Viewing 29 posts - 1 through 29 (of 29 total)
  • Lower back pain strikes again and I cancel trip to Spain. Options
  • flanagaj
    Free Member

    I have been plagued with lower back pain on and off for 2-3 years and I recently pulled the mtb out of the garage and put the road bike away. ” rides later and my back is as sore as hell.

    Obviously, the road and the mtb are very different riding positions, but I need to try and get this sorted out once and for all and was wondering what are the options. I saw a physio last year and he said my hip flexors were tight and my glutes weak, so I embarked on a ‘bit of’ a programme to correct that. I do do leg presses twice weekly so that will helps the glutes.

    I can’t decide whether to go back to the physio or to try something different like pilates to see whether that helps.

    Bikefit worth doing as well?

    Thanks

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Do you get no problems on the road bike?

    Does sound like it’s mtb position or technique related if that is the case.

    Ewan
    Free Member

    Pilates works for me. Try searching motley fitness on you tube.

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    spchantler
    Free Member

    yoga and more yoga.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    +1 yoga

    nickjb
    Free Member

    The wife does Pilates for her dodgy back. She has been advised against yoga. I’ve also stretched her riding position which seems to have helped. Have you got a full sus?

    beefy
    Full Member

    Pilates for me too.

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    The wife does Pilates for her dodgy back.

    I heard it’s bad because she spends so much time on it.

    oddjob
    Free Member

    Be careful what you are doing with yoga and pilates if you don’t know what you are doing. I turned back ache into a slipped disc with Pilates by using the stupid cycling mantra that if it hurts it must be good.

    Turns out that with back achem if it hurts STOP!

    flanagaj
    Free Member

    I do ride a full susser, and yes, I do suffer back ache on the road bike.

    I will have a look at yoga, but will probably get a physio appointment booked in first.

    Is there cycling specific yoga / pilates or does it not matter?

    Janesy
    Free Member

    leg presses aren’t great, Squats will sort out your glutes. 3x weekly, will help your back out imo.

    tommyhine
    Full Member

    Don’t forget your deadlifts, they will sort you right out. word of warning though 110% make sure you have the technique down (maybe get an instructor to have a couple of sessions) and start light otherwise you might not have a back left to worry about.

    Ojnce you have the technique correct they will pretty much strengthen everything you use whilst riding a bike including grip strength so less arm pump on the descents.

    VanHalen
    Full Member

    chiropractor, core stability exercises (pilates basically) and a rigourous stretching reigime.

    you do need to fix the root problem before you do the exercises though which is why i put chiropractor down. oesteopath does a similar thing.

    my back is in recovery and the above is working quite well. apart from being a lazy bastard and not stretching emough!

    flanagaj
    Free Member

    I have also been really useless at doing back strengthening exercises and spend too much time working the abs.

    I spoke with my health provider and they have booked me in for physio, but I wonder whether I just pay and go to see a chiro?

    Take the point about squats and dead lifts and will arrange a few sessions with the instructor at the gym to get sorted.

    breatheeasy
    Free Member

    I spoke with my health provider and they have booked me in for physio, but I wonder whether I just pay and go to see a chiro?

    I’d wait for the physio. But my experience of chiros always seem to be “it’ll probably take 30 repeat visits to fix that. Now, whats the problem?”

    toppers3933
    Free Member

    yoga for the win. it helped me no end. might start going again. it is massively harder work than you’d think.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Missus has been crippled by this in the past, combination of yoga, pilates, physio, osteo has helped. Mainly a lot of HARD WORK, heaps of it. For her it’s all about core strength and muscle balance. Finally worked out (so far) when she found someone who could put the jigsaw together.

    mega
    Free Member

    yoga for the win. it helped me no end. might start going again. it is massively harder work than you’d think.

    agreed – hard physically and for the class I was in, quite hard to concentrate also….. 😀

    OP – It’s weird – for me the best cure for lower back pain is riding my bike – it seems to stretch my spine out and let everything click back into place. Just trying to say that there is no one size fits all cure.

