From a medical standpoint, explain to me how stretching can alleviate back pain.
 

From a medical standpoint, explain to me how improving stretching/flexibility and core strength can alleviate back pain from being bent over to achieve the most aero position. Any Docs in the house?

the stiffer the muscles in your legs, the more they will pull on your back when bent over in the aero position. Also, while bent like that, it is your core (muscles in stomach and back) which bear a lot of the load. The stronger they are, the less they have to work, and the less sore you will be.

I don't really understand the physiology but I can certainly speak from my own experience. Stretching makes a huge difference in my performance. I sometimes have to stop and stretch during the middle of a ride due to lower back pain. If I stretch properly I have more power, due to less pain. I think it also helps if you stretch everyday whether you ride that day or not.

stretch your hamstrings and hips everyday for two weeks and you'll see...

it's all about spinal alignment. The spine is very strong, in the correct orientation and when aligned. Tight muscles and tendons can lead to misalignment when on the bike, because the spine is usually aligned to work in other positions.
Core muscles take some of the strain off the lower back, in the absence of core muscle strength, the lower back muscles attempt to compensate for the weak abdomen, putting strain on the muscles, sometimes leading to spasms.

Increased core strength will also lead to proper hip alignment on the saddle, and make riding a saddle, any saddle, more comfortable.

Those large balls are good for this type of exercise, but you will not really gain core strength just by riding. Stretching can help with flexability and prevent injury, but it really will not help the base problem.

http://www.stoneclinic.com/rss/Podca...erBackPain.htm

The most important feature of low back pain in our rowers, on the crew, and our bicyclists appears to be weak abdominal and core strength. So, while back pain is an enormously broad subject and, by no means do I mean to cover all of the variations of back pain or the diagnostic implications, some basics that we focus on are, if an athlete comes in with low back pain and has no radiation, meaning no numbness or tingling going down their legs or weakness in their legs that would indicate a nerve injury or a disc compressing one of the nerves going to the lower extremities, if they are just having low back pain that is preventing them from enjoying or doing their sport, then most commonly, when we examine these patients and these athletes and test their core strength, their abdominal muscles, their transverse abdominal muscles, their gluteus muscles, the muscles in their low back, the muscles in their buttocks, and the muscles in the top of their thighs, we find that, when specific testing is done, they have very weak core muscles and it is these core muscles that help support the back.

Now, you might wonder, a rower is using so much musculature to pull the blade through the water or a cyclist, especially a professional cyclist who is riding and driving a bicycle up and down mountains, wouldn’t they have strong musculature in the top of their legs and in their low back? The answer is no for many of them and the reason is that, if you look at a cyclist, they sit in that flexed position, where their abdominal muscles and bellybutton point to the ground and they do not contract their abdominal muscles when they pedal the bike. If you look at a rower with modern rowing technique, many of them keep their shoulders ahead of their hips instead of permitting their shoulders to move past their hips. Therefore their abdominal muscles stay in flexion and, while they are using strong leg muscles and strong upper back muscles their abdominal muscles stay in flexion and stay weak and therefore they pressure completely through the low back without having any muscular support to support the position of the back and protect the back, ligaments, and disc from overuse and injury.

These low back pains are probably frequent in other athletes, other sports, in workers, and in people who sit in their chairs. Think about how you’re sitting right now and think about where your bellybutton is. Now, for just a minute, suck in your bellybutton. Feel what that does to your abdominal muscles. And, if you’re sitting, if you try rolling your pelvis forward and then suck your bellybutton or abdominal muscles, you can feel how you straighten your upper back. Then if you bring your shoulders a little bit behind your hip joint, you will find you are sitting quite straight and upright, probably just the way your mother used to tell you to do. That position is a neutral balance position and, if you can learn to sit like that, and learn to carry yourself like that, and learn to play your sports like that, then the incidence of low back pain will decrease.

There is a long series of creative back exercises that our rehab team has come up with in order to help people strengthen their abdominal muscles. We have posted these at www.stoneclinic.com. I strongly encourage you to look at these exercises and to think about strengthening your core muscles. If you do so, you will have a lot less lower back pain.

Stretching of the back? unlikely to help, more likely to hurt. However, stretching of the hip flexors and adductors can be of benefit. As you cycle, your hip flexors will tighten and will cause your pelvis to be pulled anteriorily (front/downward tilt). This can pull on your spine and put it in an extreme curve at the lumbar section, putting stress on the discs and nerves.

The main culprit is the psoas muscle which attaches from your lumbar spine to your femur. When this tightens, it pulls directly on the spine. So keeping it loose can help alleviate spinal pain. However, most physiatrists/do's (doctor of osteopathy) will tell you that you'll be unlikely to gain much flexibility in that area if you're already an adult. So you're likely to have a bigger benefit in "fighting" the anterior tilt of the pelvis and extreme lumbar curvature (with stronger muscles) if you instead work on strengthening the core muscles around that area.

The core muscles are the transverse abdominus, multifidus, pelvic floor muscles, internal obliques, etc. These are actually hard to train as they're all "deep muscles." For example, the transverse abdominus is not trained by situps or crunches. It's much more subtle than that. A good way to train it is lie on your back, and suck in your abs just below the navel very slightly (put your fingers just inside your hip bones and the moment you feel the muscle there push out/tighten a little, that's it). Then hold 2-2.5 lb dumbells over your chest as though you'll do flyes and one arms at a time, slowly lower it to the side and bring it back up. Make sure you keep the transverse abdominus tightened (but not too much or it becomes the rectus abdominus). Do 2-3 sets of 10 reps.

You can also do planks (front and side). (EDIT: But remember to do them on your forearms not your hands)

Anyways, hope this helps.

so love and hate those... :D

So here's my understanding of the issues...

1. Cyclists get very tight hamstrings. The hamstrings, if they get too inflexible, will prevent you from rocking your pelvis forward to a good cycling position, i.e. where the pelvis/sacrum are aligned with the rest of the spine. as a result, your lower back can get flexed at an angle that will eventually cause pain.

2. The hip flexors, i.e. the psoas muscles, originate in the lower back and attach to the spine, so if the muscles of your core are also weak and/or inflexible this can cause pain as well. Donrhummy also covered this so I won't beat the dead horse any more than that.

Yes, i agree with this too, BUT you need to be careful in stretching your hamstrings. Don't do the "lean over with your legs straight and touch your toes" crap. That's NOT a good/safe stretch. There are a number of good stretches for the hams but I like the one where you put your leg up on a table 9or something around hip height), bend at the knee about 25-30 degrees and then bend forward toward your foot while keeping your abs in tight and sucked toward the spine.

It's a completely safe stretch. You need to keep your knees slightly bent, though.