Part of Lumbar disc herniation
Herniated disc exercises to avoid, and the ones to change instead
Warning signs, and when to get help
Which exercises should you avoid with a herniated disc?
Far fewer than the lists suggest. Nearly everything that comes off comes back. The NHS is almost blunt about it on its slipped disc page: the type of exercise does not matter much, as long as it does not cause pain or make your back pain worse. That test needs reading closely though. It is written about your back, and when a disc is pressing on a nerve the one that decides is your leg.
NICE asks clinicians to choose the kind of exercise around each person's needs, preferences and capabilities instead of handing out a fixed set of forbidden movements (NICE NG59). So the question worth asking is not which exercises are on the list. It is which of three things a movement needs: stopping for now, keeping with less load or less range, or leaving alone because it was never the problem.
A handful of movements fail that sorting more often than the rest. What changes about each one is rarely the same as dropping it.
Two readers should look at the check-first section further down before they change anything in this list. If you have been told you have low bone density (osteoporosis), most of the movements below bend the spine forward and one of them does it under load, which is the direction usually limited for you. If you have had an operation on your back, the restrictions your own team gave you outrank the whole list.
Strong hamstring stretching and toe touches. Lifting a straight leg high, or reaching for the floor with your knees locked, pulls on the sciatic nerve as well as the muscle behind the thigh, which is why a straight leg lift is one of the examination tests clinicians use for an irritated nerve root (van der Windt and colleagues, 2010). None of that means living with a tight hamstring. Bend the knee of the leg you are stretching, cut the hold right down, 5 to 10 seconds rather than 30, and stop short of the point where the stretch adds anything below your knee. If your leg already tingles, aches or feels numb below the knee when you are sitting still, that resting level is your starting mark, and the stretch has gone too far the moment it adds to it. Ask your physio when the long version can come back.
Held slumped positions. Sitting rounded with your chin dropped and one knee straight, then holding it there, puts the whole length of the nerve on tension at once. What changes here is the holding rather than the shape. Move gently in and out of the position instead of parking in it, and come out of it if the leg starts to build while you are there.
Loaded bending and lifting from the floor. The weight is what comes down first. The bend itself usually stays. Keep the load close to your body rather than out at arm's length, cut what you are carrying rather than how often you bend, and add it back in the small steps the section on bringing an exercise back sets out. The program leaves the heavier end of this until its last stage, where sit to stand and the squat rebuild it, and every barbell decision from the deadlift to the belt sits on returning to the gym with a herniated disc.
Running and jumping. Later rather than first, and later is not a date. Nobody has published a test for when impact is safe again after a disc herniation, so this is a judgement to make with your physio, and the shape physios tend to use is the one returning to the gym with a herniated disc sets out for loading a bar: several days in a row with the leg no further down, no new or increasing numbness or weakness in it, and an ordinary day the leg no longer dictates. Read that as clinical practice rather than a test you have passed, because meeting it is where the conversation starts and not where it ends. Numbness or weakness gets answered before you add impact, not after. Walking is what keeps you moving in the meantime, and walking is the exercise the NHS names first for a slipped disc.
Long spells in one position. Not an exercise at all. It still decides how your evening goes more often than anything above it does. Sciatica pain when sitting covers how long to sit for and what to do between spells.
What not to do with a herniated disc, beyond exercise
A few habits cost a fortnight more than any single exercise does.
Do not go to bed for the week. The NHS says you may need to rest at first if the pain is very bad, and then that you will get better more quickly if you gradually start gentle exercise as soon as you can. Short rests to ease a bad spell are fine, then get up and move again.
Do not wait for a scan before you move. Australia's healthdirect puts it plainly on its spinal disc problems page: most of the time this pain gets better by itself, without scans or surgery. NICE advises against routine imaging outside specialist care, and the lumbar disc herniation program has the detail on what a report can and cannot settle.
Do not test the sore movement every morning to see whether it still hurts. Checking is not training. A movement prodded daily never gets the few quiet days it was asking for, and you end up with a fortnight of data and no progress.
Do not work from a list you were handed years ago. An avoid list is written once, for a diagnosis, usually by someone who has never seen you move. Your leg is written today.
