need so help with excercises

Hi all, I was wondering if you guys could give me a had in developing a workout routine. First let me give you run down on what I have to work with. All discs in my lumbar spine are herinated and All but 1 or two in my cerical spine are herinated also. They did not even bother with the thoratic, they said they are probabley all bad too. I am limited to what I can do. My cardio I do is Ellpictcal 30 to 50 minutes and I have been doing that about 5 days a week. let me list the things I like to do Chest,  incline dumbell press, flat bench press, bench flat fly's shoulders upright row, seated shoulder press, shoulder machine back seated rows, machine rows machine pull down. bicept preacher curl, alt dumbell curl. curl bar tricept, close grip bench, cable pull down and tri machine. I am scared to death to try any ab workouts, I hear and it looks to me that you need a strong back to work on abs and my back is like swiss cheese. and I do not do any legs excersises because I thought I was getting enough with the ellpical machine. How should I go about my workouts?  chest and shoulder and cardio one day? back and cardio another day? Arms (bi and tri) and cardio another day? I tried back and bi and chest and tri and shoulder but that did not work for me by the time I got to the arms part my muscles were spent. sorry for the long drawn out post but I have been racking my brains trying to devolpe a plan and I just found this forum. thanks Sean

Sean,  Though my goal is to become a personal trainer I am not one yet so I would suggest emailing [email protected]...    He is the expert around here and a great guy to talk to...I think he would be able to steer you more in the right direction considering your injuries...we want to help you not hurt you  Best of luck and keep up the GREAT WORK! Michelle

thanks I just did that. Sean

Hi Sean, Well, with the injuries it's kind of difficult to do this onlne. There's a whole lot of issues. I can give you general ideas though. The program you laid out is basically what I do now Chest Shoulders cardio Cardio Back cardio Cardio Arms cardio legs cardio cardio Cardio is an off day for me but I still like to walk or move around because I have a sitting office job. When I had back issue walking was the best rehab exercise I did and some good mornings with a broom stick. But I don't know what kind of range of motion or pain you're in. Ab training general helps support the lower back. But again I don't know what kind of range of motion or pain you're in. Also when I had back issue where I could barely bend over I found I could do things like bench presses in a Hammer Strength machine and back work where my chest was supported and sitting in a machine. I'm not sure where you workout, but machines are a good option when you're injuried. Go with your instincts, if you think ab training will injure your back you're probably right. If it hurts, don't do it. Training around injuries is possible but it's a whole other ball game than regular training. btw I used to do the back bi...chest delts tri workouts...they work pretty good, but the whole point is the back work does already work the bi so you don't have to do as much for the bicep like curls. If you like doing 12 sets of curls for your bicep work them on a separate day. Everything works but nothing works forever. In the end you have to play around and find out what works for you. Good luck Earl

Talk to the trainer at the gym or hire one.  With your injuries talk to a pro

Thanks to all for the good advise. I think I am going try this: day 1 Chest, shoulder and cardio day 2 off day 3 back, neck and cardio day 4 off day 5 arms and cardio day 6 legs and cardio day 7 just cardio My work hours make it difficult to get the gym. I have to get up early and I am not a morning person, I like to sleep. I will keep you all updated on my progress. I plan on hitting the gym tomorrow gonna do chest shoulder Cardio.  Sean

Sounds like a plan. That's a good split for me. Good luck to you. I forgot all about neck. I do neck, forearms and calves whenever I can. Abs are done everyday as part of my warmup. Earl