle spinal twists using a bolster like in this restorative yoga video:
Then you want to release tight leg muscles that might be contributing to tight back muscles. So do hamstring stretches, quad stretches and hip opening stretches, spend lots of time stretching the legs.

You also want to stretch your shoulders, neck and arms after.

Finish that with foam rolling. You really want to roll out the IT band on the side of your thighs, which can contribute to back issues. Roll out the quads and hamstrings and your calves.
Then get a rubber ball in a stocking and roll out the muscles deep in your lower back. In your butt where the sciatic nerve is. And the muscles along the spine, and lastly roll out the muscles in the lats and trapz and shoulders.

After this routine, I would be very surprised if you don't notice results. It works for me amazingly. Make sure to drink tons of water because all of that really stirs up and releases toxins, you'll get a headache if you don't drink water.

I should tell you that the things my physiotherapists got me to do never worked, so I created this routine based on trial and error, and it actually goes against a lot of what the physios recommended, and this is what helped me restore my back to perfect heath. I was literally crippled, paralyzed and in excruciating pain before I started it.

Another thing: you need to start heavy weight lifting to gain some muscle mass. Whenever you have a serious injury, especially a structural problem in your back, you need to gain more muscle. The more muscle you have in your back and surrounding areas, the more it will prevent the discs from being squashed. The discs are going to keep bulging if you have poor posture, if you are too weak, etc. Weak or tight muscles in the legs or other areas of the body can be causing the bulging disc.
You can't just strengthen one muscle and expect it to work, because then you'll get muscle imbalances that will make it worse.
No offence, but most older people and most cyclists are extremely scrawny and prone to injuries because they have hardly any muscle on them.
The truth is, even when you're 80 you can still go to the gym and strength train and gain muscle, because muscle is one of the only things on the human body that does not age.

Gaining a lot of muscle is the first thing that helped me. To gain muscle, you will overload the muscle for only 2 sets and 8-12 reps, and then make sure to rest for 1-3 days after.
Work out every single muscle, to get overall balanced strength.

Hamstrings: Swiss ball hamstring curls
Quads, Gluteus Maximus, Gastrocnemius: Squats and lunges, with assisted weights to make it harder
Abductors and Adductor muscles: Abductor and Adductor machines
Biceps Brachii: Bicep curls
Triceps Brachii: Tricep dumbell extension
Pectoralis Major: Push ups or bench press
Latissimus Dorsi: Lat pull down machine, pull ups or inverted rows
Trapezius: Bent over dumbbell rows
Deltoids: Front, side and rear delt arm raises to work all the deltoid muscles.

Once you have worked all those main muscles, work the core muscles last. Because you need the core to be strong during the workout. Core work is extremely important for back and spinal health.

**** every time you do the yoga sequence and stretching, you should also do this core strenghening work, becaues it's super important for back health***

Transverse abdominous (Very important abdominal muscle for stabilizing the lower back) Do PLANKS
Rectus abdominus (the 6 pack ab muscle): Crunches (I do about 100 to 300 crunches to have very strong abs but you can slowly make your way up there if you can't do that much)
Oblique Ab Muscles: Side crunches or bicycle twists (I also do about 100-300 of these)
Quadratus Lumborum: (lower back muscle, very important to work if you have back issues) It does lateral movements of the spine, so is best strengthened by doing SIDE PLANKS (for planks and sideplanks, I hold for 15-30 seconds each and do 2 sets.
Erectus Spinae: This is the spinal muscle, also very important to work, by simply doing SUPERMANS. Do about 15-20 and 2 sets.

Strength train only 1-2 times a week, later once you've gained enough muscle you can just maintain it by strength training once every two weeks. Then you can still do cardio inbetween, just make sure not to do cardio a 1-2 days after doing a full body strength workout, depending on how fast you recover.


And always do the yoga and stretching after a workout, no matter how long it ends up taking you at the gym. Stretching and maintaining the flexibilty is as equally as important as gaining muscle for injury recovery.

Hope this helps!

*Another tip, is if it hurts you to bend forward on a bike, buy a bike that you can sit straight up on and that will really help until you can get the discs to go back in and stay where they belong.

*** Another edit: I should also mention that you shouldn't be afraid to gain more muscle. It's harder to maintain just because you have to eat a lot more than usual, but that's a good thing for some people LoL.
But, for example I'm 5'9 and weigh 200 pounds mostly muscle and I have also been training in my endurance sports, and have never been faster in my entire life. I thought the muscle would slow me down, but it has not, it has improved my athletic performance. The only bad thing about it is I get DOMS sometimes after a really intense heavy weight lifting workout, but it's all worth it in the end.