I managed to pull my lower back/upper-butt on Saturday after a hard 60-mile training ride, and am still very sore and stiff today (the pull likely happened as I carried large jugs of water to refill a fish aquarium right after the ride, so the lesson seems to be, avoid hard physical labor immediately after a hard ride). I signed-up for a hilly 100-miler this Saturday morning that I’m still hoping to do (preferably, with a fast time, so I really want to be as close to 100% as possible). The pain is to the left of my spine, starting at my lower back, working down the left glute and ending at my upper hamstring.

Aside from the obvious solution of rest (which for me means no riding or working out, but cannot mean bed rest all day), I’m curious about what, if anything, forum members have done to heal this type back pain before a long ride. In other words, WWBFD?
Thanks!

I would treat the area with an ice pack and go see your doctor asap...

I've pulled my back before and it was probably one of the most painful things ever. There really isn't a quick way to heal. The key thing is rest and rest. You have to let it heal completely or else you'll go back to square one and have to restart the healing all over. Definitely go see your doc and get a good physical therapist. They'll help strengthen the pulled muscle so it won't happen again.

I had to be off the bike for more than a month and even after that I had to take it very easy and mostly rode a cuiser.

I figured that the doctor would just tell me to rest and then prescribe pain medication. I've read that anti-inflamatory medications can actually slow the healing process. For muscular (as opposed to skeletal) back pain, do doctors typically do any actual healing?

nope they don't do much more than what you said. I don't know about the anti-inflamatory drugs but I had to go to my doc first so i can get referral for physical therapist(gotta love the healthcare system)

Main thing is rest... I'd stay off the bike for a bit and see the PT. They can usually tell you more about your injury than the doc.

ice, ibuprofen, ignore...

Four words:

Twenty-Something Massage Therapist.

If beyond first 1-2 days, switch from ice to HEAT.

Heat. Stretch. Repeat.

Happy ending??

What kind of sickos are in this forum?
Gad, no wonder those supple young things are so repulsed by us horny old forty-somethings.

If it gets worse as we enter our 40's, I'm in trouble.

i had a similar issue a month or so back. A couple of visits to a good chiropractor fixed it entirely.

'fraid so.

Two words....

Hot Tub.

Try a Foam Roller on your legs.

A lot of lower back pain is actually caused by tight hamstrings and glutes, which pull on the lower back muscles. Loosening your legs will help and a foam is an easy way to do that. You can get them at Target or Walmart. They are usually in the exercise section. It's uniquely called a Foam Roll.

My experience with exact same pain is a bulging disk in your back... It puts pressure on the the nerves in your spine to those areas. The worse it is, the lower the pain goes (hammies for me). My proscribed fix from a dr. was steroids for 5 days, and then Ibuprofen as needed, upto 8 pills at a time (2x 800mg prescription Ibuprofen) to reduce the inflammation at the point of swelling and then not to aggravate it....Pain will go away when the swelling is gone, but you still have a disk that can bulge, aggravate the area again...

Joints and connective tissue can get inflamed, muscles can get pulled, strained or damaged, and nerves can be pinched or irritated. The whole mess causes swelling, imflammation and tightness, among other things. Find out which it is, and treat it accordingly.

It's possible you can be recovered enough for your hard ride this coming weekend, depending on what's going on. I'd work on stretching/foam roller, The Stick and/or Theracane, use ice, lots of ibuprofen, and easy bike rides to gradually test out what effort feels like. Heat feels good, but ice actually reduces pain, swelling and inflammation.

But then, I'm just talking out of my ass here...

Sports massage. Preferably by a therapist who knows how to work on trigger points.

Thanks for the replies. I already have heating pads stuck all over me (sweating like crazy as I sit at my desk), but will also try a foam roller. Based on the stiffness (in addition to the pain), I'm guessing that it is an injury around the hamstring/glute area, which come to think of it, was growing a little sore after several hard rides now. I probably put the final nail in the coffin when I trudged up and down the stairs with water jugs after Saturday's ride.

I'm also going to make a Dr. appointment to get the PT ball rolling, just in case this does not go away soon.

Personally, when I tweak my back a bit, I just tend to ride a little bit easier. In fact, most of the time, riding makes me feel better, not worse.

There have been several studies recently that say athletes who injure their backs should continue with their training, though I cannot find the link. I know I tweaked my back before a hockey game a few years back. I played anyway and was actually fine by the end of the game.

This makes sense. I often pull, twist or otherwise make sore something every few weeks. I usually ride the next day, regardless, but just take care to ease into the ride and do a longer warm-up. Virtually every time, the riding has made it better. By contrast, staying as imobile as possible the past few days seems to have made my back/butt muscles more stiff.

Recent studies about training through back injuries. I want to see those studies, and to the OP REST. Then MORE rest that is the answer to your question. Ask your doctor "hey my back hurts after a long bike ride and trying to lift something heavy...should I do a century ride tomorrow?" and see what he or she says....

I hurt my back the same way. I ran 3 miles, then did dead lift at the gym. I herneated a disc pretty good, and was in pain for a week, and in physcially therapy for a few months to get to 100%. I'm not saying that is your issue, but I'd get checked out. In my case, this wasn't the first time I'd had issues with my back. Once in a while in a certain spot, I would tweak it once in a while. After a couple of years of trying different physical therapy treatments (no severe injury, just bugging me periodically) the PT narrowed it down to a muscle imbalance and weak core that allowed my inner abdominals, and hips to pull on my spine and bulge the disc. In any case, taking time off and working on the issue that was causing the reoccuring pain is the only thing that has worked. If you can train through a back injury, you don't have one. TRUST ME.

Why are you using heat? Like others have said there is probably an inflamation. USE ICE. Your injury with the pain going down your leg also sounds like Sciatica. I suffer from it (have for years).

You mean he doesn't have an injury like yours. Most back pain is NOT disk related, and is actually more responsive to active treatment than to passive rest. The fact that it's ongoing, though, certainly does suggest the OP could use a more permanent solution.