Found that I’m getting some lower back pain on the road, it seems to be when I climb seated putting out quite a bit of power. Starts to happen on rides of over an hour, sitting up riding with no hands relieves the pain quickly.

Anyone got some suggestions to help improve it, or just a case of toughen up princess?

stretches after rides will help enormously. I have similar and found it’s due to tight hamstrings – I’ve started palying volleyball again to use different muscles, and also try leg stretches when I can

i always found lower back pain was the cycling equivalent of a stitch. Indicating bad position OR not enough fitness , you’d be amaized how much of your power comes from those lower back muscles.

+1 for tight hamstrings & stretching after rides.

As a tall person that spends his life on bikes or sat at desks I’m doomed to lower back issues if I’m not careful.

The things that keep the pain away for me are post-ride stretching (and post-commute, just a quick hamstring stretch) and free-weight sessions twice a week. Particularly working on back stuff and flexibility – not doing big weights to get strong, just enough to keep the core/back working and flexible.

Riding a singlespeed MTB some of the time also helps, as it gets you up and working harder more of the time, moving about more – less sat spinning out the watts. Works the back more and in more varied ways.

All the above, plus mashing out a big gear will aggravate it if you tend to be a high gear/low cadence kind of rider.

Lower back pain can often be linked to a week core and muscle fatigue. Strengthening your core will help massively.

it seems to be when I climb seated putting out quite a bit of power.

Your core will be under massive load stabalising your body and generating power at the same time.

Watching this with interest…

I did my lower back in about 6 weeks ago and it’s still not right.
It went again at circuit training last Monday and is pretty painful. Being sat at a desk all day and commuting for up to an hour each way isn’t helping.

Mine is sore right at the base of my back; like the muscles joining my back to my butt is about the best way to describe it.
If I have been sat for a while and then get up to walk anywhere it feels like my muscles are all tensed up & pulling my pelvis back and up. It soon frees itself up, but is pretty sore.

I put it down to years of doing no real exercise other than cycling so my core strength is pretty much zero, coupled with really bad flexibility and recently joining the gym so hitting my body with a bit more variety than it is used to.

I have downloaded a ‘lower back workout’ that looks like it will be good at strengthening things up, but I also need to work on the flexibility side of things….

Number 1: Go see a physio.

Number 2: Get a bike fit.

Being sat at a desk all day is going to ruin your back if your posture isn’t perfect. Get up and walk around every half an hour or so, or at least stand up and stretch, then readjust your position so that your bum is at the very back of your seat, your mouse and keyboard are within easy reach, and your monitor at eye height, os you’re not slouching or straining.

More than likely it’s being sat all day at your desk, coupled with poor core.

Go see a physio, and they’ll give you core exercises to do, and tell you how to correct your posture.

Plus one for core and hamstring issues, when I put Alot of effort into both of these my lower back issues all but went also carrying to much timber around the middle like know isn’t great either 🙁

All good advice – for me it was mostly the ITBs being tight (band going from your hip to knee, so I found stretches/foam roller exercises concentrating mainly on that were the key to fixing it longterm. Haven’t had it in ages now. I was getting a bit of knee pain too, or just-above-the-knee, did all manner of core and stretch work.

If you’re on a ride and it gets painful you can do a stretch that I found helpful, though it looks quite embarrassing. Find a fence or something at about chest height that you can lean on. Stand feet shoulder-width apart, leaning forwards bent at the waist so that you’re supported by the fence or whatever. Stretch your lower back out by kind of pushing back on each side in turn, 20s a side. If you’re doing it right you’ll feel the pull in the right place quite easily. People may mistake you for a lady dog in heat, but hey laughing helps with pain, right?

Hmmm. I’ve got very tight IT bands too; particularly on my left hand side.

Sounds like I need a complete overhaul!

Weak core
Tight hips/ITB
tight quads/hamstrings
Weak hamstrings……

I’ve got a foam roller which I use on & off for my IT bands. I find though that I will do it religiously for several weeks, notice no change, get despondent and give up……

Problem is, if I spend all the time I have for exercise sorting out all my ‘problem areas’ I won’t have any time to do any actual exercise.

normally tends to be bike fit that causes the problem in addition to stem length/angle and stach height etc etc

work on your core as well helps a great deal overall

“normally tends to be bike fit that causes the problem in addition to stem length/angle and stach height etc etc”

experiance shows that while changing your position can alleviate the issue – core strength can make it dissapear AND you can get your nice low position back.

somewhat ignore the tight hamstrings bit – I have uber tight hamstrings and used toi get that pain you mention, but the stretch to help is to stretch the gluts before the ride.

bend over to touch your toes but keeping your back ruler straight, including the base.

(Most blokes will bend over like a question mark, ladies don’t. )

You will feel tightness in the hamstrings but also in the gluts as they stretch out.

Really helps me.

+1 on turner guy’s suggestion, although with a straight back you’ll be doing well to reach your knees.

I work deadlifts into my weights routine for precisely this reason (basically the same movement but with a barbell).

Oh, and FWIW I had lots of physio, suggested exercises etc for me (it was getting really bad, pain daily doing nought etc!) and that never quite cleared it up.

