This is really great news. I was hoping that the scan would reveal no disc damage. Once a disc is herniated it never really fully heals, so take this as a wakeup call. You may have just saved yourself a lot of pain later in life.
Its very similar to my experience, which I described in your other thread.
I disagree with a number of recommendations in this thread to not do any back work. This is probably the worst advice at this point.
When you suffer a bad muscular injury in the lower back, you can quickly experience rapid atrophy loss of strength in a set of deep stabiliser muscles known as multifidus. These muscles provide intra-discal stabilisation and control. If they become dormant, as is often the case after a low back injury, this sets you up for further back injuries and in particular disc injuries.
The current thinking with back rehab is to get the multifidi going as soon as possible and building up their strength.
As soon as swelling dies down, you should set about working these muscles. A very simple activation exercise you can do is called a ":bird dog" - google it. at first you might only be able to do strict bird dogs using single arms or single legs only (ie not at the same time). It is very important not to rotate or twist or hyperextend your spine laterally when raising your arms/legs. If your multifidi are activated, your spine will stay rigid in a neutral position without twisting/rotating/rounding/extending while your arms and legs move freely.
If you only had to do one back rehab exercise, this is it.
Work up to doing 3 sets of 10 each side every single day, religiously. In 3 months your back will be heaps stronger for it.
after 2-3 weeks, you can start squatting and deadlifting, light at first and building up slowly. You should keep on doing bird dogs throughout this phase. Don't wait too long before starting lifting because you will lose too much strength and actually risk further injury. The other problem with not lifting is your muscles will shorten and tighten up, potentially setting up even more faulty movement patterns which will increase your future risk of injury. Your body will want to move away from pain - if you don't correct this movement pattern by lifting it will become ingrained and even harder to change in future.
Also seriously consider getting a lifting coach before lifting heavy again. Your injury happened for a reason. Its a wake up call and a chance for you to fix things. It will not only prevent injury but allow you to handle even heavier weights in future.
Best of luck!