    Hope you find a way to manage the pain and get your riding fix too

    annebr
    Free Member

    CharlieMungus – Member
    I heard it’s bad because she spends so much time on it.

    well he has….

    nickjb – Member
    stretched her riding position

    😆

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    Here’s an idea – do the exercises that the physio gave you. People will tell you to do yoga or Pilates. However if you look at people who have low back pain you will see that the flexible ones do yoga and the strong ones do pilates. They choose the one they’re good at. That’s why they still have back pain. If you are strong and tight try yoga, if you’re weak and wobbly try pilates.

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    If you are fat and unfit cut down on the pies and do some exercise.

    simons_nicolai-uk
    Free Member

    Yoga worked for me. Pilates is supposed to be better but boring.

    Go to classes (keeps you doing it, makes sure you’re doing it properly) whichever you do and try a few to find a good one if you can.

    julians
    Free Member

    go and see a good phsyio, avoid ‘quacks’ like chiropracters , a good physio will do everything a chiro will do and lots more, with a valid and rigorous scientific training to back it all up.

    I had a similar problem, it turned out that my hamstrings were tight which was causing all sorts of problems for my back.

    physio gave me various exercises to do, mainly different sorts of stretches which sorted me right out. I have to keep doing the stretches regularly (daily), or the bad back comes back after a few weeks.

    klumpy
    Free Member

    Also recommend a physio. Recommending yoga or pilates for an already bad back is a bit like recommending a healthy diet to someone having a heart attack.

    Right now you need targeted intervention, then when it’s sorted you want a lifestyle to keep you generally well – quite possibly involving yoga.

    (The downside with physio is that it’s basically up to you to make yourself better based on their advice – that’s why so many prefer woo and chiro-quackery. No effect, but no work to do either.)

    gavtheoldskater
    Free Member

    here you go, follow the link in this thread…

    http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/help-on-how-to-improve-flexibilityloosen-up-my-lower-back

    in dec when i posted this i could’nt surf my short boards, not even get down to the sink in the morning. by looselyy following the routine in the link, plus weekly circuits that has some core modules, i (touch wood) have no back issues at all. infact, without exageration, my back is the best its been my whole adult life (i’m 47).

    Trekster
    Full Member

    +1 for what klumpy says.
    My back was knackered yrs before I started cycling. Having worked on farms from around the age of 9/10 till my mid teens and then becoming a motor mechanic I had done a lot of heavy lifting by the time I reached my early 20s when my problems started.
    By my late 20s/early 30s I had been given some seriously strong pain killers and some hospital physio which had no effect.
    I was recommended a sports physio and at the time was in so much discomfort I decided to burst the bank and pay for it.
    Imagine the scenario where trying to walk up steps was shear agony. Almost collapsing when pressing the brake pedal on your car! The physios rooms were up 3 flights of stairs in an old town house, absolute agony getting up there. She took some details. I took my shirt off, she said stand up straight. I replied I am! She then proceeded to press on the parts she reckoned were the areas causing me the pain, 7 in all. As she pressed them I confirmed her assessment by jumping each time she hit the pain spot!
    I was the laid down on her table where she started with massage and then some manipulation. After an hour of this I was finished and felt great. I walked down the stairs with ease. Picking up the kids at school a friend who I was a physio at the time said straight away ” you’ve had your back fixed” I asked how she knew that? Her reply was that I was walking 6in taller!! All that was around 30 odd yrs ago. Doctors advised me to change jobs due to the heavy, lifting type of work I do so to those recommending weights I would be very wary of taking their advice before knowing exactly what is the cause of your pain. The root cause may not be cycling. An old squash playing buddy of mine had issues sorted by getting his car seating position sorted, he drove thousands of miles for a living.

    mulv1976
    Free Member

    – that’s why so many prefer woo and chiro-quackery. No effect, but no work to do either

    They’ve been going to poor quality chiropractors then…

    corroded
    Free Member

    yoga twice a week too here. Seems that my super-tight hamstrings are part of the cause of my recurrent back pain, which yoga is fixing. Plus, doing headstands in my lunch break is fun. Otherwise, focus on core strengthening exercises such as the plank and various exercise ball routines. Having despaired about ever having a trouble-free back, I’m much more positive these days.

    michaelmcc
    Free Member

    Take up Bikram yoga ;-0 .

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