21 year old male, chronic left-side lower back pain

[RMTJosh]

is one hip lower...or the other is higher, this is important!
Is there an inflare/outflare any rotation of the ilium?

Having some muscle energy work to bring the ilium and sacrum back into proper alignment may help, as well as some postural re-education and core work to provide you a stable base for your days in the gym to help prevent your problems from building.

[alpana]

Hi, Very sorry to know that you had been suffering with the back problem for such a long time. In fact, no back pain should remain for than 3-months, provided correct diagnosis is made.

In your case, the lumbar disc being the cause of pain was evident from the begining itself. You said that the x-rays did not show anything. I suspect that some finding in the L5 vetebra is missed.

Well, now the tightness in back and thigh is just a nature's protective mechanism to prevent any further injury to the bulged disc. It will not at all be advisable to release the tightness of these muscles without attending to the disc bulge. Also, no further manipulations should be attempted in a degenerated disc.

What you require is methods to relieve the disc bulge, release of fascial tightness in the buttocks, stretching of a few buttock muscles, strengthening of your arm muscles, core strengthening and stretching of thigh muscles---all in sequence.

You may contact me on [email protected] for more guidance.

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