Do hills give you lower back pain?
earth
Posts: 934
I've never had back pain on the road bike before but since I now live somewhere surrounded by hills I have started to experience it. I'm 39 and still limber. I have had a bike fit with an ex-Team Sky physio so I don't think there is much I can do with the bike fit.
When climbing I spend a lot of time in the saddle but I am making the conscious effort to get out of the saddle more. I still have 53/39 12-25 from when I lived somewhere flatter and I brake a lot during descending. You might question what braking has to do with anything but I swear pulling the levers for long periods is fatiguing on it's own.
I had an off a while ago and recently discovered that it is possible for the body to turn off muscles if you have an accident. The most common muscles to be turned off are the glutes. I used to feel my glutes being used when climbing but now I only feel my quads burning. I think the Team Sky physio told me about muscle shutdown and I also went to another physio recently to determine whether this had occurred. The diagnosis was that my glutes were firing but at the same time as the hamstrings, rather than before, meaning that are underused. I have been doing clam exercises to strengthen the glutes and bring them back to life.
Could it be the hill climbing and descending be putting strain on the lower back? Will the glut exercises help fix this?
When climbing I spend a lot of time in the saddle but I am making the conscious effort to get out of the saddle more. I still have 53/39 12-25 from when I lived somewhere flatter and I brake a lot during descending. You might question what braking has to do with anything but I swear pulling the levers for long periods is fatiguing on it's own.
I had an off a while ago and recently discovered that it is possible for the body to turn off muscles if you have an accident. The most common muscles to be turned off are the glutes. I used to feel my glutes being used when climbing but now I only feel my quads burning. I think the Team Sky physio told me about muscle shutdown and I also went to another physio recently to determine whether this had occurred. The diagnosis was that my glutes were firing but at the same time as the hamstrings, rather than before, meaning that are underused. I have been doing clam exercises to strengthen the glutes and bring them back to life.
Could it be the hill climbing and descending be putting strain on the lower back? Will the glut exercises help fix this?
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I think you need lower gearing so you can spin up the hills rather than straining and overworking your quads and lower back.0
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Your gearing Is too high simple as that. I don't have issues as long as I keep a decent cadence but when I 'run out' of gears then it gets my back straining.
I know what you mean by braking; it does feel like the braking force folds straight through my back!0 -
I sometimes get some lower back pain when I do high intensity TT type efforts or multiple long climbs, especially when I let my cadence slow. I think this is due to high peak loads and tight hamstrings transferring strain to my lower back. Last year I was running a fair amount and put some effort into stretching my hamstrings and this issue seemed to vanish, but my hamstrings are tight again now and it appears to have returned. It's also predominantly to the right of my spine and my right leg is a little stronger and tends to have a slightly tighter hamstring. Your issue may or may not be completely different.
It's definitely worth reducing your gearing to suit your terrain. It'll probably make rides much more enjoyable and will very likely also help your back. A cassette swap is a pretty trivial job, you can decide if you can live with the 53/39 later but certainly most people here, myself included, would consider 39&25 a very tough climbing gear.0 -
The ex Team Sky physio should be ideally qualified to answer all these questions...0
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I agree my gearing is too high. As I said it is what I used somewhere flatter and I still have not changed it yet. I am interested in the tight hamstring theory as well. I know tight hamstrings are common amongst cyclists so I think I will have a go at this as well.0
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Glutes are very lazy muscles, sitting down for long periods doesn't help either, you need to work them. My girlfriend said to me 20 years ago, squeeze them bum cheeks 10 times quickly about 3 or 4 times a day. My point is, if your glutes don't fire all the other muscles around them, lower back, quads etc etc will take the work load instead. Check out Psoas stretching and releasing... From experience I would say it is not down to one single muscle but a combination of muscles.0
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mrwibble wrote:Glutes are very lazy muscles, sitting down for long periods doesn't help either, you need to work them. My girlfriend said to me 20 years ago, squeeze them bum cheeks 10 times quickly about 3 or 4 times a day. My point is, if your glutes don't fire all the other muscles around them, lower back, quads etc etc will take the work load instead. Check out Psoas stretching and releasing... From experience I would say it is not down to one single muscle but a combination of muscles.
This is what I read, the strongest muscle takes over and no matter how much exercise the weaker ones do not get involved. I think this is why I only feel quads burning when climbing now. I think the clam exercise is to isolate the glutes so that they cannot shirk off the work. Hopefully they will get strong enough to contribute again.0 -
side lunges with dumbbells will work them, glute bridge without weights work, google glute exercises and get them working. I would personally go to a therapist and get your hip flexors released by the way of 'Active Release'. I bet that at the very top of your quads there will be a lot of tightness going on....0
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mrwibble wrote:side lunges with dumbbells will work them, glute bridge without weights work, google glute exercises and get them working. I would personally go to a therapist and get your hip flexors released by the way of 'Active Release'. I bet that at the very top of your quads there will be a lot of tightness going on....
'Active Release', that sounds ominous, care to elaborate?0 -
Yep, i'd be curious what this eludes to. Do you mean dry needling or something?mrwibble wrote:side lunges with dumbbells will work them, glute bridge without weights work, google glute exercises and get them working. I would personally go to a therapist and get your hip flexors released by the way of 'Active Release'. I bet that at the very top of your quads there will be a lot of tightness going on....0 -
the therapist uses his elbow on your hip flexors then asks you to place force against this by moving your legs against it, maybe six times for 15 seconds each time, force combined with elbow should release deep in the muscle. google it....0
