Lower back pain

**rob_ohagan** · 12th October 2012

I can see a new type of biking here re. the flippers- You know the bikes you see where you are basically lying on your back to ride them? Well Warrick could just get an opposite one of those, so he is basically swimming along- now that I would like to see!

Robo

**Warrick** · 13th October 2012

Don't laugh mate - it's winter coming up - we may well have weather for a few months where flippers might help with a bike ride

**Fevmeister** · 13th October 2012

Do some dead lifts 140kg 4 sets of 12 twice a week

**rob_ohagan** · 14th October 2012

Originally Posted by Warrick

Don't laugh mate - it's winter coming up - we may well have weather for a few months where flippers might help with a bike ride

Yeah true... I needed swimming shorts not cycling shorts on my way back from work on thursday!!

Robo

**Warrick** · 22nd October 2012

Well chaps - seems like I just needed to give it some training. Have focussed a lot of training on my lower back lately - the flippers for one, and lots of lower back calisthenics. Worked great - have several longer rides under my belt now, with no issues at all. I'm a little worried by any pain that I get in the lower back after some excruciating injuries to it when I was younger. Thankfully no re-ocurrence this time! Also pretty happy as I was worried that this might preclude getting a road bike, but I guess not

**NathanM26** · 24th October 2012

Glad to hear you have seen good progress with this issue! I also injured my lower back when I was younger. I had a bad crash during a Downhill MTB run. Thankfully I was wearing a back and chest protector (the fabric kind rather than plastic or kevlar) so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was still bad. Had to give up rugby etc.
The work I was doing in the gym during Uni really helped, but I noticed a bit of regression when I stopped.

The road bike has really helped (once I got it set up properly) as there is always a low amount of tension on your lower back (your arms don't take all the weight of your upper body) and I think this low resistance over a sustained period of time, has put a bit of strength back into my lower back.

N

**coolboarder** · 24th October 2012

Originally Posted by NathanM26

The road bike has really helped (once I got it set up properly) as there is always a low amount of tension on your lower back (your arms don't take all the weight of your upper body) and I think this low resistance over a sustained period of time, has put a bit of strength back into my lower back.

N

From a non-cycling perspective, from the number of sedentary people who are a lot younger than my 63 years, let alone older, who have 'bad backs', I am convinced that cycling has helped maintain my back strength and prevented me from having real-world back problems. However that cycling is a source of potential lower back pain remains even though it ceases once off the bike. I wonder if there is anyone who genuinely never suffers from any lower back discomfort of any description when cycling a long distance i.e., what I consider to be discomfort may be considered normal by others or vice versa. To put things into perspective, I would say I never suffer from leg pain however I clearly do when I'm pushing hard but this is what is expected as a normal consequence of what I'm doing so is not worthy of comment. Does the same apply to back pain?

**Tiff** · 24th October 2012

Originally Posted by coolboarder

From a non-cycling perspective, from the number of sedentary people who are a lot younger than my 63 years, let alone older, who have 'bad backs', I am convinced that cycling has helped maintain my back strength and prevented me from having real-world back problems. However that cycling is a source of potential lower back pain remains even though it ceases once off the bike. I wonder if there is anyone who genuinely never suffers from any lower back discomfort of any description when cycling a long distance i.e., what I consider to be discomfort may be considered normal by others or vice versa. To put things into perspective, I would say I never suffer from leg pain however I clearly do when I'm pushing hard but this is what is expected as a normal consequence of what I'm doing so is not worthy of comment. Does the same apply to back pain?

If I have been off the bike for a while I get lower back pain if I overdo it on my return. It is not like the leg pain you describe. It does not go away during that ride but usually is no problem on subsequent ones.

**Warrick** · 14th November 2012

Still working well for me. But with a little luck I will have my very own Tri bike next week so let's see how the back holds out on that :-)

I've also started trying to work on my hip flexibility, and also trying to stretch my hamstrings in a non-cheating way! Amazing how NOT low you can get to your knees when you do it with a straight back! Hopefully that will also help with comfort on the Tri bike...

W