Hi, I joined a hydrotherapy class and enjoyed it, I could not go last week because my neck shoulders and arms were painful. In fact I was in

Pain for 4 days. I notice lots of you run, i cannot run because of. Degenerate disc disease in my spine. Does any one do power or brisk walking. I might walk and do hydro therapy. Thanks for any suggestions.

[gingernut49 Graduate]

This is the thread for the Couch to 5K runners. If you want to try walking then a good place to start are the Leslie Sansone walking videos youtube.com/results?search_... on YouTube. They start at one mile in about 15 minutes and progress to five miles in about 75 minutes. You can start at one mile a day and see how you get on.

[GoogleMe Graduate]

I started running because brisk walking was proving too difficult - it's painful and the after effects last longer. A running action is looser and easier for me. I have an old L1 injury and often have back pain (no disc problems that I know of) as well as other problems that make all exercise problematic. I did NHS C25K and I don't really push it - I am often only marginally faster than walking pace, if that. I also stay off roads and pavements for the sake of all my joints. Even then I try to vary my surfaces.

You could have a look at NHS walk4life - that's where I started out, but as I say, brisk walking proved harder than running for me. It may be worth checking out whether all running really is too much of a risk. As gingernut49 says, this is the forum for people doing or graduated from NHS C25K running.

[alliesp]

I also have DDD l4/5 (lower back). Running doesn't cause me any more or any less pain. My consultant said he would prefer it if I did low impact such as swimming or cycling, but if I had to, it was OK to run on soft surfaces with correct shoes. He was happy that I was doing as much as I could do to help myself, such as various Pilates classes a week to strengthen all the muscles around my back and core. Go back/phone your consultant as he is the one who viewed your MRI and can see the extent of the damage to the disks. Hope you find something that helps.