Your leg writes the list, not your back
If pain, numbness or tingling spreads further down your leg during or after an exercise, stop that exercise and leave it out for now. If the leg symptoms ease or pull back toward your buttock, physios usually count that as a good response, even if your back aches a little more for a while.
That is the whole method, and it beats any list because it can judge the movement you are about to do rather than the five somebody thought to write down. Your back aches for all sorts of reasons, including the ordinary one of having done something new. The leg follows the nerve, which is the structure the exercise is actually negotiating with. Symptoms travelling back up toward the buttock have a name in clinic, centralization, and it has been looked at as a sign of how someone is likely to do (May and Aina, 2012).
There is one exception. If the leg pain eases but numbness or weakness in the leg gets worse, stop the exercises and get medical advice the same day. The same day applies to a foot that has started to drag, catch on the ground or slap down when you walk.
Some changes are not a question for this test at all. Numbness around your genitals or bottom, new trouble with your bladder or bowels, pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs, or loss of feeling in one leg means calling emergency services or going to an emergency department straight away, and not driving yourself there. Symptoms crossing over into your other leg during or after an exercise belong in that sentence and not in the test above, however mild they feel.
Most sessions sit somewhere in the middle, and that is where readers go wrong. If you cannot tell whether the leg moved, read it as a no: stay at the level you were at, or drop back one, and look again at the two checks further down rather than trying a bigger version to find out.
This test was written for a disc that has not been operated on. If you have had surgery on your back, read the paragraph on operations further down before you use it, because a nerve the surgeon has freed can go quiet while the disc wall it came through is still healing.
This is also the answer to the thing written on your scan report. A report describes a disc, not a day. The authors of a systematic review of scans in people with no back pain at all concluded that these findings are common and have to be read next to the person's own symptoms and examination (Brinjikji and colleagues, 2015), and the age by age figures sit on the lumbar disc herniation program. A list built from the word on the report applies to everyone who has that word. The leg test applies to you.
Are sit-ups and crunches really the problem?
They open almost every list you will find. Our program leaves them out early on as well. The reason is not the one the lists give, so it is worth separating.
Nothing behind that choice is evidence that curling up off the floor damages a disc. One reason is ordinary observation: a sore disc tends to object to repeated bending under load, and a set of sit-ups is 20 repetitions of exactly that. The muscles people do sit-ups for can also be trained while the back stays still, which is what the dead bug and the deep trunk work in the program's middle stage are for. And a precaution sits behind it too rather than a preference: readers who have been told they have low bone density are usually asked to limit deep rounding of the spine, so a program written for everybody cannot open with crunches.
Test the sit-up again later rather than crossing it off for good. When you do, the leg rule settles it the same way it settles everything else on this page. Three readers ask first instead of testing: low bone density, pregnancy, and the months after giving birth. The check-first section below says why.
Bending, lifting and the flexion question
Every ban list rests on one idea, which is that bending the lower back damages a disc. The closest look at that question in the lifting research does not support it as a blanket rule. A systematic review with meta-analysis found low-quality evidence that bending the lower back further while lifting was not a risk factor for low back pain starting or carrying on, and was not what distinguished people with low back pain from people without it (Saraceni and colleagues, 2020).
The limits matter more here than the finding does. The review's own authors graded the evidence low quality. And it is about low back pain in general, not about a disc herniation that is currently irritating a nerve root. Nothing in it tells a reader with pain running down the leg today to load into a rounded back. The leg rule above governs that question, not this paper.
What is left is less tidy than a ban and more useful. No guideline we have read publishes a list of banned exercises for a disc herniation. NICE asks for the exercise to be matched to the person, and the NHS says the type does not matter as long as it does not make things worse. The North American Spine Society guideline group found insufficient evidence to recommend for or against structured exercise as a treatment on its own, and its expert consensus was that a limited course is an option for mild to moderate symptoms (Kreiner and colleagues, 2014).
A page that hands you a fixed list of forbidden exercises has gone further than any of those sources did.
None of which is permission to carry on with something that is making your leg worse. The absence of a ban list is not the absence of a limit. The limit is your leg, and anything that sends pain, numbness or tingling further down it comes out for now.