What cleared it up for me was getting a sports bursary position for my fencing which meant i was getting strength and conditioning training – this was the only time I had no back pain. So since then, I’ve got my own weights so I can run through a less intense version of the routines I was doing and it seems to keep things happy.

Cheers Turner Guy – will give that a go.

That was actually suggested to me by the woman doing the circuit training too, now I come to think of it.

Not sure about the ‘bike fit’ thing. I haven’t recently changed bikes and haven’t had this problem before.
Only since I’ve joined the gym and started doing more variety of exercises has this cropped up. The circuit training really highlighted how weak my ‘overall’ fitness and conditioning is.

It’s a typical example of not concentrating on improving your weaknesses, but just doing more of the things you can already do…..

Had better look at doing some exercises then, what is suggested, 1 million sit ups?

As for mashing a big gear, I don’t think 39×25 counts!

I’d be talking to a Physio or Chiropractor ASAP.

I’d had back pain on & off for years & turned out to be a long term degenerative disc problem.

Hip Flexor stretches also very good for helping this and some core strength work.

Pilates is the way forward, at least it was for me. Had a few months physio with only slight improvement on a very painful lower back that keep me of my bike for 4 months in total. Physio suggested pilates and have not looked back (pardon the pun) – on the bike again and loving it!

IA – the last time my back ‘went’ it was while doing bent over rear flys with dumbells.
I’d taken a breather and put the weights down, sensed we were near to swapping to the next exercise and wanted to get a few more reps in. So, I picked the weights up & didn’t concentrate on flattening my back out & getting my core stable before bringing my arms up. I think my back was still quite rounded and it went all of a sudden.
Won’t be doing that again!

golden wonder – I don’t think it is anything serious, although if it is not cured with stretching and some strengthening I will seek professional advice.
As I say, I think it has come on due to a change in routine. Going from only cycling to a lot more variety of gym work and probably expecting the rest of my body to be where it was 10 yrs ago!

mrplow – yeah I am trying to get some hip flexor stretches incorporated into more of a rounded approach to fitness. I think this will really help with my tight hips/it band problems.

tarquin – sorry to have hijacked this thread! Hope some of the info from people is useful to you too….

eaststandlower – I used to do weekly Yoga and found it really beneficial. I need to get into it again. I did buy a good DVD in the new year that I have used several times, but I need to make it more of a regular thing and probably join a class too…

Thanks for all your help & suggestions.

As for mashing a big gear, I don’t think 39×25 counts!

Well, that would depend on the steepness of the hill…

If your back has ‘gone’ before I would really go see a chiropractor to fix the underlying problems. You activity can mask the spinal issues. Go somewhere that takes x rays. My back went in Jan and my spine was s shaped from the front quite alarmingly so. Only just stopped hurting.

Stretching helps and so does core exercises but some exercises/stretches will aggrevate rather than help so you need to see someone to tell you how not to make it worse.

I find swimming (crawl, not breaststroke!) also helps to alleviate the pain, doesn’t do much for the cause though.

I used to get lower back pain on a morning until I’d ridden my bike in to work or until I stretched.
I then shifted my daily poo to a morning which has helped massively.
I’m not even joking.

Tilt your seat forward by 1° or so. if your saddle is perfectly level or tipped back slightly, it will cause your pelvis to rotate exacerbating lower back pain.

It doesn’t take much to make a massive difference – I find it best to find the point where I’m sliding forward slightly and tip it back a fraction from there.

I have little to add for solutions but I get the same thing, I did a teaching course where I was in the classroom stood up from 9 to 3 and this removed any pain when cycling. I’ve read that stretching the glutes well help.

Lots of great advice on here that could help, but until you know the underlying cause some of these solutions could aggravate your problem or even cause injury. Seek help and check your position on the bike.

OK, now thats been said, I’ve started doing a bit of yoga first thing and its helped me massively. Nothing major – just 10-15 mins most days. I started with the core-focused exercises on road.cc’s yoga for cyclists (suprisingly good) and added a couple of other moves I picked up. Works for me.

Tilt your seat forward by 1° or so. if your saddle is perfectly level or tipped back slightly, it will cause your pelvis to rotate exacerbating lower back pain.

this worked for me

I wouldn’t bother with a chiropractor – they will just try to trap you into long courses of treatment.

Go to a recommended physio (lot of iffy ones around so get a strong recommendation) or an osteopath of the type that does some deep tissue massage before any manipulations, as that seems much more effective.

my wife works on the reception of a chiro and can have free treatment, but goes up to London to see the osteo I go to every couple of years, as he is a lot better and not such a rip-off.

Only since I’ve joined the gym and started doing more variety of exercises has this cropped up

be careful with exercises to strengthen your core in case you create an imbalance of muscle, which will give you a bad back.

Situps with your feet locked under anything are particularly bad – only do crunches.

Also consider trying something like the TRX suspension system, or similar, you can get specific back exercises to do with it – there was someone on the forum who gave it a very strong recommendation a year or so ago for their back problems.

But those glut stretches covered most of it for me, including standing around aimlessly whilst the wife shops, which can be the worst trigger.