Anyone else dealt with chronic lower back pain from riding/improper fit?

[rcannon100]

There is something known as Bikes Back.

It is entirely possible your bicycle is the wrong size for you, or that you need to adjust things like seat and handlebars. Many of the local bike shops offer professional fittings. For me, getting a better fitting bicycle was big.

You may also want to work on cadence, increasing it, so that you are not trying to muscle your peddles up hills, but instead are making the gears and the bike do the work.

[dasgeh]

If I’m reading this right, you’ve only done 3 rides in the last 9 months – 65 in Nov, 65 in Feb and 8 last week? First of all, how sad! Secondly, it sounds odd to me that three bike rides (or really two) could cause that much pain.

By all means, you should get your bike professionally fit — it takes an hour or two and costs in the range of $150-300. I’d also be concerned about doing 65 mile rides if you usually don’t ride at all. You may want to ramp up a bit slower.

But I’d be suspicious that another culprit is to blame. Do you work at a desk? That’s what got me.

What helped me was more regular stretching — yoga, pilates, regular ol’ stretching all have their pros and cons, but all of those have helped me.

[dkel]

I just got a bike with a more aggressive riding position, and I had some lower back pain that I figured out was related to muscle recruitment for pedaling. That is to say, on my hybrid, with an upright riding position, I was using my back muscles less while pedaling than on my new cross bike. After a few days, it started to get better on its own (riding fairly short distances every day), and I gained the ability to control it by changing my level of exertion when pedaling. It hasn’t gone away completely yet, but it’s definitely dwindling.

65 mi is a long ride. Maybe go with less mileage and more frequency to start. Also, if not riding doesn’t make it better, the pain may not be from riding, or not alone from riding.

[krazygl00]

I’m reading his post not that he’s only done those three rides since November, but that those are the longer standouts among numerous rides of shorter distances that he didn’t bother mentioning. That’s just my sense of what he’s saying. In that case, yeah, bike fit would be the key.

[cvcalhoun]

FWIW, I used to have chronic bachache from bicycling. (I could tell because it got better when I couldn’t bicycle, and worse when I could.) What worked for me was core strengthening exercises. I use one weight machine at the Y that focuses on the abdominals, and one that focuses on the paraspinal muscles.

[PeteD]

Fit – after going over my handlebars and crashing hard on my lower back, I noticed that for 25+ mile rides my lower left back would start to really hurt. I started to over compensate through my pedal stroke and started getting left knee pain. In the end, I lowered my saddle 2mm and my legs have been good since, but also noticed that my saddle was pointed a little to the left, so that probably led a bit to the back problem to, make sure your saddle is pointed correctly for your sit bones.

Stretching and core – I started doing some more (i.e. minimal) stretching before a ride. From Tom Danielson’s Core Advantage book.
http://www.velopress.com/2014/03/try-a-pre-ride-winter-warm-up-from-tommy-d/ – The first two stretches here before a ride help immensely.

–Pete

[Bill Hole]

Some good points here. I have a partially crushed L4 vertebra that gives me a lot of trouble. To me, what helps are:
1. Higher handlebars. I use a hybrid for commuting. I can’t ride a drop-bar road bike more than a few miles without extreme pain.
2. Core exercises. Build up the core to support the back.
3. Proper fit. Experiment on your own (raise/lower seat or bars, move seat fore and aft, etc.) or get fitted by someone who knows what they’re doing.
4. Building up. I can ride up to 25 miles or so on the hybrid now. When I started on it, 10 miles would do me in. Riding every day strengthened the right muscles to support the position.
5. Doesn’t help for me, but a friend with a hinky back tells me that changing position a lot will help. Stand for a while, use bar ends to change your angle frequently, whatever works.
5. If all else fails, for longer rides go recumbent. I can ride all day on a recumbent without back pain.

Finally, get those x-rays. Make sure you don’t have some structural damage that could be made worse by riding or PT.

