Lower Back Pain?
 

I was wondering how many of you clydes have lower back pain? I think most of my pain is caused by my big stomach. I know that my brother went to physical therapy and the doctor told him that his stomach was pulling his hips and back out of alignment. That is exactly where I have pain now (hips and lower back).

I am wondering that after losing weight and getting the core stronger do these pains normally subside? I have been taking Naproxen fopr months now and it really does not help.

So I've hooked up my bike to trainer that I got for Christmas and I'm going to start riding an hour a day. Let me know if back pain decreases with weightloss?

Yep, as you reduce the belly and strengthen the core, your lower back pain should at least significantly reduce. Try Abdominal crunches on the floor. It helped me out a lot! Also, lie flat on your back on the floor for a few minutes and just allow yourself to relax completely. It relieves the lateral pressure on the spine for a bit and allows the back muscles to relax. Also, get your significant other to give you some deep tissue massage in the lower back (Compression of the muscles, no sliding massage, just grab, squeeze and release).

You may want to experiment with riding position also. I ended up buying an adjustable stem for my road bike that allowed me to get the bars level with the seat, this helped a lot for both my lower back and wrists on longer rides.

I know guys won't go to a doctor even if their head were partically cut off, but if the pain is chronic go see a doctor. I just thought my weight, age etc was causing my pain. Turns out I actually have a serious issue (spinal stenosis; arthritis and I will need surgery in time). Good thing about my ailment - cycling helps it. Something about my bent over positioning helps stretch out my back and eases the pain. Sitting bolt upright on a bike will not help but infact, may cause other problems.

Anyway see a doctor and go from there.

Back pain can be an extremely individual thing. What causes YOUR back pain and MY back pain are most likely different. Mine is a chipped vertebrae. I have to ride very upright like Mary Poppins.

I have not heard anyone saying that leg stretching is a problem. I have found the more stretching that I do for my legs (thighs) the better my lower back is for everything, unless I am a dunce and lift too much the wrong way or to much weight.

I started going to a chiropracter (my spin teacher by the way) and he gave me a menagerie of stretches to do every night (I now do about 3 times a week) and some core exercises which I also try to do 3 times a week and it greatly reduced my pain. I should try to do the stretches more often but I get lazy sometimes and blow them off. I now get a good nights sleep with out waking up in pain. And the biking has helped also.

I've had back pain ever since highschool( stupid weightlifitng injury). I've taken pain killers and anti inflammatory,I've been to chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists...I could keep going. Pretty much nothing worked, It would be manageable and then get really bad for a few months. One day on a whim I went to a yoga class. It made such a difference.Now my pain is mostly under control and only gets bad a few times a year and doesn't stay bad for long. I'd say give yoga a try. It took me ages to get past all the new age BS. But I noticed an improvement the same day. I now do about 15 minutes every morning.

I recently went through a 2 1/2 week session of lower back/hip pain. I think mine stems from pulling a lower lumbar muscle years ago. I was on pain killers and as much bed rest as I could get (I still went to work). On the Friday before Thanksgiving I pulled up at work and contemplated going back home. I got stupid, literally drug myself out of the car, and slowly hobbled into the building. But hey, it only hurt when I moved. Needless to say, there was no way I could swing my leg over the bike.

Can you tell me what type of yoga do you were taught and what stretches? I am really needing to do more stretches to help my hamstrings. When my hamstrings are stretched consistantly I usually feel much better.

I'm sorry. I don't know what type it was. I took the class at my local community college and it was just called yoga. Btw the community college is a great place to take a yoga class, it's usually a lot cheaper than taking it at a yoga studio, and it's usually pretty basic since they have a wide range of people to teach. My only problem was after so many years of having a sore back my muscles are extremely tight. I found that I couldn't to about 25% of the exersizes in class. I found this great book. It really helped me get a lot better. It's almost like cheating you get great results without killing yourself. I highly recommend getting the book.

I have mustache handle bars on all of my bikes. It has worked wonders for my back. I have lower back problems and nerve damage due to disc problems. There are days in which I can not walk but I can ride my bike. I do haved to work on my hamstrings and core muscles during the winter break but I can not afford to give up my bike riding.

