Hello,
I commute about 8 miles every day through London with absolutely no bother on my Hoy Shizuka hybrid.
But when I go on longer rides on a more 'roady' bike I tend to get lower back pain.
I spent a lot of money on a proper bike fit before I bought my Fairlight Strael and it is very comfortably set up.
However, my lower back is still the first thing that becomes uncomfortable on a longer ride.
By longer ride I would say anything over an hour.
I did a four hour ride along the Pembrokeshire coast recently. 80km. 1200m elevation gain. After I was homeward bound I had to keep standing on the pedals and eventually just getting off to straighten my back and ease the pain. Whist this ride was a massive endeavour for a fairweather cyclist like myself, apart from general fatigue it was really only my lower back that stopped me truly enjoying it and even going further (my shoulders also ached but it wasn't a deal breaker).
I don't blame the bike fit. I blame my own fitness! I'm 52, 90kg and whilst I'm active and can do this kind of thing without regular training, I'm clearly no Olympian!
Even today I did a fairly straightforward 60k with no hills and at a gentle pace and whilst it was nowhere near as uncomfortable as the Pembrokeshire effort, my lower back was still shouting at me after an hour or so.
Question I have is what tips does anyone have to help alleviate this? How could I strengthen my lower back? Are there any special lower back exercises for cyclists? Is it simply a case of spending more hours in the saddle?
Any tips and thoughts are gratefully received.

Weightlifting, deadlifts in particular. Not a whole lot of it is necessary to significantly strengthen muscles in the area. Helped me personally.

​​​​​​Also if the handlebars are too high (I doubt that the problem is the opposite), this can put more weight through the saddle and back.

Pushups

I have lots of lower back issues and for me the best remedy is stretching, the most important/effective stretch (for me) is knee to opposite shoulder. Not to rule out strength training. My first physical therapist was mostly focused on strength training (planks and such) and a later PT was mostly about stretching, and the stretching turned out to be a "eureka" discovery for me. I think you have to figure out what works best for you, and don't be afraid to try different physical therapists and different approaches - experiment.

I used many of these when I had issues and now have zero issues: https://www.anytimefitness.com/ccc/w...ur-lower-back/

You will need to be patient and consistent doing these daily. It took me about 3 months to get there. Hopefully you will be faster

One of my brothers swears that a few short yoga sessions at home, after rides, has helped him tremendously. He piles up the miles annually. I don’t like stretching, and I get a little back fatigue as the OP described. I usually stand and stretch, twist, continue on. For me I think it’s due to prolonged efforts without that muscle group moving much, but in constant use/tension. Short relief breaks help. On hillier rides where I stand a lot more regularly I don’t get back cramps at all, so for me, I think I have it figured out.

Hard foam roller for the hamstrings.

I'm going to guess your hybrid bicycle has flat bars and the road bike has drop bars. Try taking the hybrid out for an extended ride (maybe a few extended rides) and see how your back feels after that. Then look at the handlebar height variation between the two bicycles. Maybe you need to raise the bars (or go with flat bars) on your road bike. I did that (raised the handlebars on my road bike a little bit with an adjustable stem) and my back issues went away.

Stretching and core work. A little goes a long way.

I do my Judo jujitsu stretching, exercises and keep my upper body relaxed.

My only advice is that you need to start doing strength training and start lifting some heavy stuff to strengthen your body.

I spend 8-12 hours on my feet at work. I get through it just fine but can be awfully sore in the low back on my days off.

I’m terrible about stretching and strengthening so I need periodic painful reminders to keep it up. It only takes like 10 minutes a day to keep it good.

1. Lay flat on the floor until the low back eases up. It might hurt.

2. Three stretches. Knee to chest, straight leg perpendicular to the body twist, and figure 4 with the legs and bring it to toward the chest. Hold each stretch long enough to feel everything relax and give you a few more inches of stretch (45 seconds or so).

3. Standing with straight legs and a straight back, bend forward to 90 degrees and back up. 12-15 times. Start empty handed and progress to weights. I never go beyond 20lbs because it seems like beyond that, you’re playing with fire. My personal opinion anyway. 3 sets, and do what I describe in #4 in between.

4. Core. 3 sets - 20-30 crunches slow and in control, chin to the ceiling. Planks - 45 seconds to 2 minutes. You can mess around with lifting one leg or one arm during that time, I’m not strong enough to do that but most people are. Finally, 20 burpees.

