What are the pain differences between lower back muscle pain an herniated disc pain?

Disc pain= leg pain: Usually low back muscle pain stays localized to the lower back, occasionally it can radiate up your spine. Pain from a herniated disc can cause not only low back pain, but more importantly leg pain. Your nerves are like electrical cords, when you put pressure on a nerve near your spine (like a herniated disc) you can cause pain along the entire length of the nerve; down your leg.

Radiation: Herniated discs usually cause radiating pain along the nerve pattern of the nerve they compress and often don't cause back pain. Back pain is usually representative of a structural problem at the sight of the pain either in the bone, joints, muscles or connective tissue.