Road Cycling - Lower back pain

I've been experiencing significant discomfort in my lower back when I ride. During long or intense rides the muscles in my lower back become painfully tight (sometimes to the point of numbness) and I have to stop and stretch. The discomfort always goes away after the ride. I've been a rower all my life and I weight train regularly so I'd like to think this is not a strength issue. Is this a case of bad technique, wrong size bike (I'm 5'9", riding a 56 inch frame), or poor conditioning? Can any one help? It's frustrating to have to stop and stretch every 10 miles!

I've got middle-aged back syndrome (:eek: ) that comes and goes, but generally find a ride makes it better not worse. Is your stem high enough? Unless your racing, flip it around, and put in all the spacers to get the handlebars above the seat. How far are you riding? Perhaps you're trying to go too far? I'm good for about an hour or an hour and a half tops and then I want to do something else!

I also try to consciously relax the back and shoulder muscles whenever I think of it while riding...

Hi,
let's take this one step at a time. The easiest thng to do is to take a couple days off.If you can find a hot tub, do a long soak. You can also get a good result from filling the tub with hot water, stretching, and then resting in the tub with feet up on the edge, and slide down as far as you can comfortably go. Then do a short ride on day 3. Do 10-15 miles to see what your body says, don't stretch unless it bothers you. If it bothers you the same way we are looking at a few possiblitities. You might have a nagging injury that needs therapy. Or fit could be a problem. A short steep stem sometimes helps. There is a possiblity that you are using improper technique at times when weightlifting and don't notice due to fatigue.It happens to everybody at one point or another. Or it could be you are doing an exercise you are just too old to do now. What are you doing for exercises that nail the back? My gut feeling is that it's a combination of fit and your lifting. When I finally got a decent fit on my bike, I literally felt my back muscles relax. That might be all it takes. But to run into problems so quickly on your ride suggests to me your back is overtrained in some way. Good luck, and see a Doc if it doesn't get better soon.
-- Hi again. I was thinking, if we're dealing with an inflammatory response, some
advil (4xtwice a day) or alleve (2x2) for a couple days might be worth considering. You could also look into doing a diet that promotes healing for a couple days --

I've been experiencing significant discomfort in my lower back when I ride. During long or intense rides the muscles in my lower back become painfully tight (sometimes to the point of numbness) and I have to stop and stretch. The discomfort always goes away after the ride. I've been a rower all my life and I weight train regularly so I'd like to think this is not a strength issue. Is this a case of bad technique, wrong size bike (I'm 5'9", riding a 56 inch frame), or poor conditioning? Can any one help? It's frustrating to have to stop and stretch every 10 miles!


fond some good lower back flexibility stretches and do them whenever you can.

edit-[not knowing your measurements....but yes, 56cm might be a tad big]

How long are your legs in relation to your torso/upper body.

56 cm sounds perhaps a bit big, but bike measurements vary, and bodies vary a LOT.

Have you been professionally fitted to the bike?

I find that my back gets better with riding on the road bike, but I have my bars pretty high. At age 64, my LBS suggested I raise my bars, and it helped my neck a lot. Perhaps you need some professional fitting.

I also do a lot of exercises to strengthen my lower back, and they really help.

If it is not improper fitting or your position on the bike, my vote is for anterior pelvic tilt. You mentioned your background as a rower and that you do weight training. Read about it below, very common among people who spend a vast amount of time time in a seated type position. As suggested, check for the simple stuff first. Have your position on the bike looked at before you possibly over analyze.

http://www.protraineronline.com/past/apr03/howto.cfm

For lower back, do you do any stretching? By stretching, I mean longer stretches, where you spend 30- 45 minutes stretching for 4- 5 times per week? Do you stretch the lower back, hamstrings, inner and outer thigh, quads and glutes? Seriously, if you haven't done this yet, work in 4- 5 times per week where you can thoroughly stretch out the muscles. This would be in addition to the stretches you would do after your training session, so bear that in mind.

Also, do you do abdominal exercises? Sometimes, a bad back can be the result of weak abdominals. Abdominals can be exercised every day, and what I tell people when they come for aerobics classes to do is pick on television show they watch every day that comes on television for 30 minutes, and then spend the entire show doing different abdominal muscle exercises. This will definitely help to strengthen the back.

