Sore Lower back

[rideforthechild]

I have only recently started cycling and I'm at a point where my legs have got much stronger on the climbs and I'm climbing sat down.
However it's causing havoc with my lower back. Yesterday I did a couple of 10-15% climbs and my back was in agony after only one hour. It's definitely the sitting down climbing as I have been up these climbs many times before but stood up.

I'm praying that my back will get stronger and it's just because the muscles aren't strong enough. I have also considered bike position etc but I've had no problems in the last two months.

Help!

 

[vickster]

Work on your core and spin a lower gear if you have one. Stretch after riding

Why are you now sitting to climb (not that it's the wrong thing to do)? Mix up the sitting and standing?

My physio says tilting the pelvis forwards reduces the strain, and makes sure you are using all of the muscles, not just quads (especially glutes and hamstrings), need to practice riding in that way and have a good core (my major let down, I have to sit on climbs as I have dodgy knees but I rarely ride up anything that steep)

 

[Globalti]

This is quite normal; after 20 years of mountain biking and 5 on the road I still get lower back pain on a long climb. It will get less in time as your muscles become accustomed to the position, standing up from time to time helps as well.

 

[ColinJ]

This is the number one problem that I have on the bike!

I went out on a little local loop yesterday involving several steep ramps at about 20%. I get up such climbs but my back muscles end up feeling like they are on fire and tend to stay like that for the rest of the ride. I can then only put in about 50% effort. It is why I only tend to average 15-20 kph on my hilly rides.

I can do the first climb of a ride much quicker than subsequent ones even though my legs feel fine for the whole ride.

I think that I will have to fix this problem off the bike because no matter how much cycling I do, it doesn't seem to diminish.

 

[Moodyman]

Raising the handlebars via headset spacers or flipping the stem can help by reducing the bend forwards of the back.

 

[ColinJ]

Raising the handlebars via headset spacers or flipping the stem can help by reducing the bend forwards of the back.

I have already done both of those on my bikes. The drop to my bars is quite small compared to that on most people's bikes. I think I need to do some stretching and core strength exercises.

 

[Globalti]

That would help if I could be bothered! When you think about it, a huge amount of stress must be shared between your shoulders and your hips through those two narrow muscles up each side of your spine.

 

[ColinJ]

That would help if I could be bothered! When you think about it, a huge amount of stress must be shared between your shoulders and your hips through those two narrow muscles up each side of your spine.

Yes, that is my problem too - I haven't found a suitable exercise routine that I actually enjoy, so I don't bother!

 

[vickster]

Physio and stretching are boring, it's the nature of the beast unfortunately

Try swimming?

 

[cyberknight]

I cant climb sitting down unless its a long not to steep drag which i just treat as a more energetic flat ,otherwise i just get out of the saddle and crank it more like Contador than froome , i hasten to add not as fast !

 

[De Sisti]

I had the same problem which was alleviated by regular stretches of my glute muscles.

 

[ColinJ]

I still think I need to do the exercises, but on yesterday's lumpy forum ride (2,000 metres of climbing in 104 km, some slopes at 20%) I made the effort to get out of the saddle on climbs much more than I normally do and it seemed to take a lot of the strain off my back. I didn't start to feel any serious twinges until the end of the ride, which is unusual for me.