stretching, yoga, moving components around, changing shoes, core exercises, taking Glucosamine, using hot/cold therapy gel, taking ibuprofen, that is treating the symptoms.
fix the cause and your back problems will go away.
the cause is your posture on the bike.
everybody has a natural inward curve on their backs. this is called Lordosis.
what you want to do is try and maintain that inward curve of your back while riding the bike, i find that this can be difficult, and usually end up with the back flat with not much inward bend, this is still a lot better than being in a big arch.
and you want to sit in a good chair with good posture. , sleep on a good mattress, and lift heavy objects correctly.
when you incorrectly arch your back when bending over to grab the bars, drops, hoods, or next to the stem, you are mis-aligning the SI joint (sacroiliac joint) . you want the pelvic area to be in line with the spinal column. when you stoop to grab the bars, you are forming an angle between the SI joint and the spine. over time this will start to cause problems, especially if you climb steep hills in a big gear with max effort.
out of the saddle hill jams and climbing? same thing. maintain that correct posture and you will slowly stretch that SI joint hack into alignment. you may find that when you fix the posture problem, that after a few days, you no longer feel pain towards the outside of your hips and the center of the spine, but instead the pain will move to the center of the back near the L5 area. do not be discouraged. this is normal. it is called centralization. it is a sign that you are moving in the right direction. after about a week or so, this pain should go away.
you can go to the chiro and ask for a HVLA (high velocity-low amplitude) move on the SI joints. it might be that just one SI joint needs adjustment. a good chiro will know which one. A tight SI joint will cause the other SI joint to have excessive movement. It does this to make up for the tight joint when walking, etc. This excessive movement can cause pain. If you do an adjustment to the loose SI, you will be making the problem worse. So you want to treat the SI joint that is not hurting in order to fix the one that is hurting. You can adjust both side if your chiro is not sure which is which, this is better than nothing, The loose joint will recover and the tight joint will now be in proper alignment. Your chiro will able to tell which side was tight by the amount of joint movement he hears while doing the adjustment.
During recovery, stretching can help. Standing up and bending your back in 5 times while looking up is a good one. So is lying on all 4's and arching your back up and down, as well as getting into pushup position and arching your back upwards.
An added benefit of cycling with correct posture will be more speed/power. Yeah, i'll take some of that!
Also, when you climb out of the saddle, try to keep a fluid-like motion. In other words, do not lock up your back muscles when climbing.
Backs are weird and can be hard to troubleshoot. Sometimes trouble in one area will show up in a completely different area. Back pain can also affect your thinking. I find it hard to tackle technical problems while suffering back pain.
You also might have a disk problem. To find out, lie down flat on your back and lift one leg at at time. I you feel pain, this could be a disc that is causing sciatic problems. Numbness in the legs and other areas is also a symptom of the sciatic.
ever hear someone say 'get a longer stem' when trying to help someone with back problems? seems contrary. seems like you should use a shorter stem to keep from bending over so much. but what the longer stem does is stretch your back out so it does not have as much arch to it, thus improving your bike posture which keeps pain away.
tight hamstrings: there is another problem that could be contributing to your back pain. to check for a tight hammy sit on a chair with another chair of equal height out in front of you. lift your legs and ut your heels on the chair in front of you. can you straighten your legs without a lot of pain or do you need to keep your legs bent? tight hammy's can pull your pelvis out of alignment just like bad back posture. you can stretch the hammy's on the chair or use an alternate hammy exercise.
There is a great book called Treating Your Own Back by Robert McKenzie. It is available for cheap in paperback or online as a pdf if you search.
Good Luck!
Last edited by cjenrick; 09-06-21 at 12:42 AM.