Lower back lockup pain

Every few months my lower back goes ping and I end up in agony, can’t move without it pinging, hurting. It’s the core area for movement – back, arms, legs. It used to trigger from anything –  lifting something or putting my shoes on.
I’ve had physio, I’ve got a regular stretch routine I do most days for last couple of years to try and strengthen and prevent. I’m now into block2 of Ben Plenge’s strength training for over40s MTB for more strengthening and general goodness. I did think all this was helping to reduce the frequency of back ping events and reduce the intensity of any event.
But it’s gone ping again today while putting some things away in a box on the floor (bent and hunched over). That’s this weekend gone for a ball of chalk then.

Could be a bike thing, could be my work desk posture (right hand side = mousing hand side), could be a core/back imbalance. Just so annoying thinking I was improving and actually not.

Just a rant. If anyone has had the same and sorted it that would be a bonus!

I’ve got the same and haven’t sorted it. Watching with interest.

Similar here, first after a hockey game (ist in 15 years) at 35. Come and gone since then, until a proper “cannot move, get me diazapam” day a year ago. Physio (back specialist, recommended by my friend, his colleague) reckoned it was down to me not using my back as it should – moving stiffly, being scared of being too mobile in case it instigated another incident.

His advice was to relax and use my back more – seems to have worked.

55, runner, cyclist, office and shop (ie standing) worker mostly.

It screws all my plans.
Supposed to be playing guitar at a jam gig and bbq tonight – cancelled. Peaks ride Sunday – nope.
Got Foo Fighters standing at Villa park on Thursday.  No way I’m not going!

And Verbier in August. If this happens out there I’m totally fecked.
Stress.

This just happened to me to me this morning,  10k in to a 50k ride! Tried to ride on but had to turn back.  I’ve had this happen a few times now, always linked it to my job as a builder. If I’m bending over a lot, or building low walls it will start to hurt, then just as I think I’m recovering, pop it goes and I’m goosed for a week😡 Pilates and core strengthening does help, but I’ve let both of those lapse recently. And now I’m paying the price!

My lower back regularly goes ping from an injury caused ~16 years ago, especially in last almost two years, when I’ve not been able to cycle or do as much exercise in general. A heated pad on a timer at bedtime seems to help quicken the minor heal process, before I then really need to do some core exercises like the plank; the bridge; superman etc. Problem is I don’t do those exercises enough these days and I’ve become heavily reliant on the desk chair shiatsu massager.

Walking is good for you

Glad it’s not just me then.

Frustrating thing is I’ve had an excellent couple of months – riding lots, walking, stretching, strength training. Booking some sports physio next week, regular sports massage is the only thing I haven’t tried cos I can’t afford it.

I find this gives me instant relief, it isn’t a fix as such but when I get the lower disc pain I can use this technique to massively reduce aggravation instantly. I would love to know if it works for anyone else? If you’ve got a long foam roller give it a try.

I’ve had this for years. The things that help fix it when it goes are not the same as things that help stop it happening – that foam roller would put my recovery back weeks, but when I’m fit it might help prevent the next one. The things that help me avoid episodes are Pilates, a standing desk, keeping moving and taking care. Particular care is needed first thing in the morning. Avoid lifting and twisting at the same time (physio said lift, turn your whole body by moving your feet, then lower), avoid stooping, avoid sitting slumped. Movement is good – the final recovery from my worst  (4 month) episode was during a ski holiday – I went on it being unsure how much I’d be able to do, and by the end was symptom free.

Went through a lot of this from around 2007-2019. Originally popped it deadlifting when I was young and stupid,  then it went when I was strapping a struggling toddler into a pushchair,  and despite various physio and osteo treatments it would go every 6 months or so – had it go when sneezing, getting stuff out the bottom of the fridge, pulling on bibtights, pulling away from traffic lights in the wrong gear….

Eventually a combination of physio stretches, bike fit, some weight work in tne gym have protected me the last couple of years, but it’s got close to pinging a few times

Just in case it helps anyone else..I’ve also had this problem for years and tried many different things with physio supervision, a bulging lower disc for me and it’s the opposite to greybeard for me. That type of stretch relieves the pressure on the lower back due to it opening up the spine but in a relaxed state. I get instant relief when my lower back goes but it isn’t much use for strengthening the core or protecting the back long term. I can go from not being able to reach out without the electric shock lock to a manageable comfort after 10mins. Pure luck for me but might work for someone else.

