• Injuries can vary from broken or compressed bones (vertebra), damaged “soft tissues” (such as nerve muscles or connective tissue), or damaged discs. Of course, injuries can and often do involve combinations of the above.
• It is important to understand that every nerve in your body originates from your spine. From the tips of your fingers and toes to the top of your head, the nerves which allow us to feel extend all the way from our spine.
• Generally speaking, the nerves of our legs and feet extend out of our lower back, and the nerves of our arms and hands extend out of our neck.
• Our spinal cord is surrounded by bones called vertebrae.
• In between these vertebrae, nerves extend out of the spinal area throughout the body.
• The vertebrae are separated and cushioned by discs. These cushioning discs are important to ensure that the nerves extending out of the spinal area are not pinched.

Often times back injuries involved slipped, bulging, or herniated disks. Here you can see various stages of disk damage.