Non-chronic lower back pain - again!

pianoleo

Completing the 14 miles from Leytonstone to Crystal Palace in an hour, late last night, felt like a nice achievement for a relatively recent convert to cycling. I sat down all the way up Camberwell Grove, spinning at a nice high cadence, and felt positively energetic up College Road and Fountain Drive, until I stood up for the last bit of hill.

The dull ache in my lower back that had hit me half an hour in became MUCH more noticeable. Still a dull ache, as opposed to vicious spasming (trapped nerve or whatever).

The thing is, I'm pretty sure it's the way my bike's set up, as opposed to anything else.

It's a large framed hybrid (or flat-barred tourer, depending on who's asking!), and the saddle could probably go up another half inch and still leave me enough height to put my foot down at lights, but that's about it.

Any suggestions, or should I get the tape measure out at this point?

Ta!

cyberknight

Assuming your bike is set up correctly then should also look at your core strength.

I used to have similar problems until i built up my back and stomach muscles , they are acting like a stabilizer so you leg muscles can do their work so you need to do some simple exercises to make them stronger...

Edit do not confuse the amount of sit up you can do for core strength i was doing a set of 150 crunches 3 times a week and still had back ache, its overall back and stomach strength not just how many you can do .

This is my favorite...




http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercises_10.htm

fossyant

It also takes time for your muscles to get used to the time on a bike / i.e. strengthen.

pianoleo

Thanks guys. This is good news. I've only covered about 1000 miles since starting last July (no cycling in August and three weeks off over New Year) and, despite being in my early twenties, wasn't previously doing much exercise at all. Guess I'll start doing some press ups and the like, and give my body time to catch up!