If you’ve got core strength, flexibility, staying active and body weight all sorted then the next things that comes to mind are bike fit, or maybe you could benefit from being upright more (ie less cycling more walking), the latter especially if you work at a desk also.

Make sure core strength is properly covered in your training plan though. Maybe try some supplementary pilates workouts to be sure.

For short term recovery, assuming it’s a muscle spasm then regular cobra, child’s pose, cat-cow and the like work for me. The aim is to get the muscles moving so they release from spasm. It’s a gradual process but the more you move, the quicker the recovery will be. Personally I prefer using the muscle over 3rd party physical manipulation (as in foam rollers, massage) but i’m sure they can both be effective.

Core strengthening, stretching and pilates, and walking is good

a bulging lower disc for me and it’s the opposite to greybeard for me. That type of stretch relieves the pressure on the lower back due to it opening up the spine but in a relaxed state.

This is a good point @shrinktofit: what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. I guess the bulges/ruptures in our discs are in different places, so what takes pressure off in one case increases pressure on the other.

I suffered with this for years. Simplist thing would make it go pop, picking something up off the floor, cleaning my teeth (leaning forward), doing up my shoelaces, sneezing.

My Dr and latest physio think it all goes back to a slipped disc many years ago, so what happened for years was that my back muscles tensed up to support my lower back, and remained like it. This made my lower back stiff and inflexible which kind of made it worse, it also led to my upper back and shoulders being tensed all the time. But, what I didn’t realise, and this is where my latest physio really helped, is that my core had switched off. I was going through the exercises previous physios had given me to do when she noticed my stomach was poking out – she noticed it when I was doing a dead bug. basically I had a ‘diastasis recti’, more common with pregnant women, but basically my core had become so weak it had sort of separated so if I tried to do any core work like dead bugs, planks, crunches etc my back muscles were taking over and pushing my internal organs out through the weak core muscles, not good. Had to stop doing any of those exercises as it would make things worse and had to do what was called deep core muscles exercises, a lot of tensing of the core muscles – like sucking in your stomach, pulling the belly button towards your back, on all fours. Laying on my back, lower back towards the floor then try to lift the hips off the ground by squeezing/crunching the abs together and some others. I did those exercises for just over a year, then progressed on doing more core work.

I no longer have the stomach sticking out when I do dead bugs, planks, leg raises etc and haven’t had a back spasm for a couple of years now. I get the odd twinge but that’s it and it doesn’t get worse. So my core strength has improved a lot and with it the back has also improved, I no longer have the permanently stiff back and my flexibility and movement has improved. So it might not be great to just go into doing planks and other core exercises with out first making sure you have a decent deep core strength, as riders we do tend to end up with weak cores. I’d suggest seeing a good physio though who can assess you and go through any exercises properly.

a lot of tensing of the core muscles – like sucking in your stomach, pulling the belly button towards your back, on all fours. Laying on my back, lower back towards the floor then try to lift the hips off the ground by squeezing/crunching the abs together and some others.

That’s exactly the kind of things Pilates focusses on.

yep me too. keep it at bay by reducing biking and instead doing yoga. sad but true.

when mine goes my lower abs lock and it screws my diaphragm so i cant do proper breathing. pushing through and ignoring means mynshoulder and neck spasm and eventaully ping as well.

getting old sucks

Had similar issues for years, flaring up at the minute. Mines a bulging disc which eventually reabsorbs itself each time, but the muscles around it go to into a protective tenseing up and until they relax the pain doesn’t go away.

Wow it’s bittersweet that it’s so common here  – I seem to be the only one in my riding buddy group who suffers.

I’ve had a really good physio give me some really good exercises and I’ve been doing them most days for over a year and before rides and really felt they had made a difference. Cat cow child superman mountain climber – all the good ones.

The pings were much less frequent and they were really low level pain. That’s what’s so depressing about today’s 10/10 pain ping.

I try and work in office all the time because I do 10x  more movement and steps compared to at home. Plus I ride to work.
I did wfh Friday but also did a 10k Mtb ride in the afternoon. So a day of low&high movement before the day of ping.
Who knows.

Doing 360s with a macebell is a good overall exercise for the core, back and shoulders. The closer you have your feet together, the more the weight of the mace is offset and the harder your core and back have to work to keep you in balance.

It’s an extremely time eficient form of exercise as well, especially considering all the muscle groups that are being activated.

It’s finding out what works for your particular problem.

I bulged the 2 lowest discs in my back many years ago – I had to do almost no exercise other than walking for a while. Then I had a cortisone injection in my back to calm the nerves, then could gradually get going again. To start with I found a cross trainer really helped.

