Just got done with a ride and my lower back started acting up. The location is right above my right glute and the pain especially hit when my foot was at the 12 oclock position. I have relatively good core strength. Any ideas?
tight hip flexors
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Hi,
I’m an RMT who focus’s in Orthopedics.
Some possibilities:
There could be a fist degree strain to one of the glute muscles at their origin site along the SI Joint.
Possibly referral pain from the psoas muscle hip flexor).
Depending on what position and how long you were on the bike, your pelvis could be rotated forwards/backwards, inflaired/outflaired or usually a combination of both.
Your SI joint could be stuck/locked out of place, causing inflammation to be present , there by causing teh muscles around the joint to spasm and guard.
There could be a positional fault with one or more of your lumbar vertebrae. This can cause the outer “skin” if you will to become sensitized. This causes the disc to have a low threshold for pain, meaning it doesn’t take much to stimulate your pain receptors.
As you can see…it can get quite intricate. there are other forced coupling faults that can be present.
Please make sure who ever you see, is skilled at assessing and treating orthopedic conditions with athletes on a regular basis. You need to be as informed as possible. Finding an appropriate therapist is like doing a job interview! they are interviewing for the job…not you!
Good luck.
tight hip flexors
Are not hip flexors in the front?
I had a lower back problem as well and it turned out to be the hip flexors that generate the back problem.
any great hip flexor treatments/stretches/exercises I could focus on?
Some of them are anterior. The deeper you go the less accurate anterior/posterior descriptions become. The psoas major originates along the tranverse process of lumbar vertebrae L1 through L5. As well it is connected with the vertebral bodies of T12 through L4 as well as the intervening intervertebral discs. From these spots it travels to the trochanter of the femur at the hip and is a hip flexor. This muscle is one of the primary causes of low back pain on the bike.
KP
Dr. Kevin Purcell DC
www.coachkp.com
Sacroiliac joint dysfunctions are very common with cycling. Your hip flexor and hamstring lengths can easily contribute to an SI joint problem. Frequently the individual will have tight hip flexors on one side of the body and a tight hamstrings group on the opposite side. This will rotate one side of the pelvis forward and the other side backward. If the problem lingers for longer than a couple days you’ll need to obtain an outpatient orthopedic assessment because you’ll not likely be able to shift the joint back to its proper position on your own. The problem is just that it is not possible for you to assess it yourself. Hopefully the practitioner will treat you a self-correction technique (if it is the SI joint) during the first visit. If they don’t, there’s a problem. It’s a pretty easy fix when it is an acute SI joint dysfunction. Should the joint stay out of place for a couple weeks or more it becomes a nuisance for both you and the practitioner. The longer it is out, the harder it will go back and the more likely it will want to pop back out of position when finally corrected. As stated previously, you could also have some sort of lumbar facet joint dysfunction or muscle strain or a piriformis syndrome, which are all pretty common but difficult to diagnose over the internet without a true examination.