Thanks for the welcome, I like this board because you actually talk about the subject matter at hand, namely supplementation and the most important thing, namely lifting.

I had a slow rupture of my l4-l5 lumbar disc. The pain started out bad and became completely outlandishly horrid over the period of a few months. I couldn't lie down AT ALL or stand up; all I could do was sit in an exaggerated slouch with the front edge of the chair pressing on my lower back. Eventually even that wasn't enough so I finally did the smart thing and went to the hospital, where the MRI told me I had a ruptured disc that was pinching my spinal cord, partly paralyzing my left leg, etc etc. Sound tasty? Picture being kicked in the balls, not quite hard enough to make you fall down and writhe but hard enough to make you gag. Now imagine that stretched out over a month. They said when I came to in the recovery room after surgery I opened my eyes, smiled and said "holy shit that feels better."

Blah blah. Anyway, you've all had injuries I'm sure. This one came, as near as I can figure out, from throwing hard thai-style round kicks without proper midriff strength. Don't do that, kids.