I’ve done my back in again. It’s been happening on and off for a good few years now and promises to do something about it have been poorly acted upon. Anyone else suffer from a bad back? What have you done to cure it and what do you do to prevent it? I’ve been to the physio before and it was OK, no examination just a few different stretches, I felt that my back sorted itself rather than anything I got from the session. I do think my atrocious flexibility is a major contributer and dealing with that also will hopefully help.

Keeping your abs in shape is important especially if it’s lower back.

Stretching (well, leaning forward at the waist and dangling) as and when, but otherwise just trying to be as active as possible. Swimming is doing good things for it, but walking and biking are also both helping. Got an MRI scan tomorrow to try and see what’s wrong, but in the meantime there more I move the better it is.

I should do much more core strength stuff (slipped discs) but the best advice I can give is avoid sitting on sofas.

Core strength exercises. I use the ‘Tom Danielson Core Advantage Book’ and do one of the workouts 2-3 times a week.

Bonus: Makes you better at cycling.

Here. If nothing else, the instructor is really pretty.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/short-yoga-routine-lower-back-pain-2015.html

Yoga for Cyclists

My back went into meltdown last summer. Weekly osteopath session and took up yoga too.

Pound for pound, a yoga class is a more effective use of your money than osteopath IMO.

I do calisthenics with some impressive effects on various injured body parts including 3 back injuries. One of my friends starts yoga today on the suggestion of his gp/osteo to give yoga or Pilates a try for his back twinges – I’d guess Pilates might do him more good due to the focus on core, but everyone’s different.

Swimming I also mooted as being pretty good, maybe partly due to being suspended in water? I tried a flotation treatment at a spa a couple of weeks ago just for the hell of it and the ability to totally take the pressure off all of your body is great.

Chimp spine 😉

RaveyDavey – Member
Chimp spine

This doesn’t bode well 🙁

Sympathetic Pilates will help.

One thing to bear in mind, OP. Doing x* for an hour or so a week, ain’t going to combat a whole week of slouching, poor posture etc. You need to make changes across the board.

*yoga/osteopath/frenetic aerobics

Hamstring stretches, and I’ve been using one of these chairs for the last 12yrs. It’s amazing.

The temptation with back problems is to seek professional advice and under scrutiny everyone has something wrong with their posture or musculoskeletal system and like driving instructors you’ll be lucky to find a physio who has your interests at heart many of them want to spin out the treatment as long as possible. They must love us.

The key is to realise cycling is an inherently abnormal activity. It’s something we’ve learned to do but it’s not something we’ve evolved to do. Lots of effort from major muscle groups soon throws things out of balance and the solution is to restore the balance by doing the one thing we’ve evolved to do: walk

Walk everywhere, every opportunity you have. It’ll take a while – months if not years but you’ll get there and the balance it restores is better than any sports science or short-term quick fix

Worth checking out PinkBike article for cyclists with bad backs.

Need to get my arse in to gear and start doing some yoga.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/short-yoga-routine-lower-back-pain-2015.html

@ComradeD

Look up.

One thing to bear in mind, OP. Doing x* for an hour or so a week, ain’t going to combat a whole week of slouching, poor posture etc. You need to make changes across the board.

I agree with this to some degree, while strengthening helps, I’ve tried to maintain lots of little habits which combined reduced the pressure on the back and keep it mobile.

Walk everywhere, every opportunity you have.

Especially this ^ I typically get 1hr + walking in a day by walking to and from work, and stretching the legs at lunchtime.

I’ve adapted both my bikes also, saddles with nice hammocky shapes (Specialized Romin, Charge Spoon and soon to try Fizik Aliante) and relatively high handlebars. Also keep my pelvis flexible so that I’m bending from the pelvis rather than rounding the base of my spine.

Gave up on physios and osteos, they may well have been helping but at the end of the day it just wasn’t sustainable.

One thing to bear in mind, OP. Doing x* for an hour or so a week, ain’t going to combat a whole week of slouching, poor posture etc.

