Originally Posted by
Lemond1985
Don't stretch your back! There was an extensive study, linked here a few months back, that showed stretching the back actually hurts it and makes it more susceptible to injury. I stretched my back for decades, and had nothing but problems.
Took me forever to get the idea out of my head that the cure for back pain is stretching. But what it does is loosen the connective tissues, and cause discs and vertebrae to float around more, where they can much easily drift out of alignment.
The study found (as did I) that rather than stretching the back, exercises like planks and "bird dogs" work much better for strengthening ad keeping the back in alignment. Stretching is fine for other parts of the body, but not the back.
I don't recall seeing such a study. I googled, and found many studies recommending back stretches and one saying don't do forward (hamstring) stretches if you have
radiculopathy, but knees to chest and leaning back stretches are still recommended. I have spinal stenosis, thin discs, and arthritic facets (MRI) and have been using stretching for the past 15 years or so. I do the standard seated stretches plus the McKenzie System exercises (stretches, see: Supplementary Exercises for Biking and/or google
). These, plus back strengthening work has kept my back almost pain free.
For back strengthening, I've done gym work: deadlifts, barbell squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, and the weighted hyperextension machine. The gym being temporarily closed (we hope), I do my stretches, then pushups, front plank, and twisting side plank. Those are working OK if I do as much of those as possible, though I only do one set. I would emphasize that neither strengthening nor stretching keep back pain away by themselves. Been there, tried that. I have to do both. And no, none of this keeps my back pain free off the bike. Yeah it hurts, but it's OK, just minor, and on the bike it doesn't hurt at all. Back's still good enough to do hard long distance rides, pain free (in my back, that is!) Sure hope I can get back into the gym in the fall, but we'll see.
All that said, if you have a slipped or bulging disc, best talk to your spine specialist. Another caution: I once tore a hamstring doing seated forward stretches to an extreme, nose to knee type of thing. I don't go that far anymore. Hamstring healed up fine.
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