Bill

[TwoWheelsDC]

@PeteD 89288 wrote:

Fit – after going over my handlebars and crashing hard on my lower back, I noticed that for 25+ mile rides my lower left back would start to really hurt. I started to over compensate through my pedal stroke and started getting left knee pain. In the end, I lowered my saddle 2mm and my legs have been good since, but also noticed that my saddle was pointed a little to the left, so that probably led a bit to the back problem to, make sure your saddle is pointed correctly for your sit bones.

Stretching and core – I started doing some more (i.e. minimal) stretching before a ride. From Tom Danielson’s Core Advantage book.
http://www.velopress.com/2014/03/try-a-pre-ride-winter-warm-up-from-tommy-d/ – The first two stretches here before a ride help immensely.

–Pete

Similarly, I remember Joe Dombrowski having serious knee issues because one of his legs is longer than the other and it was forcing his body to compensate. His trainer put a shim in his cleat and the problem went away….It’s crazy what huge implications such tiny fit issues can have.

[enjoytheride]

Thanks all. I definitely know I need a bike fit and have no problem paying the few hundred bucks for the fit (I should have done that in the first place it would have been much cheaper than all the doctor visits).

To clarify, those rides I mentioned (the two 65 milers) just stood out become they were the longest ones I’ve done, but I’ve always been an active biker and daily commuter. From Nov to March I did many smaller rides, maybe once a week, on that cross bike, anywhere from 6 to 20ish, some 30-40 mile rides. That’s why I’m convinced the pain is from straining my back due to improper fit on that and not anything else in my life, like sitting, because my daily life has not changed and that bike is the only thing that has changed/been added to my life.

I did commute daily (5 days a week, plus after work commuting and weekend commuting for social things and visits) for the past three years, and the past year my commute was 6 miles across DC to work, and then 6 miles home. I commuted on a single speed city bike with riser handlebars so I’m not quite upright, but fairly upright. Commuting never bothered me until the back pain got so bad in March that I couldn’t stand to ride any bike. Since March when I started doctors visits and they said I should stay off the bike until pt was done, I’ve maybe only bikes once every other week (when I needed to get someplace close, only a few miles away and it didn’t make sense to get there any other way but biking).

I guess after finishing 6 weeks of pt (knowing that I should have gotten a bike fit in the first place but unable to go back in time) I’m just frustrated that the pain is still there constantly and I still can’t ride a bike again pain free.

[PotomacCyclist]

+100 on proper bike fit, as everyone else has mentioned

The reason someone mentioned sitting is because it can screw up your hips and core, and leave you vulnerable to overuse injuries from repetitive activities like cycling or running. Sitting tends to shorten and tighten the hip flexors and hamstrings. Those hip flexors then pull your lower back and hip bones forward, in a manner that they aren’t supposed to. Many people also have weak gluteus medius muscles (outer thigh/hip), which can contribute to lower back pain and IT band issues.

General core and strength training (which is not the same thing as bodybuilding or powerlifting) can be a great way to ward off common overuse injuries. However, it doesn’t help as much once you get injured. At that point, you need to be careful that you aren’t causing further damage or irritation to the injured muscles, ligaments or tendons. Until you’ve fully recovered, you may have to focus more on healing than on true strength building. It’s a tricky situation.

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Even though I (kind of) train for triathlon races, I don’t ride the tri bike that often throughout the year. Mostly in the spring and summer, and not on every ride. Last year, I noticed that it took a couple weeks to get used to the tri bike again, after only riding the MTB and CaBi bikes over the winter and early spring. My back would always ache on every ride, until I started to adapt. But I don’t think it ever felt completely right. Then in my only triathlon last year (Olympic-distance), I made a slight surge on a modest hill. I threw out my back just from that minor climb (the Nation’s Triathlon in D.C., which does not include any super-hard climbs). The tweaked lower back muscle bothered me for the rest of the bike and throughout the 10K run too.