That’s it. If I can remember to do that a few times a week, my back is golden. If not, I can ride fine but I can’t stand up straight after I get off the bike.

After a long recovery from a near collision in 2013 with some feral hogs in Texas, I found myself not only 3cm shorter but unable to ride the same way I had ridden before. I had three bikes that I rode fairly regularly and all before the accident were set up just the way I liked them. After the accident ridding was painful. I had to adjust the way I ride and more than that my technique. Now days as I get older and slower and weaker I am making adjustments again.

My suggestion is that you make the adjustments slowly. For low back pain try raising your bars about 1 to 2cm. Also lower your seat about 1 cm. Then ride, ride, ride before making adjustments again. Make all your adjustments slowly over a long period of time and ridding. I found that for my low back pain I had to move the bars up 4.5cm (that's allot!) and move my seat down about 1.5cm. I also went to Bull Horn handle bars cause I am no longer able to use the drops effectively. All in all be sure that you make your adjustments small and slowly with a good amount of ridding in between. Good Luck...

ummm, suggest asking your doc/physical therapist. But for free advice from a guy too old for much exercise: sit upright in chair, rotate upper body in circle. Mix it up by rotating head/shoulders first or shuffle your feet back/forth.

Assuming your bike fit is good, agree with others on stretching and core exercises (I do 5 minutes of planks most days - different positions).

But, something that helped me and my back, especially that early morning soreness, was a new mattress - a plush/firm foam mattress. If your mattress is very old, consider that, too.

I'm assuming the major difference is between the more upright riding position of the hybrid and the hunched over position of the road bike. I've seen where a lot of people with back problems have been able to ride bikes with a more upright position but can't ride drop bars. You may need to check your saddle/handlebar height or possibly speak to a doctor.

Child pose, upward facing dog, cat, cow.

Lift heavy too.

The thing about bike fitters is they only see the position you adopt on the bike in their presence, where you're on your best behavior. They don't see what you look like after you've been riding for a couple hours. I've found that all kinds of things may be comfortable for 20 miles or even for 40 miles but become a problem by 60 miles. For example, one of my bikes came with a 130mm stem. If I rode it for >30 miles, I'd start getting lower back pain. I got a 120mm stem, and I've ridden it for over 100 miles without the lower back pain. It was literally the same model of stem, same angle, same everything, but 1 cm closer, and that was all the difference.

stretching, yoga, moving components around, changing shoes, core exercises, taking Glucosamine, using hot/cold therapy gel, taking ibuprofen, that is treating the symptoms.

fix the cause and your back problems will go away.

the cause is your posture on the bike.

everybody has a natural inward curve on their backs. this is called Lordosis.

what you want to do is try and maintain that inward curve of your back while riding the bike, i find that this can be difficult, and usually end up with the back flat with not much inward bend, this is still a lot better than being in a big arch.

and you want to sit in a good chair with good posture. , sleep on a good mattress, and lift heavy objects correctly.

when you incorrectly arch your back when bending over to grab the bars, drops, hoods, or next to the stem, you are mis-aligning the SI joint (sacroiliac joint) . you want the pelvic area to be in line with the spinal column. when you stoop to grab the bars, you are forming an angle between the SI joint and the spine. over time this will start to cause problems, especially if you climb steep hills in a big gear with max effort.

out of the saddle hill jams and climbing? same thing. maintain that correct posture and you will slowly stretch that SI joint hack into alignment. you may find that when you fix the posture problem, that after a few days, you no longer feel pain towards the outside of your hips and the center of the spine, but instead the pain will move to the center of the back near the L5 area. do not be discouraged. this is normal. it is called centralization. it is a sign that you are moving in the right direction. after about a week or so, this pain should go away.

you can go to the chiro and ask for a HVLA (high velocity-low amplitude) move on the SI joints. it might be that just one SI joint needs adjustment. a good chiro will know which one. A tight SI joint will cause the other SI joint to have excessive movement. It does this to make up for the tight joint when walking, etc. This excessive movement can cause pain. If you do an adjustment to the loose SI, you will be making the problem worse. So you want to treat the SI joint that is not hurting in order to fix the one that is hurting. You can adjust both side if your chiro is not sure which is which, this is better than nothing, The loose joint will recover and the tight joint will now be in proper alignment. Your chiro will able to tell which side was tight by the amount of joint movement he hears while doing the adjustment.