So the practical version is short. Keep the weight near your body, change one thing at a time, build in steps you would describe as boring, and let the leg sort what stays.
Who needs to check with a physio first?
Two diagnoses change which direction is the safe one, and they are the reason this page cannot simply tell everyone to arch.
If you have been told you have narrowing of the spinal canal (spinal stenosis) or a forward slip of one vertebra on another (spondylolisthesis), check with your physio before the backward bending exercises (prone lying, standing back extension, alternating superman). Bending backward can make both worse.
That check matters most on a page like this one, because backward bending is what a disc reader is usually handed on a printed sheet. If you were given an extension-only sheet and your leg is getting worse on it, the sheet is not the test. The standing back extension and the pelvic tilt point in opposite directions on purpose. Some people's leg eases when the back arches gently, some ease with gentle forward bending, and plenty notice no difference either way, which is worth knowing before you decide a direction is yours for good.
If you have low bone density (osteoporosis), ask your physio before the cat camel, because deep rounding of the spine is usually limited. Ask the same question about sit-ups, crunches, toe touches, held slumped stretches, and bending or lifting from the floor, which all bend the spine a long way forward, and the last of them does it under load.
After an operation on your back, the program your surgeon or physio gave you comes first and this page does not replace any of it, including the parts that say what to avoid and for how long. Restrictions differ between units, and what yours limits, which may be bending and twisting as well as weight, is set by your own team rather than by this page. Australia's healthdirect, writing about a lumbar microdiscectomy, says not to lift anything heavy or twist your body, that your physiotherapist will tell you when and how to increase your activity, and that you should ask the healthcare team or your GP for advice before you start exercising. It does not define heavy and it gives no date, and neither will we, because the only restriction that fits you is the one you were given. If you were given none, or cannot remember what it was, ask before you read that as a clearance.
The leg test above needs one more caution after an operation. Taking the pressure off the nerve is what the surgery was for, so leg pain often settles quickly, while the opening in the disc wall the fragment came through is still healing. A quiet leg in those early weeks does not carry the meaning it carries for someone who has not had surgery, and it cannot clear a movement your team has restricted. The trade this page suggests elsewhere, keeping the bends and cutting the load, is not one to assume applies to you either.
One warning belongs here, and it matters more than anything above it. A spinal infection does not always cause a fever, and a normal temperature is not a reason to be reassured. It is more likely if you have recently had spine surgery or an injection into your spine, inject drugs, or take medicine that weakens your immune system (Finucane and colleagues, 2020). If you have had spine surgery or a spinal injection in the last three months, contact your surgical team the same day about a fever, a wound that is red, hot, swollen or leaking, or back or leg pain that is new or much worse, even without a fever. Redness can be harder to see on brown or black skin.
Training after a discectomy is covered on returning to the gym with a herniated disc.
In pregnancy, ask your physio or midwife for a plan built for pregnancy rather than adapting this one. If you have recently given birth, including by cesarean section, or you have a gap down the middle of your stomach muscles (diastasis recti), ask your physio, midwife or doctor first.
A child or teenager with back pain that travels down a leg needs seeing by a doctor or physio first. Two patterns move that up the list: pain that wakes them at night, and pain at rest that keeps getting worse. See a doctor within a day or two if either is there.
Do the standing exercises next to a kitchen counter or a sturdy chair if your balance is not steady or your leg feels weak.
How do you bring an exercise back?
Take the smallest version of it you can think of, and change one thing. Half the weight, or half the range, or a hold of 10 seconds instead of 30. Change two things at once and a flare afterwards tells you nothing about which one did it.
Then look at the leg twice: once the evening of the session, and again before you get out of bed the next day. No worse at both checks means the leg coped, and you can repeat that level a few times before adding anything to it. Worse at either, with symptoms reaching further down, means going back to the last level that was fine and staying there a few days. Numbness or weakness that is getting worse counts as worse at either check, even if the pain has not moved further down your leg, and that one needs medical advice the same day rather than another attempt at a lower level. Pain that is severe and getting worse quickly is not a question about levels either. Get medical advice the same day. The pain monitoring model sets out the same sort of check in more detail.
