All my life I was asked to lift heavy things as I was big and strong, and I always agreed to help out, little did I know I was damaging my back slowly because my technique was terrible. It wasn’t noticiable until I reached the age of 30 and I started to feel nerve pain in my left leg from my butt cheek to my big toe all the way down my leg and even then I didn’t have a clue what it was, the pain came and went and eventually it got so painful I decided to see a specialist and the diagnosis was herniated discs which I thought I could recover from but little did I know my discs were completely trashed and had to be fixed. My first operation was to fit a titanium spacer in between the worst effected disc which was L5 and so it went in and resolved the pain and the mobility for a year or so then the pain returned and I was crippled to the point I couldn’t walk as a sportsman I was devastated. I decided to go for a second operation to rebuild my L5, L4 and L3 discs as they were all damaged now and collapsed. I got, at the time the new technology which was silicon spacers built up in and around my discs to open up the spacing between my spine and my ciatic nerve. This was 20 years ago now and I am still kitesurfing, Wingfoiling, skiing, and mountain biking with next to no pain but I am taking it easy and look after my body so much more now at the age of 51, wish I had known the dangers of lifting heavy things as a young man, I teach my son now to lift heavy things very carefully and if possible get help, it’s just not worth it, if it’s too heavy don’t lift it 🙏👏🤙