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Lower back pain while riding
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I went for a ride the other day and about halfway through my lower back started hurting pretty bad. I'm trying to narrow down some causes/fixes to prevent it in the future.
My top guesses would be - poor core strength, poor bike fit.

I am working on the core strength, but I live almost 90 miles from the nearest bike shop that could do a proper fit for me. With my work schedule, it is nearly impossible to get down there at a time where their fitters are in and can fit me right. Are there things I can do at home that would help this?
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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It should not take a "proper fit shop" to get your basic position right. You local dealer should be able to do this. If you have never suffered or experienced lower back pain in general, then maybe the basic fit is incorrect. If you are getting on a bike with known back issues, then I suspect the 90 mile drive is well worth it.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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define "halfway through". Is that 20 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours? I had a bike fit I thought was fine until I started hitting more 4 hour bike rides and then little stuff started cropping up.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mickison] [ In reply to ]
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It was about an hour in.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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Another cause could be tight glutes and/or hamstrings.

If they are very tight even a fit won't help this (unless you want to be riding as if on a beachcomber going to the shops :-) )
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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mdisciple wrote:
It was about an hour in.

If you could post pictures of you on your bike in and out of aero a lot more people would be able to help you. Give us a side angle and a front if you can.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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mdisciple wrote:
It was about an hour in.

do you have an indoor bike trainer? Could you take video of you riding on the trainer and post it hear? Not a substitute for a bike fit but somebody might notice something obvious. Definitely keep up with core work. That has helped me.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [tuckandgo] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
Another cause could be tight glutes and/or hamstrings.

Lower back pain can be a bunch of different things but this was (is) my problem, along with some core weakness. The unscientific explanation is that tight hamstrings and especially tight glutes pull on tendons connected to your back. You feel the pain in your back but the cause is tightness down lower. Try these stretches, especially the pigeon pose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNN3K2qj-L0

Still do a fit too.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mickison] [ In reply to ]
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Pardon the mess in the back, but here’s a video from the side.


Last edited by: mdisciple: May 12, 18 16:23
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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Your saddle is too high and your pelvis is posteriorly rotated.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [oderpph] [ In reply to ]
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What do you mean by posteriorly rotated?
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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Anyone? Please Critique my fit!
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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mdisciple wrote:
Anyone? Please Critique my fit!

as well as i can tell, you're riding a road bike with tri bars. which is perfectly acceptable. but not optimal. the hard fact that new triathletes - and i don't know that you're new, but bear with me - is that you come to a moment when you realize that your existing road bike is great. for road. but not optimized for aerobars. and then you need to decide whether to invest in a bike designed around the aerobar, which fundamentally changes the rider position.

it's my sense that we'll have a hard time critiquing your fit beyond a few elements (like seat height) without a decision made, by you, regarding your next steps. if you want to consider a tri bike, then we'll waste a lot of time trying to optimize your existing tri fit on a road bike.

how do you think you'd like to proceed?

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
mdisciple wrote:
Anyone? Please Critique my fit!


as well as i can tell, you're riding a road bike with tri bars. which is perfectly acceptable. but not optimal. the hard fact that new triathletes - and i don't know that you're new, but bear with me - is that you come to a moment when you realize that your existing road bike is great. for road. but not optimized for aerobars. and then you need to decide whether to invest in a bike designed around the aerobar, which fundamentally changes the rider position.

how do you think you'd like to proceed?

Well, I am a newbie. And I am pretty broke at the moment. For the foreseeable future, a tri-specific bike isn't in the cards.

Would you recommend trying to adjust my fit with aerobars on my road bike? or would I be better off just riding it as a road bike?
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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mdisciple wrote:
Slowman wrote:
mdisciple wrote:
Anyone? Please Critique my fit!


as well as i can tell, you're riding a road bike with tri bars. which is perfectly acceptable. but not optimal. the hard fact that new triathletes - and i don't know that you're new, but bear with me - is that you come to a moment when you realize that your existing road bike is great. for road. but not optimized for aerobars. and then you need to decide whether to invest in a bike designed around the aerobar, which fundamentally changes the rider position.

how do you think you'd like to proceed?


Well, I am a newbie. And I am pretty broke at the moment. For the foreseeable future, a tri-specific bike isn't in the cards.

Would you recommend trying to adjust my fit with aerobars on my road bike? or would I be better off just riding it as a road bike?

ITU racers race on their road bikes, and if you look at Flora Duffy, as one example, she rides with a "shorty" bar. not that anybody really makes a good shorty bar. but to your question, i guess i'd ride with a sort of criterium position on my road bike, which means establishing a good road position that's on the sort of steeper, more aggressive end of orthodox (hence a crit position), and then i'd add a shorty bar.

so, what i'd say is that we fix anything we need to fix on your road bike, for your road fit, and then we look at your aerobar. i might want you to consider buying a new (fairly cheap) aerobar.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Ok that sounds good. The aero bars I have are relatively new (bought around Christmas time) Profile Design aluminum T3.
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Re: Lower back pain while riding [mdisciple] [ In reply to ]
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You're seat is high and your pelivis isn't rotating forward. I had a real hard time with this at first, when you down to your aero bars, lift your slef from the saddle and push your butt out like a porn star, then lower yourself back down so you're on your taint.
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