I was about to create a thread about this myself.....
30 years old here. I started Jiu jitsu ; Muay thai and boxing some years ago without proper conditioning and strenght, all which led me to two herniated lumbar disk plus sciatica.
First, i cut off Muay thai, because i thought the problem was the roundhouse kick. lol nope, another crisis happened soon
Then i cut off Boxing, which some doctors pointed out that it was deceptively the worst of three (spinal rotations, footwork impact, same stance all the time which leads to imbalances etc)
No dice!
The leftover, Jiu jitsu led me to worsen my sciatica a lot.
I figured out that i was not gifted by nature to do martial arts, too manlet, too prone to injuries.
Currently im 100% now only because of Pilates. Im not coming back to Martial Arts. Fighting is the only sport that i do with joy and happiness. You can imagine my frustration, but i DONT wanna go under the knife because of spinal disks, a very risky surgery that will impact me forever.