Back Muscle Strain vs. Herniated Disc: How to Tell the Difference

There are two things to understand about back pain. First, it’s prevalent — about 39% of adults in the United States have been reported to suffer from back pain. Second, there are many different roads to back pain, and we’re going to focus on two of the most common — muscle strain and a herniated disc.

The team at Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas includes experienced spine health experts to whom we turn to learn some key differences between a muscle strain in your lower back and a herniated disc. These two conditions are very different, so narrowing down the culprits behind your back pain can help you get relief faster.

Signs of a herniated disc

Your spine stretches from the base of your skull to your pelvis and includes 33 vertebrae that are separated by 23 intervertebral discs.

If material from one of these discs escapes its space between the vertebrae ( which is what occurs when a disc herniates), it can press against sensitive nerve roots that exit your spinal canal. Five pairs of lumbar nerve roots exit your spine in your lower back, making the odds of a herniated disc hitting one fairly large.

When this nerve compression occurs, you can experience:

• Local shooting pain in your lower back
• Pain that flares with certain positions or movements
• Pain that travels down into one side of your buttocks and legs
• Numbness and tingling on one of your legs
• Weakness in one leg

This condition is commonly called sciatica, and a herniated disc is typically the cause.

Signs of a lower back muscle strain

Now, let’s turn our attention to muscle strains in your lower back, which are quite different from herniated discs. 

As the name implies, with a muscle strain, your overstress the muscles (and tendons) in your lower back, which can lead to:

• Pain in the area of the strain, especially during movement
• Muscle spasms in your back
• Extreme tension in your lower back
• Limited movement due to pain

The symptoms of a muscle strain in your lower back do not involve nerve compression, so they stay local. In fact, that’s the key difference between a herniated disc and a back strain — symptoms can radiate into one of your legs with damaged discs, but they stay local with a strain.

The two conditions can cross over when you develop a muscle strain on the heels of a herniated disc. This can occur because of muscle spasms due to a pinched nerve in your lower back.

Getting relief for your lower back pain

Whatever the cause of your lower back pain, the good news is we can help you find relief after we definitively diagnose the issue.

So, the next step is yours to take — to get to the bottom of your lower back pain, you can start by calling or messaging one of our offices in Waco, Arlington, Wichita Falls, or Fort Worth, Texas, today to schedule a visit.