Personally I’ve found it does. Since taking up weight lifting, my lower back pain has vanished and my posture at work is still rubbish (I spend 9 hr+ slouching in front of a computer every day).

Off work today after putting my back out getting milk out the fridge at work on Friday!

My back has been going intermittently for 25 years now, having first wrecked it while powerlifting.

Physios etc seem to speed the healing process for me, and I have been seeing an osteopath every 6-8 weeks for a couple of years now as a preventive measure. In those two years my back has gone twice (slipped on ice at Christmas, and then this) and the problem/pain has not been as severe as previous episodes.

Other things I know I need to work on:

Lose some of my gut – spare weight just pulling at the wrong part of my lower spine!

Work on core strength

Work on flexibility, especially back, hips and hamstrings.

Possibly get a bike fit for the road bike

Edit: Need to find that Danielson book, think it’s in the spare room under the bed. If only I could get down and look for it 😳

I’ve been to the physio before and it was OK, no examination just a few different stretches,

In that case I doubt that you’ve been to physio…

I used to have a really bad lower back, Dr just shrugged and said it was probably a slipped disk as a result of one too many tumbles off the bike (did he want to get a scan to check, or refer me to some physio, no, grrrrr).

Eventually self diagnosed it as incredibly tight hip flexors resulting in a pronounced anterior pelvic tilt, as a result of doing little other exercise than cyling since leaving school. After years of pain and trying to deal with it, some lunges twice a day (I found they worked better than the static ‘down on one kneee’ stretch, especialy when trying to stretch cold muscles first thing in the morning) and a couch to 5k running plan to encourage my legs into a broader range of movements and I’m completely pain free!

Core strengthening probably helps, but I’d look at what you do already and see how that might be affecting you, rather than assume you’ve got the same problem as someone who leads a completely sedateray lifstyle. If you’re into MTB or any other sports your core stength is unlikley to be that bad. Or at the other end of the scale, a labourer carying bricks all day is unlikley to have poor core stength at the root of his problem.

Eventually self diagnosed it as incredibly tight hip flexors resulting in a pronounced anterior pelvic tilt

Wife has this from driving a lot for her job. She sees a strength and conditioning coach once a week and stretches every day, seems to be quite a tough one to fix (esp if your job involves a lot of sitting).

Personally I’ve found it does. Since taking up weight lifting, my lower back pain has vanished and my posture at work is still rubbish (I spend 9 hr+ slouching in front of a computer every day).

Well, there’s always an outlier 8)

I have 2 ruptured discs ATM and recently had cortisone epidurals followed by a percutaneous discectomy last Monday. Fantastic immediate relief (Monday) followed by horrendous debilitating pain (Tuesday on). Looks like the discs ruptured again immediately after surgery.

**** and double ****. Look after your back girls and boys whilst you have the chance.

Pilates class works for me.
Improves core strength taking the weight off my back, and straightens my shoulders out.

In a word PILATES. This will not help cure your injury, but once you are recovered it will help prevent further injuries.

The series of exercises outlined by Joseph Pilates was designed to help men with poor posture, flexibility and bad backs. Go and find a good pilates teacher/class and make sure you get an induction so the teacher can find out where your strengths and weaknesses are. That way they can tailor any of the exercises to your needs. I have tried most other types of exercise and this is by far the best method for preventing back problems.

If you want a laugh you can find the original lessons by Jo P done in what looks like his pants. I think he is doing a move called teaser which is really hard.

Before you can fix it you need to know what’s wrong with it. I suffered a bad back for years and went through all the local physios, chiropractors , osteopaths and witch doctors and they blamed it on everything from bad posture, tight hip flexor to one leg shorter than the other.
Eventually got an MRI scan and turned out it was degenerative disk disease – not great news but a few injections later and lots of the right core work and I’m back doing pretty much all non impact training.
A private MRI scan might set you back a few quid but probably no more than a block of sessions with the local physio so money well spent if you can’t get it private.
Good luck, hope you get it sorted.

Pilates – but book yourself into a small class at somewhere that specializes in it. The exercises can be quite subtle and often if it is easy your are doing it wrong. You will also need someone to come and physically correct your position in some exercises because you might not see that you are wrong.