The list has a date on it, which is the part most readers are never told. A movement you took out in week two can be perfectly fine by week eight, so avoid on this page nearly always means not yet. If the same exercise flares the leg every time you return to it, that is worth a physio watching how you do it rather than another attempt on your own.
Exercises to avoid with sciatica works through the same rule from the leg's end, and the sciatica program explains how to read the changes as symptoms move up or down the leg.
When to stop, and when it is an emergency
Some of what follows is not an exercise question at all, and a page about what to avoid is exactly where a reader can miss it.
Stop the exercises and get medical advice the same day if the leg pain eases while numbness or weakness in the leg gets worse, or if your foot has begun to drag, catch or slap down as you walk. Back or leg pain with a fever, or feeling hot, cold, shivery or generally unwell, is also the same day rather than next week. If you have had spine surgery or a spinal injection in the last three months, the infection warning in the section on operations above belongs in this list too, and it applies even without a fever.
The emergency signs below, including numbness around your genitals or bottom and new bladder or bowel trouble, need help straight away. Those two are signs of pressure on the bundle of nerves at the base of the spine, they do not wait for an appointment, and the route is an ambulance or someone else driving, not you. The list also holds emergencies that are nothing to do with a disc, including the ones written for a reader who has had cancer, who has a condition that stiffens the spine, or who has been told about a swelling of the main blood vessel in the tummy, so read it rather than assuming it is all the same warning.
The full list at the foot of this page gives every warning sign with how fast to act on it. When sciatica needs urgent care sorts the same signs by speed if you are not sure whether yours is one of them. Nothing in either list means you will never exercise again. What changes is the order: the emergency signs need emergency help now, with somebody else driving, and the exercises wait; the same-day signs mean being seen today; and the slower ones mean being seen before your next session.
Related exercise programs
Warning signs
Get emergency help now
- Emergency: numbness, tingling or altered feeling around or under your genitals, between your inner thighs, or around your bottom (anus), for example it feels different when you wipe after using the toilet. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. This can be a sign of pressure on the bundle of nerves at the base of the spine (cauda equina syndrome), which needs emergency treatment.
- Emergency: you find it hard to start peeing, cannot pee, cannot feel yourself peeing or cannot control when you pee, or you do not notice when you need to poo or cannot control when you poo, and this is not normal for you. The same applies to a new change in how your genitals feel during sex, new trouble getting or keeping an erection, new trouble ejaculating, or new trouble reaching orgasm. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. These can also be signs of cauda equina syndrome.
- Emergency: sciatica in both legs, or pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs. The same applies if you lose feeling in one leg. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
- Emergency: back or leg pain that started after a serious accident, such as a car crash or a fall from a height, or back pain with chest pain. Call emergency services. If the pain started straight after the accident, keep still while you wait.
- Emergency: sudden, severe pain in your lower back or tummy that is not like your usual back pain, if you have been told you have a swelling of the main blood vessel in your tummy (abdominal aortic aneurysm), you are over 60, you smoke or used to smoke, or you have high blood pressure. The same applies if sudden, severe back or tummy pain comes with feeling faint or passing out, pale, sweaty or clammy skin, a racing heartbeat or being short of breath. Call emergency services straight away. This can be a sign of an aneurysm bursting, which needs treatment in hospital at once.
- Emergency: back pain with a fever, or you feel hot, shivery or very unwell, and you also have new weakness, numbness or tingling in one or both legs, or new trouble with your bladder or bowels. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. This can be an infection pressing on the nerves in the spine (spinal epidural abscess), which needs emergency treatment.
- Emergency: you have had cancer, now or in the past, and your back or neck pain feels like a tight band around your body, or you have new or worsening pain spreading down an arm or leg, weakness, numbness, pins and needles or a loss of feeling in your arms or legs, trouble walking, or trouble controlling your bladder or bowels. Those symptoms count on their own, with or without back or neck pain. Call your cancer team's emergency number straight away, or go to an emergency department if you do not have one or cannot get through, and do not drive yourself. This can be cancer pressing on the spinal cord (metastatic spinal cord compression), which needs treatment straight away.
