What is the difference between a herniated disk and a pulled muscle?

Both can be painful: But a pulled muscle is a tearing of the actual muscle fibers and will heal within 6 weeks and not cause any neurologic or nerve findings while a disc herniation is a tearing of the outer coating of the disc with a piece of the disc shifting its position out of its normal place which can lead to muscular pain or even compress nerve tissue leading to neurologic findings with most healing over time.