Since then I’ve found it periodically tenses up and have to do stretching before any kind of exercise. On a couple of occasions I’ve ended up having to get courses of physio and sports massage to free things up again.

An exercise I should do more often that helps are flute bridges done very deliberately to strengthen and support my core. But it’s boring so I go through phases of doing it regularly.

Childs pose helps sometimes but not always. There’s a another seated stretch that helps too – seated lumbar flexion.

However, after the last sports massage session the lady I saw said I had a lot of tension in my glutes which could be affecting my lower back. Had a deep massage (yes yes) of them – then she gave me a stretch called the pigeon.

That one stretch has massively changed things for the better so far – I do it before any exercise and I can’t think of a single time since then that I’ve had to dial back my cycling due to my lower back tensing up.

So you need to find whatever it is that works for you. Maybe that’s trying a few different physios for a different opinions etc?

Currently in the throes of a spasm. Haven’t had one for quite some time. Diazepam is the only thing that gets me to point of being able to move, then it’s slow simple movements to start getting mobile again. Walking is key for me, as others have said. Best exercise there is.

In general, I find the best stretches for me are hamstring stretches and general back mobility ones.

I have degenerative disc disorder in my lower back and now my neck. Lower back used to cause horrendous sciatic pain in my right leg too, however, a double nerve root block did wonders for that.

Suffer lower back pain and have had a couple of really scarey legs just collapse episodes. Back guy told me I use my abs to do stuff my glutes should do and like most cyclists hamstrings way too tight.

I’ve been doing an online lower back daily remedial stretch and strengthen program…nothing in it that won’t find for free on YouTube but it’s well structured with some variety…it takes 20mins and I do feel like a new man

Google thedynamiccyclist or look for the app

Another sufferer here. Similar story to everyone else, not nice at all, totally debilitating when it happens.

I saw an osteo a few years who was pretty good at treating the symptoms, stretching, massage etc, but it was the same routine every time and there was no focus on the cause.

I had another episode not long after and found another osteo whose approach was totally different – he attributed the lock-ups to core imbalance, and particularly a weak/ unengaged posterior chain.

The primary exercise had me doing a sort of a one-footed squat/lunge/reach:
– One hand support on a work surface or something else round hip height. That’s in in order to focus on consistently engaging the glutes rather then wobbling and balancing,
– the foot on the opposite side of the hand the hand back, jus the toes on the floor,
– then squat and reach forward and down with the other hand, knee over foot, after a couple few you should start to feel your glues and your back working, if not, move and shift your effort until you do.
– Reach as far as comfortable to start with, but as you recover, you can reach further, left and right, further down, further away, introduce weights, as far as was comfortable to start with, knee over foot then reaching further, left and right, “round the clock”

I found when I was familiar with the feeling of working the right set of muscles, I could tweak my position on the bike and my effort so I was engaging the posterior chain as much as possible when I was cycling.

Since seeing him 2, 3 years ago (not been back after the 6 sessions), I’ve had one little warning twinge, which I took good notice of (I’m not always religious doing the exercises). Previously I’d have had 2 or 3 full blown episodes.

Looking back at the reviews, the ones for the first one were generally ” I see her every 6 months and I’m new again” and the reviews for the 2nd one were more along the lines of “He identified an imbalance in x had me working on x which resolved my pain and added y% to my squat PB” or similar.

If you’re trying to resolve a long-standing issue, try to find someone who people say is good at identifying and helping you resolving issues/problems, rather than giving you an nice massage! 😀

I has similar 30 yrs ago. Saw my GP, got physio..never got to the bottom of it. 5 yrs on I went and saw a back specialist (privately, paid for by me as had/have no Private Health Care policy) He was wishy washy too. About 20 yrs ago I saw an osteopath who told me what he believed it was within 5 minutes of having me doing all sorts of movements. 4 sessions with him sorted it for a couple of years but then it ‘went’ again. A few more sessions during which he said he could get me a discounted MRI scan if I wanted to certain it was what he stated. I had that MRI scan and it was a bulging disc between the 4th and 5th lower vertevrae….precisely what he had stated a couple of years earlier. It was well worth the money to know precisely what it is. I manage it fine now. It only very occasionally flares.
As others above have said, be careful taking the advice of what to do, from others on here. What may work for one with a specific issue may well aggravate yours.
I wish I’d been able to have an MRI scan 25 yrs ago rather than chuck a similar amount at a ‘specialist’ who was useless but had lots of letters after his name.