- Emergency: new neck or back pain after a fall, a knock or a jolt, even a minor one such as a trip or a sudden stop in a car, if you have a condition that stiffens the spine, such as ankylosing spondylitis. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, do not drive yourself, and tell the staff about your spine condition, so they keep your neck and back in their usual position. A stiff spine can break after a small injury, and the break is easy to miss at first. If the pain started straight after the injury, or you also have numbness, tingling or weakness in your arms or legs, keep still and call emergency services.
Get help today
- Same day: a leg or foot that is getting weaker, for example your foot drags, catches on the ground or slaps down when you walk (foot drop). Get medical advice the same day. If the weakness is getting worse by the hour, go to an emergency department.
- Same day: back or leg pain with a fever, or you feel hot, cold, shivery or generally unwell. Get medical advice the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. If you have a very high or very low temperature, shivering you cannot control, you are breathing very fast or finding it hard to breathe, you are confused or your speech is slurred, your skin, lips or tongue look blue, gray, pale or blotchy (on brown or black skin this can be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet), or you have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services, as this can be sepsis.
- Same day: new back or leg pain and you have had cancer, now or in the past, or you have lost weight without trying. Get medical advice the same day and mention it. If you are being treated for cancer now, contact your cancer team the same day.
- Same day: back pain after a minor fall or strain if you are older, have low bone density (osteoporosis) or have taken steroid tablets for a long time. Get medical advice the same day. Until it has been checked, stop the exercises and keep away from lifting, bending forward and twisting, because those load a bone in the spine that may be broken.
- Same day: severe pain that comes on suddenly or is getting worse quickly. Get medical advice the same day.
- Same day: a calf or thigh that is newly swollen or getting more swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, has swollen veins that are sore to touch, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that does not fit your injury or condition, or that feels different from normal muscle soreness after exercise. This can be a sign of a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis), especially after surgery, an injury, time in a cast or boot, a long trip or a spell of being much less mobile than usual. Get medical advice the same day. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services.
- Same day: pain that does not ease at all with rest or changing position, or is worse at night. Get medical advice the same day if you also feel unwell, have lost weight without trying, or have had cancer, now or in the past.
- Same day: if you have had spine surgery or a spinal injection in the last three months, contact your surgical team the same day about a fever, a wound that is red, hot, swollen or leaking, or back or leg pain that is new or much worse, even without a fever. Redness can be harder to see on brown or black skin.
Book an appointment
- Within a few days: pain that does not ease at all with rest or changing position, or is worse at night. See your doctor within a few days.
- Within a week or two: back or buttock pain that started before the age of 45, has lasted more than three months, is worse after rest and in the morning, and eases when you move. This is not an emergency, but see your doctor in the next week or two and ask whether it could be inflammatory back pain (axial spondyloarthritis).
- Routine: back pain that comes from the top of your back, between your shoulders, rather than your lower back, and has not been checked, or back pain that is worse when you sneeze, cough or poo, or comes with a lump or swelling, or a back that has changed shape. Book an appointment with your doctor, as the NHS advises, and have it checked. Do not start or change your exercises until it has been checked. If the pain came on suddenly, get medical advice the same day.
Common questions
Are squats bad for a herniated disc?
No, and most people get back to squatting in some form. If you have had an operation on your back, your surgeon's or surgical team's plan comes first and overrides everything here. What changes first is the depth, the load and how many you do, not whether the movement is allowed. Standing up from a chair asks far less of the back than a full squat does, which is why the squat sits in the last stage of our program rather than the first. Judge it by the leg and not by the name: a set that leaves symptoms no further down your leg that evening, and no further down it the next morning, has been tolerated. Numbness or weakness getting worse is the exception to that, and it needs medical advice the same day whatever the pain is doing. Barbell loading, belts and the order the big lifts come back in are a separate question, and the returning to the gym page covers them.
Can I do sit-ups with a herniated disc?