Gas, the price of a can of beans

I was mtn biking yesterday having a great time for the first five miles. I turned around and started climbing and before long my lower back was aching. I soldiered on for awhile but it became unbareable and with about a mile to go I started looking at my bike. My saddle had slid all the way back on the rails, after putting it right my pain was gone.

So anyway you may want to look at your saddle position...

I think my pain is from an old injury from when I was in the Army. Since getting out of the Army in 2003 I have put on 40 pounds and I do not strecth everyday like I did when I was in the Army. I think alot of my problem is from not being flexible. My hamstrings are very tight and so are my hips. I have been to Chiropractors and Physical Therapist and it only helps for a couple weeks or so.

I think if I continue to lose weight and work on my flexibility my pain will decrease.

If your hamstrings are tight, that could be part of your problem, but it is not a fix for everything.

Alot of good advice above. My situation: degenerated disks in the lower back (L2-L3, L3-L4), compressed nerves exiting at those levels (foraminal stenosis), arthritis in the facet joints. I've gone from frequently in pain to almost never by doing the following:
- Acupuncture for flare-ups
- Daily gentle standing stretches, expecially hamstrings
- Daily tai chi (about 20 minutes)
- Daily meditation (25 minutes)
- Supplements: 1 tbsp high-quality fish oil (anti-inflammatory), glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM
- Avoid foods to which I'm allergic/sensitive. For me, this is wheat, yeast, eggs and milk. Elimination diets can help determine what they are, or RAST tests. This last also fixed persistent knee and toe pain.
- Lastly, switched to a long-wheelbase recumbent.

Good luck!

+1

...and make sure it's a hard surface or minimal padding. I put my back out once doing crunches on my bed.

I'll second the stretches, I had a fight with chronic lower back pain about a year ago and stretching really helps. Something else that seems to be helping with back soreness and fatigue is doing back squats. Working with a coach I have been moving into some more power lifting type weight work and I am definitely seeing some dividends from this work. Although if you go this route get someone who knows what they are going to help as you can really mess things up.

Shog

I have a biggish belly and it does cause my back pain, no doubt about it. But I started running about a month ago and guess what? No back pain anymore. I thought it would be the opposite to be honest. It must be to do with the core muscles getting stronger. I don't think my belly has shrunk that much;-)

I also did Kundalini Yoga for a few years and was never better. Fitness and health all sorted with only one night a week. Very powerful. I must get back into it. lol

Stretching and core trianing is an awesome pain relieving combination, I highly recommend this book to you all... Stretching, by Bob Anderson (20th Anniversary), it covers stretching for daily activities and is sport specific too. Very easy to use.

Got it on Amazon.com for 13 bucks. Well worth it if you USE it!

Chiropractors are for fixing things that get out of place, your muscles are better off with consistent stretching to prevent them from pulling excessively on your skeleton. Because muscle is directly attached to the bones the pulling can often create a domino effect, hence the pain area and source of pain are not always a direct connection.

I have a ruptured disk, and a whole bunch of compacted disks, in my lower back, so back pain is kind of just part of my life (which sucks since I'm only 24). But, surprisingly, cycling doesn't aggravate it nearly as much as a lot of other activities, especially when I stretch really well.

Your core will get stronger the more you ride, especially if you try to put as little weight on your hands as possible. But, I would also really concentrate on stretching before and after you ride. You can get a really good full-body stretch in about 5 minutes, and you'll really notice a difference (unless you already stretch). Anyways, good luck.

Wonderful advice about lying on the floor. It works for upper back pain as well. Ask me how I know. :-)

Hi Robert,

Weight loss, and more specifically loss of your gut, will probably reduce your back pain. In addition, tight hamstrings will cause that as well, and cyclists often get tight hamstrings. Add stretching to your routine. It pays off.

You are correct, it's not, but it's a relatively easy thing to work on, so why not do it? It can only help.

I had a bad bike accident where I pulled all the muscles in my lower back. I bought this book to help out my recovery: The Wharton's Back Book,ISBN-10: 1579547036. It helped a lot. Another thing I picked up was a pilates DVD for cyclist from velogear.com titled Yoga for Cyclist. It is nice because you can work on it at home and it helps a lot.