How are discs damaged?
Overall, discs are very tough and resilient; however they are very susceptible to injury with repetitive activity and loading. For example when you lift incorrectly or sit in one position for long periods of time the fibers in the disc begin to weaken. An example of this is a common paper clip. If you bend the paper clip one time it doesn’t break, but do it over and over again it just snaps in half. The fibers of the outer portion of a disc, the annulus fibrosis behave in much the same way. As the stresses on the disc are repeated (such as repetitive lifting or even sitting in one position for long periods of time) the fibers break down. This creates small cracks and fissures in the discs creating a pathway for the softer inner nucleus to slowly leak out. This is the beginning of a disc bulge or herniation.
