What causes low back fatigue when cycling? Any quick fixes via form, position, or cadence? I tend to notice it when I am at a lower cadence and cranking on the pedals. It also seems like I can’t put out much power when my low back fatigues. I am not in a super aggressive position or anything.
Thanks for the help.
What causes low back fatigue when cycling? Any quick fixes via form, position, or cadence? I tend to notice it when I am at a lower cadence and cranking on the pedals. It also seems like I can’t put out much power when my low back fatigues. I am not in a super aggressive position or anything.
Thanks for the help.
Check out your stem length. I find that when riding one bike with a short and the other longer stem, I have no problems with the shorter one. But when i use the bike with the longer stem and do a lot of climbing (higher power, lower rpm), I sometimes get lower back pain.
A few things:
Did you recently change your position? Typically lower back pain is associated with a position that is too aggressive for an individual. There is an element of flexibility involved with increasing saddle to bar drop comfortably.
Do you work out your core? One thing you could do is to work on your core strength. It does help considerably.
What causes low back fatigue when cycling? Any quick fixes via form, position, or cadence? I tend to notice it when I am at a lower cadence and cranking on the pedals. It also seems like I can’t put out much power when my low back fatigues. I am not in a super aggressive position or anything.
Thanks for the help.
Sounds like over-engagement of lower back muscles in your pedal stroke. You reference fatigue, rather than pain, which may be an indicator that lower back muscles are being recruited to do some of the work best done by quads and hams. It may be worth your while to find out which muscles are being recruited and then why.
You are probably relying on sitting right back on the saddle and pushing the pedals forwards with an action that engages the hamstrings and lower back more so, especially on hills and will be exacerbated by low cadence. Try mixing things up alot more by a) standing up on climbs and b) sliding forwards on the saddle (a long tri saddle or Fizik type for example helps with this) and engaging the quads more at times. Vary it up.
I found by going to a noseless saddle and using it like a tt saddle(meaning allowing your junk to hang off the front of the saddle) allowed me to rotate my pelvis anteriorly and that was it…fought that particular battle on a road bike on and off for over 20 years. On a traditional road saddle I had slight taint pain if I let my pelvis relax and fall anteriorly so I would fight it and sit back like on a bar stool. With a VFlow Max pushed all the way back on a 20mm setback post it’s perfectly positioned for me and I can sit all day now with no back pain. I had been able to dismiss the reach component after trying a super short stems and then even went to a frame with a super tall head tube that gave me almost 0 drop, none of that helped either. I knew it wasn’t a saddle height issue, but even messed with that at one point out of desperation. It was a pelvic orientation problem for my particular issues. One bonus now is riding in the drops as it’s possibly even slightly more comfy than my default position on the hoods.
It was a pelvic orientation problem for my particular issues.
Sliding forwards on the saddle will encourage a more anterior tilt of the pelvis (anyone will now find it harder to engage the lower back). Same thing. Lower back muscles are now not long under load.
for me it was related to fitness when I increased distance/time in the saddle. I also found that working my abdominals really helped along with engaging them during the ride.
It was a pelvic orientation problem for my particular issues.
Sliding forwards on the saddle will encourage a more anterior tilt of the pelvis (anyone will now find it harder to engage the lower back). Same thing. Lower back muscles are now not long under load.
That may very well work for some as well, but I don’t like riding my road bike at steep STA’s. The Cobb feels good to me in a multitude of positions on a road bike, but in order to find a nice balance of weighting it’s best for me with 13.5mm of setback. My effective STA is ~ 73* with my saddle slammed all the way back on a 20mm setback. But some people do like riding them steep and that’s a great option for them too! It’s kind of hard to describe, but I sit in one spot on my saddle, off the nose, but can easily ride hoods or deep in the hooks. Never would have made sense to me until TomA described how the setup works with his Adamo.
I had the exact same thing, sliding even more forward on my saddle would relieve it. Started as just fatigue but got increasingly worse over time, and I began to get loads of associated leg pain, so I finally saw a doc a couple weeks ago. I have spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis and sciatic nerve damage. Can’t ride or run indefinitely. Don’t be afraid to get it checked out if it doesn’t go away!
Do you have weak him flexors or tight hamstrings?
Often when this is the case the quadratus lumborum is activated to help flex the hip in the pedal stroke causing fatigue. Can you post a video of you on a trainer? This often presents as a person rocking back and forth on the saddle side to side vs flexing at the hip