Have you tried working on your mobility? There's a couple of guys on Instagram with solid content - brian_movement101 & rob_movement101.

I had similar issues in the lead up to an IM last year and I started to incorporate their daily routine and found huge benefits from it.

P.

I think it has more to do with you being in the 40+ age group now.

Slightly kidding. I've been dealing with a tight lower back and was just contributing it to being older now. Bought a hypervolt gun to work on it with.

One new idea I read but have not tried was a post from Jordan Rapp suggesting to someone with a similar problem to try reducing their reach. Looking at myself ride (pic attached), I do look relatively stretched, so I will give this a go next.

Thanks!

Eric

I've struggled the past couple of years with my low back being very tight when running off the bike. The tightness is in my QL muscles, which become very aggravated/fatigued. It happens in HIM and IM races, and also sometimes on my long ride days with the post ride run. Is not a problem for shorter workouts or shorter races. The difference in my ability to run when it does happen vs when it doesn't happen is pretty stark. The back basically becomes the limiter over my aerobic ability. I do have a functional leg length discrepancy, and have typical tight hips of an office worker. Some things I've done to try to eliminate the issue include:

- Moving from 170 to 165 to 160mm cranks. 170 to 165 helped a ton, but didn't eliminate the problem. Moving to 160 didn't really help much further.

- Practiced high cadence. Seems to help some also, but is not a bullet proof solution . . . I think my average cadence was 93 at Texas 70.3 Sunday, but my back was still tight.

- Raised my aerobars one cm. No help at all.

- Got a standing desk (I stand maybe 40% of the day), doesn't really help.

- Moved from once to twice weekly physio sessions to try get the back worked on, kept loose. Doesn't seem to help.

- I've tried various stretching routines/foam rolling/core routines, but have trouble maintaining them due to limited energy and just lack of confidence that what I'm doing will actually help. The one thing I do regularly is try to do a cobra pose stretch (on stomach head up).

One new idea I read but have not tried was a post from Jordan Rapp suggesting to someone with a similar problem to try reducing their reach. Looking at myself ride (pic attached), I do look relatively stretched, so I will give this a go next. If anyone has confidence in a reliable stretching/core strengthening/foam rolling routine to try, other bike fit type things to experiment with, or any other suggestions then I am all ears!

Thanks!

Eric

Hey - I appreciate these thoughts, but I'm not sure about this idea of just finding a 'better' saddle . . . I had the same problem when I was on a Sitero, but the Dash is massively more comfortable in terms of staying in the saddle/aerobars for long rides. Do you have any specific brands/models you think would be worth trying? Could it be a saddle tilt issue or maybe even an aerobar tilt issue? Or would simply lowering the front end be a reasonable place to start? I've been gradually raising it while making other changes, so perhaps reversing course on that would be a non-trivial improvement. Thanks!

you've got to either rotate your pelvis or bring your stack waaay up to neutralize your lower back. Rotating pelvis usually means saddle stuff, and postural coaching from a good fitter.

It's a matter of doing things right (your saddle comfort) vs. doing the right things. Your saddle is comfortable but you can't run off the bike. You're not doing the right things...

OK, I think I understand enough to experiment and work on this issue. Would still be interested if you had a specific saddle rec to try out though. Thank you!

IMO you're riding the wrong saddle, or sitting on the right saddle improperly. In that tunnel pic, your pelvis is vertical, and your stack is quite high because of it, and you're actually *not* stretching out your back and not getting it into a neutral position.

Also, because your stack is slightly high, you're not getting much weight on the front end, which in turn prevents you from unweighting your pelvis / relaxing your back and so you're stabilizing with your QL muscles, which are fatiguing.

Find a better saddle and configure your front end to accept you much as an upside down easy chair would.

OK, first pass at an updated position, let me know how I did. I don't have my Dimond back from TBT yet, but had some time to play around with my trainer bike (which is set up as identically as possible). I practiced trying to just sit differently at first, but that wasn't working, so I slid back the saddle ~1.5cm so that I could sit towards the front of the saddle without being too scrunched. That was better, but left me with my head way up and just seemed weird, so I lowered the bars 1.5cm (which is the most I can lower them without getting rid of the arm rest tilt) and it left me with this . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-1dob2rlYg

I did 30min of fartlek type riding, no obvious discomfort or power loss, though it definitely feels a lot different than what I am used to.