Absolutely! Hope it helps you as much as it does me. I feel a world of difference every time I do this “workout”!!!
this is the case for me, weak abs/core in general and tight hip flexors thanks to working in front of a computer for 40+hrs a week for the last 16 yrs
I seem to be quite the opposite to a lot of people here. I have no discomfort on the bike but whilst standing or walking for extended durations I get a really stiff and uncomfortable lower back. Its only been noticeable since I started cycling and it cripples me if I go hiking. I have to stop often and bend down to try and touch my toes, which feels good and temporarily alleviates the discomfort and stiffness
My pleasure, and hope you are on the way to being more flexible.
n=1 self-monitoring: seems triggering combo is low cadence below 60rpm at Z3+ intervals. Obviously will do more of those, either make it or break it 
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The stretching is just making my back hurt 10x worse. I’m losing faith I’ll ever be a cyclist at this point.
Look, I know how these things get to you, and I know you get tired of hearing everyone’s suggestions, I’ve been there. But I can’t emphasize enough the difference in my life that regular yoga practice has made. This is more than just stretching, with a good instructor or practice, each movement builds on the work done by the previous. Just jumping in and trying to loosen your psoas is probably just going to hurt, but taking the time to loosen the hamstrings, the quads, the abs and then easing into the psoas and bing bang boom, they are a million times better. Lower back pain is my current Achilles heel. After a hip injury and two surgeries to remedy it, my core strength was shit, and combined with not looking after my general fitness during recovery, my flexibility was too. I’ve practiced yoga on and off my whole life, and I started back up just to be in motion and deal with stress. Almost immediately I started finding relief in my back and hip issues.
If you don’t like calling “yoga” then call it “mobility work” but while I can’t speak to your specific situation, I can tell you it will help.
These things are almost never one thing, its almost always a cascade of issues causing you grief. Bad bike fit, weak core and abdominal muscles, sitting at a desk cranking your neck all day, lack of flexibility in places you don’t realize are affecting you, so on and so forth.
Keep your head up man (literally and figuratively) if a one armed man from Columbia can complete the Ruta Del Sol, you can ride a bike and become a cyclist.
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You’ll get through it! @Deej brings up a good point. Did your PT give you stretches and exercises to work on? They really should have and that is definitely the starting point. Everyone is different but I’ve found that it’s all connected and my lower back pain is managed best by taking care of everything…hamstrings, quads, glutes (medius, minimus especially), abs, releasing the piriformis with a lacrosse ball, etc.
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Good stuff here!
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Yeah, he gave me some hamstring stretches to do. I’ve been doing those + basic YouTube yoga for 2 weeks. The pain used to be just while riding and now it hurts all day at work.
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I definitely want to try a different one, or even get imagine done. It just sucks you have to keep shelling out a ton of money to see different doctors and quite possibly get no answers.
I had a lot of trouble with a tight lower back and back pain until recently. It got so bad it hurt when sitting and standing for more than 5 minutes. Couldn’t ride without pain for more than an hour.
Someone on here recommended the guys from ‘Upright Health’ on youtube (to someone else, but it was a great recommendation, I find their videos excellent!), and I just tried different excercises they had, until I found some I was really (and surprisingly) bad at, and then just worked on that. I’m much better now, no more pain when sitting or riding, and as a side plus my tight calves when running have also gone away (better hip movement I think).
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So now my back has gone from hurting just on the bike to 24/7 and I’m debating going and paying to get imaging done. But if they DO find a disc problem or something with imaging, are they even gonna be able to do anything to fix it?
If you’re interested in learning more about low back pain and how it can be caused and how it can be treated, I highly recommend the book “Back Mechanic” by Stuart McGill. Mcgill is a world renowned expert in low back disorders who has produced over 240 peer-reviewed scientific journal papers, as well as several textbooks. Among other things, “Back Mechanic” gives you steps to help you find out what might be causing your pain, whether it’s a specific spine posture, particular movements, or a certain type of load or stress. He then talks about ways you can remove your pain triggers through different postures and movements. By removing the pain triggers, this will hopefully allow whatever is causing your pain to heal.
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Well that didn’t go great. Pretty much the top reviewed place in the state. He checked my strengths, core strength, leg muscle strengths, mobilities of everything, anti rotation muscles, flexibility. Basically everything and said everything looks absolutely top notch. But he also said he’s very sure it’s a back muscle pain and not a spinal pain.
This video saved me from a terrible surfing accident!
Highly highly recommend.
I dont think you realise how much you need to stretch something for it to be effective as well as how important it is to strengthen as well as stretch. This video does both.
Fascat Coaching makes that 12 minute Foundation routine part of all their training plans. Its scheduled right into the TrainingPeaks calendar 1-2 times a week right along with the bike workouts. They also schedule in a separate core/mobility routine along with some yoga stretching.
Not a bad point. I just figure itll cost around $1500 and that’s a lot to me. The pt I saw a couple days ago said he was positive it wasn’t a spinal issue though.
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i second the person that said it might be weak glutes.
hamstring is extremely strong and wants to do more work when it can. It can easily overpower glute and glute medius.
do a single leg glute bridge…if your hamstring starts to cramp, it’s doing all the work.
so fire hydrants, single leg glute bridges, bird dogs, etc.
give it 2-3 weeks and hope you see some improvement.
Brendan
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I do agree that it is more likely the glutes than the hamstrings but I would like to emphasize stretching them as well. That has always helped me.