Sounds pretty awful boblo. I had/have a ruptured disc but recovered to a suitable level just before the OP, (4 weeks doing absolutely nothing, mostly just lying down) and the doctor said it wasn’t worth the risk.

I’m doing Pilates class once a week and once/twice a week at home. It helps hugely.

TopTip: Don’t ignore your back pain. It only gets worse.

Pilates – but book yourself into a small class at somewhere that specializes in it. The exercises can be quite subtle and often if it is easy your are doing it wrong. You will also need someone to come and physically correct your position in some exercises because you might not see that you are wrong.

This^

My gym does a pilates class, and I do go to them now and again, but they are not what you want to be doing if your trying to rehab yourself.

Wife has this from driving a lot for her job. She sees a strength and conditioning coach once a week and stretches every day, seems to be quite a tough one to fix (esp if your job involves a lot of sitting).

I found it was going really slowly with the kneeling ont he floor stretch, but lunges sorted it really quickly. My jobs mostly desk bound, but I can do lunges whenever I’m walking down an empty corridoor, the only restriction really is finding somewhere quiet or not minding looking like an idiot! If anyone spots me, I just pretend to tie my shoelace :-p

Changed my desk to be a bit higher, higher monitor setup, so I sit correctly at work.

Pannier rather than rucksack to ride to work.

Various free weights twice a week to mantain some core strength (vital).

Foam roller for mostly ITB stretches but also other stuff.

Stretch lots.

Gonna try some yoga too.

Personally I’ve found it does. Since taking up weight lifting, my lower back pain has vanished and my posture at work is still rubbish (I spend 9 hr+ slouching in front of a computer every day).

This is pretty much true for me too, started lifting as i had to for a sports bursary, only time I’ve ever been back pain free.

I found it was going really slowly with the kneeling ont he floor stretch, but lunges sorted it really quickly. My jobs mostly desk bound, but I can do lunges whenever I’m walking down an empty corridoor, the only restriction really is finding somewhere quiet or not minding looking like an idiot! If anyone spots me, I just pretend to tie my shoelace :-p

TINAS popping the shops, earlier:

Very little works for me other than limiting sitting down and the odd stretch, but often requires experimentation. Less is more with stretching for me.

One thing to bear in mind, OP. Doing x* for an hour or so a week, ain’t going to combat a whole week of slouching, poor posture etc. You need to make changes across the board.

Yep, my (shock horror) chiro got me to change my bad habits of slouching when driving and working at the computer, along with the core exercises I do most nights (that’s is a difficult part). I haven’t been back to see her in over a year, and no signs of my sciatica at all which I’d suffered with for years previously. As per cyclical, not everything can work for everyone, but good posture and decent core stability does you no harm in my book.

Cheers folks, lots to digest. Funnily enough I’d been going to the gym (weights) most of the winter and felt really good, walking and sitting better and noticeably feeling better on the bike, less fatigue across the shoulders and less slumping of my torso when tired. Stopped the gym to focus on running for a hill race and I’ve had no end of trouble since. Running has now been sacked and I’m going to try some of the stuff above as well as getting back to the gym.

i was nsuffering from siatic type pain (tight butt, lower back pain).

6 months of astanga yoga seems to have helped enormously. I now have upper body/core muscles where previously there was nothing. I’ve found it’s also made me a lot more conscious of my posture while at work/home which must help to.

that Abi Carver lower back pain yoga video really helped me (unscientific test of one.)

Had horrible pain, did that routine every morning for 2 weeks and it’s so much better.

Still need to get a shorter stem on the road bike though, see other thread for lol. 🙄

Cheers folks, lots to digest. Funnily enough I’d been going to the gym (weights) most of the winter and felt really good, walking and sitting better and noticeably feeling better on the bike, less fatigue across the shoulders and less slumping of my torso when tired.

Modern life eg sitting / driving leads to a weak posterior chain, so any full body exercises like squats and deadlifts which strengthen the posterior chain will help as they counteract the slouched over posture modern life gives us.

Sitting is the silent killer.