Also, are your handlebars too low? I recently started riding my new road bike, which I love, and I'm totally comfortable with, except that the handlebars are a bit lower than I'm used to. The first day I rode it, I rode 40 miles in the drops, and when I returned home, I was so sore in the lower back I couldn't ride again for about 3 days! After that, I leared to alternate between riding on the hoods and riding in the drops, and I decided to up my abdominal exercises again. I've slacked off on the yoga, but I'm slowly incorporating the 4 yoga classes per week I was taking before I left for my European travels in May (gone 5 weeks).

It may even be a combination of all these things. Experiment on the handlebars if you think that's the problem and see what happens if you raise it. If you're still sore, then it could be the stretching or the abs, or a combination of the two.

Koffee

the lower back is always used a lot when working hard/long rides... not much you can do but to make sure it's stretched and it's strong. also sit up for a while no-hands if you can do it, that will instantly relieve the back, as will standing up and pedalling..

sd

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I was not professionally fitted to the bike so I'll head down to pros to see what adjustments I can make to the bike and my posture.

Can anyone recommend some good lower back stretches and/or strengthening tips? Thanks again!

read this:

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/WaistWt.html#anchor1945210

As the others suggested, do some stretching exercises.
Plus raise your handle bars and lower your seat so your legs have a bend of 15 or so degrees to it as you pedal to the lowest part of your stroke.
I find it best when my body is at around 45 degrees so my back, butt, and hands all carry roughly the same proportional weight.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I was not professionally fitted to the bike so I'll head down to pros to see what adjustments I can make to the bike and my posture.

Can anyone recommend some good lower back stretches and/or strengthening tips? Thanks again!


The best thing, IMHO, to stretch the back AND build a few stomach muscles (no, you won't get a flat stomach) are sets of simple crunches...the boring kind where you roll your shoulders and head up and off the ground with your arms crossed on your chest while contracting your abdominals...this makes you stronger in the support muscles and has the effect of also stretching the lower back.

I do about 200-300 every morning and have had no, cross my fingers now, back issues. I am 44.

Z

I've been experiencing significant discomfort in my lower back when I ride. During long or intense rides the muscles in my lower back become painfully tight (sometimes to the point of numbness) and I have to stop and stretch. The discomfort always goes away after the ride. I've been a rower all my life and I weight train regularly so I'd like to think this is not a strength issue. Is this a case of bad technique, wrong size bike (I'm 5'9", riding a 56 inch frame), or poor conditioning? Can any one help? It's frustrating to have to stop and stretch every 10 miles!



In weight lifting and rowing where the lower back is concerned, there are recommended safe
techniques. This does not apply in cycling because the experts know of only one way to power
the pedals and while there are varying styles of the same basic technique, the application of
direct downward pressure is the main objective. This technique places the lower back under
continuous strain from a number of sources and that is the cause of the discomfort, assuming
that all other bike fit adjustments have been tried out.
Like weight lifting there is another safe method of pedalling, a linear style in which direct downward
pressure is never used and it places the back in almost the same state as that felt when weight
lifting. This identical technique was used by Anquetil, the world's greatest ever time trial rider.
His technique biomechanically combines the arm generating power of a "hand crank trike" rider
with the lower body power of a normal cyclist and when this combination is correctly synchronized,
it cannot be beaten in a TT or track pursuit by any other pedalling style.

This may or may not help but I battled lower back pain for about 7000 miles. I tried just about everything I could think of to fix the problem. I finally tracked my problem down to poor saddle fit.

The saddle I was using was causing me to ride with a poor posture. I was getting pressure on my perineum so I would rotate my pelvis back to relieve this pressure. That put stress on my lower back and that's what casued the pain. (The pelvis should be rotated forward)

I bought a Brooks Team Pro just recently and the saddle fits great and I have no more back pain. I'm not saying that a new saddle will help, but you should check your posture on the bike and make sure you are able to rotate at your hips rather than your waist. This will give you a flat back position and not put pressure on your lower back.

Just one idea.

Assuming you don't have leg symptoms and your pain is limitted to your back, then proper back exercise is important. Now, most people have absolutely no idea what good back exercises actually are. This has all to do with CORE strengthening, spinal segmental flexibilty, flexibilty, and extensor strength. You are probably strong and tight in the lats and pecs from rowing, but may be weak in the lower traps, serratus anterior, and rhomboids. If so, target these muscles when exercising. Glutes and hip stabalizers need to be strong as well. Pilates will cover the core--abs, glutes, hips and good stretching activities will help with range of motion (yoga for example. Pilates will help here too). THe spine needs to be flexible and it is much like a bike chain. You want a stiff back about as much as you want a stiff chain.