I didn’t get around to getting another bike fit over the winter. (I had the bike fitted when I first bought it, but I fiddled around with the adjustments since then. Probably not a good idea.) But I did decide to lower the seat by about 0.5 inch.

This past winter, again, I barely rode the tri bike. I rode mostly on CaBi bikes and on the MTB a few times. Before the recent Challenge Ride at the Air Force Association Cycling Classic, I had only ridden the tri bike once, back in January, and then a short 15-min. ride the day before the event. While my time wasn’t that fast (5 laps and I missed the cutoff to start a 6th lap), I did notice that my back didn’t bother me at all throughout the 2 hrs. and 40-something minutes that I was out there. I had the usual fatigue, but none of the minor lower back muscle pulls that I experienced last year. That tells me that the bike fit me much better with the slightly lower seat.

(I’m still not riding the tri bike that much, but I will try to get a bike fit before the race in Sept. Even if I don’t, it may not be a problem, since the bike leg is just under 25 miles, and I already rode that long at the Challenge Ride without any problems.)

[KLizotte]

Fortunately I’ve never had a problem with a bad back outside of getting out of a chair wrong a couple of times. My first modern road bike was a size too big for me (I’m very short so finding a small enough bike was tough) and those few centimeters made a huge difference in comfort and safety. On my first major ride my feet completely fell asleep and I was terrified of going down hills because the top tube was too long and the handlebars were too wide. The most comfortable place for my hands was in a weird position on the bars. My hands fell asleep constantly and I felt tense the entire time I was riding because I didn’t have sufficient control of the bike.

Long story short, I went for a pro fitting at FreshBikes in Clarendon with Clovis. He gave me the bad news: I needed a new bike since he couldn’t make the top tube shorter. He then put me on a smaller bike and voila! The difference was night and day though the bike still required some tweaking (riser stem, handlebar adjustments, etc). The only problem I have now is my right hand falling asleep but I think that is due to computer work and needing to stop scrunching my shoulders when riding.

The moral of the story is that it is possible bad bike fit is causing your troubles but I suspect that there are other underlying reasons and the bike is exacerbating them. If you can get an appointment during a weekday (he is very busy wknds) then it would be worth the $150 to get the best bike fit possible and go from there. Also, a riser stem may help take some of the pressure off your back if you don’t already have one. I have wrist issues so being a bit more upright on the road bike helps a lot.

And yeah, a recumbent may be the way to go if this doesn’t work but hopefully you will heal up soon.

Best of luck!

[Jason B]

It seems that many of the contributors are aware of their bodies already, but this topic may get a broad number of hits, so I just want to throw this out there.
I found that my lower back pain is often caused by a lack of stretching my hamstrings after a long ride. Once those hamstrings tighten up, your lower back muscles have to overcompensate, thus turning you into an haunched over old man waving a cane and saying, “whippersnapper”. It will presets and get worse the longer my back has to do the work of my hamstrings. I am amazed how many times I wake up after a long ride limping and reaching for an icepack for my back when actually i should be stretching my hamstrings. The thought of getting on the bike is farthest thing on my mind. I quickly remember that I forgot to properly stretch after the ride. It would hurt all day, but after properly stretching my hamstrings it slowly works back to normal. Binge riding will often tighten up those hamstrings like wood, and make you feel like you slipped a disc ( believe me , I slipped three of them during my college wrestling days). After a big ride, and the glass of chocolate milk, you have got to stretch, or say, “whippersnapper”.
My too stinky scents

[vvill]

The only time I’ve had lower back pain was when I was riding with a stem that was too short. But I only did that for about 9000 miles on my road bike before I got a fitting, nbd.

I’ve found stretching hammies to be a good tip too.

[n18]

Watch the first minute of this video, rocking motion is bad for the lower back. If you have the seat from your original bike, try swapping it, or buy this seat(See also this Amazon link). I use the moderate version of this seat and after about 2 to 3 weeks it felt more comfortable than bigger seats with more cushion.

[Author]

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