Usually not in the first weeks, and that is a judgement about timing rather than a rule about discs. If you have had an operation on your back, your surgeon's or surgical team's plan comes first and overrides everything here. Curling up off the floor is repeated bending under load, which a sore disc often objects to, and the muscles you are doing it for can be trained with the back held still while things settle. Test it again once the leg has been quiet for a while, starting with a few slow repetitions instead of a set, and let your leg decide. Three readers ask first instead of testing. If you have been told you have low bone density (osteoporosis), ask your physio, because deep rounding of the spine is usually limited. If you are pregnant, check with your midwife or physio before you start. If you have recently given birth, including by cesarean section, or you have a gap down the middle of your stomach muscles (diastasis recti), ask your physio, midwife or doctor first.
What activities should I avoid with a slipped disc?
Fewer than you would expect, and the useful answer depends on your leg rather than on a list. If you have had an operation on your back, your surgeon's or surgical team's plan comes first and overrides everything here. Long spells sitting or driving, lifting heavy things off the floor and repeated deep bending cause most of the trouble in the early weeks, and all three answer to being made smaller rather than dropped: shorter spells, lighter loads, less range. If pain, numbness or tingling spreads further down your leg during or after an exercise, stop that exercise and leave it out for now. The NHS advice is to stay active and keep up your normal activities, starting gentle exercise such as walking as soon as you can manage it. Short rests to ease a bad spell are fine, then get up and move again. Days in bed are the one thing genuinely worth avoiding, because they cost you more than they save.
Can I exercise if I have a herniated disc?
Yes, for most people, and both NICE and the NHS point that way rather than toward rest. If you have had an operation on your back, your surgeon's or surgical team's plan comes first and overrides everything here. The NHS says the type of exercise does not matter much as long as it does not cause pain or make your back pain worse, and it names walking first. What most readers are short of is not permission but a test, and here the test is your leg: anything that pushes symptoms further toward your foot comes out for now, and anything that draws them back up toward the buttock stays in. There is one exception that overrides all of it. Leg pain that eases while numbness or weakness in the leg gets worse needs medical advice the same day.
References
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Low back pain and sciatica in over 16s: assessment and management (NG59). Published 2016, last updated July 2026. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng59
- NHS. Slipped disc. Last reviewed 24 April 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/slipped-disc/
- NHS. Back pain. Page last reviewed 5 March 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/back-pain/
- healthdirect. Spinal disc problems. Last reviewed November 2024. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/conditions/back-and-spinal-disorders/spinal-disc-problems
- healthdirect. Lumbar microdiscectomy. Last reviewed January 2026. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/surgery/lumbar-microdiscectomy
- Saraceni N, Kent P, Ng L, Campbell A, Straker L, O'Sullivan P. To flex or not to flex? Is there a relationship between lumbar spine flexion during lifting and low back pain? A systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2020;50(3):121-130. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2020.9218
- Kreiner DS, Hwang SW, Easa JE, et al. An evidence-based clinical guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy. The Spine Journal. 2014;14(1):180-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spinee.2013.08.003
- Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 2015;36(4):811-816. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.A4173
- May S, Aina A. Centralization and directional preference: a systematic review. Manual Therapy. 2012;17(6):497-506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.math.2012.05.003
- van der Windt DA, Simons E, Riphagen II, et al. Physical examination for lumbar radiculopathy due to disc herniation in patients with low-back pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2010;(2):CD007431. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007431.pub2
- Finucane LM, Downie A, Mercer C, et al. International framework for red flags for potential serious spinal pathologies. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2020;50(7):350-372. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2020.9971
- Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), NHS England. National suspected cauda equina syndrome (CES) pathway. February 2023, updated March 2026. https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/National-Suspected-Cauda-Equina-Pathway-March-2026.pdf
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Spondyloarthritis in over 16s: diagnosis and management (NG65). Published February 2017. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng65
- NHS. Abdominal aortic aneurysm. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/abdominal-aortic-aneurysm/
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Abdominal aortic aneurysm: diagnosis and management (NG156). 2020. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng156
- Darouiche RO. Spinal epidural abscess. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006;355(19):2012-2020. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra055111
- NHS. Sepsis. Page last reviewed 14 May 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sepsis/
- NHS. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Page last reviewed 30 April 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/deep-vein-thrombosis-dvt/
Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-11-02.
This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.