During recovery, stretching can help. Standing up and bending your back in 5 times while looking up is a good one. So is lying on all 4's and arching your back up and down, as well as getting into pushup position and arching your back upwards.

An added benefit of cycling with correct posture will be more speed/power. Yeah, i'll take some of that!

Also, when you climb out of the saddle, try to keep a fluid-like motion. In other words, do not lock up your back muscles when climbing.

Backs are weird and can be hard to troubleshoot. Sometimes trouble in one area will show up in a completely different area. Back pain can also affect your thinking. I find it hard to tackle technical problems while suffering back pain.

You also might have a disk problem. To find out, lie down flat on your back and lift one leg at at time. I you feel pain, this could be a disc that is causing sciatic problems. Numbness in the legs and other areas is also a symptom of the sciatic.

ever hear someone say 'get a longer stem' when trying to help someone with back problems? seems contrary. seems like you should use a shorter stem to keep from bending over so much. but what the longer stem does is stretch your back out so it does not have as much arch to it, thus improving your bike posture which keeps pain away.

tight hamstrings: there is another problem that could be contributing to your back pain. to check for a tight hammy sit on a chair with another chair of equal height out in front of you. lift your legs and ut your heels on the chair in front of you. can you straighten your legs without a lot of pain or do you need to keep your legs bent? tight hammy's can pull your pelvis out of alignment just like bad back posture. you can stretch the hammy's on the chair or use an alternate hammy exercise.

There is a great book called Treating Your Own Back by Robert McKenzie. It is available for cheap in paperback or online as a pdf if you search.

Good Luck!

Another good cycling-specific book is Tom Danielson's "Core Advantage": https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Danielson.../dp/193403097X

Part of the book is devoted to the biomechanical theory behind the exercises, and was written by physiologist Allison Westfahl. It's very informative and well done, and agrees with other information I've stitched together from physical therapy and doctor visits. Danielson (the pro cyclist) chimes with various anecdotes from his experience. There are too many exercises in the book to realistically do them all, but picking out a few will help.

To simplify greatly, the core muscles control the position and rotation of the pelvis, which in turn affects the curvature of the spine. A weak core can lead to the pelvis moving too far (and spine bending too much) in the lumbar area, which can lead to bulging / ruptured discs, pinched nerves, etc. The location of the pain or tingling can be used to diagnose which vertebrae are affected. Depending on the disc injury, some people benefit from increasing curvature in the lumbar area, while others benefit from decreasing it. That analysis can then be used to develop a plan for therapy.

When most people think of doing core exercises, crunches / sit ups are the first things that may come to mind, but those are actually more harmful than good, due to the stress those put on the lumbar area and the overdevelopment of the abdominals. There are other muscle groups in the core that are important for stabilization of the pelvis. Many of the exercises require less motion in the spine than crunches, like hip bridges, squats, or suspending opposite legs while lying on the ground (and/or kneeling).

Other things that helped me were using a standing desk at work, and going on long day hikes. It took a few months of doing all of that stuff for my pain to go away.

When riding, I try to avoid bumps as much as possible, lightening up in the saddle when I see them coming. I also take Ibuprofen before starting a ride, to help counteract any inflammation that may want to start up.

maybe it's posture?

I try to keep my back straight, which I can never actually achieve. but I try. the sensation feels like I'm arching my back & sticking my butt out, but while riding past a big window I can see that is not the case

similar sensation to trying to walk with my shoulders back, instead of my usual bad posture. feels like I'm sticking my chest out, when in fact I'm not

core strengtining

TRX, planks, yoga, Pilates, core strength.

I'll second the deadlifts suggestion. Seems kind of contrary to what you would think to address back pain, but it worked for me. I've been struggling with major back issues for 25 years. I've had injections, ablations, all kinds of therapy, decompression, chiropractic, and acupuncture. The thing that seemed to work the best was simply lifting weights...particularly deadlifts. Doctors will tell you it's a bad idea, but if done properly they really help to strengthen the entire posterior chain. There really isn't another exercise that does it better. But be careful, it's very easy to get carried away and end up pushing yourself too much and injuring something.

I've heard that over the years, and the only way that's made sense to me is that doctors tend to see the negative outcomes of these things and try to keep people from getting hurt.

Otherwise, strengthening your muscles to prevent injury makes perfect sense, because when your muscles are too weak to perform a motion, too much of the load gets shifted onto the joints.