I've got a protruded L5-S1 that put me out of riding, and any physical activity for that matter, for about 20 weeks. I had to go through the Chiro, MRI, PT, Dr's routine they make everyone go through until they finally decided to just give me an epidural which changed everything.
Not sure how much you know about discs, but from what I learned from my full summer dealing with it is that 1.) Your disc will never "heal" or regenerate. 2.) Bulging is the first level of a damaged disc, for some stretching, strengthening, and posture adjustments can be made to relieve some if not all issues, second level is protrusion, this can be seen as a bulge, but internally the inner support walls of your disc are damaged allowing the inner gel like fluid to protrude through them into outer shells causing it push out like a deflated balloon (bulging disc is the same thing but without the inner walls being broken, think of a full balloon being pushed on), and the third level is full herniation 3) Disc injuries are unpredictable and anything from bending over to tie your shoes can trigger a damaged disc
Prior to my protruded disc, I had back issues in general (mild case of scoliosis), and PT/Inversion tables really helped my issues. However. with my damaged disc, the inversion table, chiropractor work, and PT made it ALOT worse without my injections. I actually bought a pretty nice inversion table for home use to see if it would help me and I used it maybe 5 times before I realized it's making it worse. I still have it, if you are interested in purchasing one, feel free to look into them and give me a message if interested, I will make you a deal just to get it out of my place.
Long story short, once I received my epidural, I could finally get to working on strengthening my back and addressing some of improper posture habits I had accumulated due to my back issues without that damaged disc causing a bunch of pain. Usually back injuries cause ATP (anterior pelvic tilt, strongly recommend looking into), which causes many problems in itself. To combat this, strengthening your core, making conscious efforts throughout the day on posture, and sleeping with a pillow under you hip area can help reduce ATP.
My general core/low back exercises usually involve back squats, dead lifts, planks (side, normal, and RKC), russian twists, and leg lifts. If I do anything with weights that is back related, even if light, use a support belt, it will help assist you and keep you from doing the exercise in bad form. If you think you possess ATP like traits, definitely do hip flexor stretches. If you have bulged disc, especially in the low-mid back region, DO NOT do any bending of the back exercise likes sit ups or crunches. These exercises in general promote a motion in the back that intentionally bulges your discs by pinching one side over the other due to the flexing of the spine, it will only make it worse.
I'm no expert by any means and I'm only talking from personal experiences, so take it with a grain of salt everyone is different and every back is different. From the experts I have seen, they all view back injuries differently, and they all have their own way of dealing with them, so my general knowledge is kind of a complied amount of information.