So recently I was diagnosed with lumbar disk degeneration. The discs between my L4&L5 and L5&S1 have no fluid left and are bulging. So no more sit-ups, squats or deadlifts for me. Planks and crunches are painful. I'm trying to figure out exercises to keep my legs strong and core strong so I can still keep fit. I'm .mil and a 3-gun guy so I'm trying to keep that in mind.

Off the bat I would recommend swimming and/or rowing if they arent painful to do.

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Walking up and down stairs. Lots and lots and lots of em.

I work on things like this:



That thing looks like a ship, but what is it really? An endless set of stairs. Seriously. There are stairs everywhere. Sometimes you have to go down one set of stairs just to go up another. A month straight of 12 hour days doing nothing but going up and down stairs...legs get huge

So what's your plan to strengthen your back to prevent further injury/degradation?

Did the doc say crunches are ok?  If he did, that right there would negate anything he says to me about how to keep my back strong and from getting worse.  When you squat properly, there will be almost no movement of the vertebrae, allowing all the muscles that support it to contract isometrically and get/stay strong.  

When you do crunches, you are in spinal flexion over and over, which is worse for your spine health (especially with what you have) than a squat at reasonable weights.

If it were me, I would squat and maybe deadlift at nice light weights and work up over time and see how it feels.  

You are right though, doing nothing and letting everything get weaker isn't the answer.

Yeah, I'd *guess* that crunches are probably not ok, especially if they are causing pain.

I'll just throw out there that in cases like this even doing bodyweight/air squats would probably be a good thing. There will be NO pressure on the back and will maintain full range of motion, and work the legs a bit at least. You MAY find that you can squat with very moderate weight (even just the bar perhaps)

Can't help you ojn the core exercises as all the ones I do would cause you pain.

For the legs, get a recumbent bicycle (RANS, Schlitter, Bacchetta etc) and that will keep the legs strong.  You may be able to use a leg press machine.  I would recommend going to a physical therapist first.