The issue there is that “lower back pain” is incredibly general and can cover a host of causes. For some issues, imbalances, release and strengthening absolutely can solve the issue. For others, medical interventions are required. The article you linked talked about increasing access to rehab services, and most of what is talked about here is in that ballpark - stretching, strengthening, release, working imablances… all of that is a part of rehab or physical therapy.
The number of “low back pain” cases that are caused by weak cores, dysfunctional pelvic alignment and spinal posture, and subsequent overloading, whether acute or chronic, of the lower back is an enormous part of the general “low back pain” “epidemic” in my opinion. That kind of issue is far, far more common than disc or degenerative spine conditions. Unfortunately, generic lower back pain is treated by medical professionals with NSAIDs and/or opiods and often not much else.
Many of these issues take work to actually resolve, and unfortunately we have a big part of the global population that isn’t interested in that kind of thing and would rather mask symptoms than address root causes.
First rides this spring my lower back was aching after 1hr of Z2, today I did 4 hour ride with 1hr of sweet spot and high Z2 pace mostly in the drops without any pain.
I’m not sure if my problem was strength or flexibility but I’m just happy to be able to ride without back pain now. I’ve been struggling with it for years but been too lazy to do anything about it.
I do the core exercises at the gym 2x a week after my full body routine.
Previously I thought just heavy trap bar deadlifts were enough core work but it was clearly not the case. Now I just have to find out how much I need to keep doing these to remain pain free.
Well a quick update…
Finally got the result of an Xray - I’ve got early onset arthritus - Yay
A MRI will happen at some point to hopefully provide a bit more information.
As for now - i’m still doing strength work… still tweaking my position / cleats and anything else.
I tried moving my cleats forward again on my foot - just as an experiment. It felt awful. My poor calves were not happy.
Still trying to carry on - I’ve gravel crit race in 2 weeks time… so i’ll be trying to get to the finish without too much discomfort - which is a shame as i really want to push myself and where my fitness had got to.
But i’m still riding and summer is here in the UK.. so i’ll just suck it up and carry on for now.
Cheers all - its been interesting reading what exercises people are doing for real and not a quick instrgram post for the BEST blah blah blah whetever they are trying to push
FWIW: I always thought mtbing helped my back and core. I was a long time roadie but starting riding mtb much more about 10 years ago. Now I’m about 80% mtb vs road/gravel and my back has been doing great. I could just be lucky, too.
Sure, assuming everything is working right. If you’re already out of whack, with a symmetry problem or riding in a position with bad pelvis tilt or weak glutes that aren’t getting activated, riding can exacerbate the problem. I went to a chiropractor (a cyclist) for a while, about my lower back issues. I had been dealing with them for years, but when I started cycling again after being out of it for 20 years, my back went ballistic…didn’t bother me a bit on the bike, so I kept doing that, but later that day, after sitting on the couch and in the morning trying to get out of bed were spasm city. Typical desk jockey problems, but years worth of it.
Everyone back pain is different. Mine is somewhat similar, long xc bike races and my back fails. It’s so frustrating when my fitness is there, but the back limits me. I’ve had two XCM races where I’ve had to stop for a good 10-15 minutes and lie down just to be able to keep going. It’s mostly the physical nature of XC, I can very long rides on gravel and on my enduro bike, just because I get less punished.
I have a strong weightlifting background, so lots of strength. I can deadlift 400+ lbs, and can hold a plank for 5+ minutes. It’s not a core strength issue.
In the last few months I’ve started to see some resolution by focusing on static back holds and flexibility. I have a slightly weird body type, I’m very barrel chested, with a very narrow waist and long torso. My theory is that I’m quite top heavy, so when I’m in attack position on the mtb, there’s a huge amount of stress on my lower back holding that position, and it’s stretching my hamstrings and glutes more than they can handle, leading my back to get overly fatigued.
I’ve had huge success with the Eric Goodman 12 minute video Hubba posted above. I have been doing it 3x a week for a month, and my back pain has reduced immensely. I’m really hoping that another few months and I’ll have almost no back pain while racing!
My back pain was caused from sitting and the hip flexors pulling on the back where they attach. Stretching them rather than the back brought relief. Generally doing all sorts of stretching also helps overall. Try it, can’t hurt.
Other thing that helps me is changing position often, especially going out of the saddle.
I was stretching like crazy, but still had lower back/PSOAS-issues, and it probably just made the bulging disc worse. The solution for me seem to have been extremely simple. Mostly just bending from the hip (also on the bike) and sitting with a correct posture.
If conservative treatment (PT, bike fit, exercises) has failed for 10 months and symptoms are worsening, you need diagnostic imaging (MRI) to rule out structural issues. I had similar progression - pain starting 60-90 minutes into rides, worsening over months despite strength work.
Got proper workup from Dr. Siddiqui, who is the best spine surgeon in Houston, who found L5-S1 disc protrusion irritating nerve root. Once we treated the actual problem (not just symptoms), power and endurance came back. Don’t keep grinding through it - get imaging and find out what’s breaking.
