An exercise for a bulging or herniated disc, without surgery

I would like to share with you a video I came across by chance, on treating a bulging disc without surgery, from the physical therapist and strength coach Jeff Cavaliere.

Around the middle of 2024, my friend’s mother was in so much back pain that she had to go up to a central hospital in Hanoi to be examined and given an injection costing about five million đồng (from what I have found out, that is an epidural corticosteroid injection or a nerve root block, given to cut off the acute pain of a bulging disc). In the period after that she was still in pain and had to do physiotherapy at a district hospital. When I learnt her diagnosis, I helped my friend find more information by searching YouTube for treatments using English keywords, and I found two videos: one in Vietnamese that explained the condition and gave instructions but had no live demonstration, and one in English on physiotherapy without surgery that did have a live demonstration. The reason I chose the English one and sent it to her is that it had a great many comments thanking him for the miraculous changes people saw after following the instructions.

And miraculously, she told me that the medicine, the physiotherapy at the district hospital and the Vietnamese video had not eased her pain — only that English video really worked, and she has been able to go back to work because of it.

I do think the medicine and the physiotherapy at the hospital must have contributed a great deal to her recovery, but there is no denying the effect, “tested and proven” by her and by the people who left feedback on the video, which you can watch below.

A few notes for anyone who does not follow English:

1. The video explains and demonstrates the WRONG method people usually do: 0:00–2:49
2. The real method starts at 2:50
3. You can turn on automatic subtitles and translation to follow the whole video.

A few of the feedback comments are really lovely:

1. What is this aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?!? I had pain in my lower back — on the left. I found out it was from lifting weights and a really bad soft mattress. I did the movement for just a few minutes and… the pain was gone! I cannot tell you how happy I am. This pain has kept me awake all night, all day, for nearly a year. I could cry with joy! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
2. I herniated a disc two days ago. I was lying face down on the bed, barely able to move. I got four minutes of these exercises done and I could walk again.
   I love you, Jeff.
3. I do not know how to thank you enough. I was hit by an eighteen-wheeler, broke my spine in two places and herniated three discs. I did everything you said. Within a single week I was completely free of pain, off medication, able to walk again, and I cannot believe I was nearly put through major surgery. Thank you so much — I am crying with happiness.
4. Dude… OMG! I had been in pain for a whole month. I had to stop training, I could not work without pain (even sneezing hurt). I did step two and the pain went away immediately. It really does seem to work. I still have to do steps one and three. But my God, Jeff! A month of pain sorted out in a few minutes…

And there are many more comments — you can read them here

https://youtu.be/9SKuFe2SERs