Height=lower back pain

I'm not tall (only 5'6", but I've had problems with lower back pain, especially bike riding.  I've been working on strengthening my core and that seems to be helping.  There's a good workout in the March issue of Bicycling that I've been following.  Not sure if that will help your situation, but it's pretty easy to work on and will provide some benefit either way.

How's your core strength?  I know that a weak or imbalanced can be a major contributor to back pain.  

I have a good core, actually I have been more focused on weights for the past couple of years, so my muscle endurance is good, I just have had a lot of difficulties with my height, I just have to stretch, before and after if I don't I will be in pain for the rest of the day.

I'm 6'4" and was an automobile mechanic for almost 20 years. My back has hurt every day for the last 25 years. I have to really stretch my hamstrings and hip flexors all the time. Chiropractor and muscle relaxers are my 2 best friends. Funny though, riding a bike helps relieve the pain in my back.

I am only 6' 4," but have had sporadic back problems for the last 10 years. Looking back, my problems are clearly correlated to weight, fitness and flexibility. The lower the weight, the better the fitness, the better my flexibility, the less the pain.

I'm 5'11" and have experienced chronic lower back pain (where it feels strained) for so long . . . I tried "strengthening my core" and all sorts of stuff like that. But then I realized I was doing something.

This is really stupid. I mean, I'm pretty self-aware, I take constant note of what my body is doing, I love keeping an eye on it and all that.

But one day I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and . . .

I was bending a teeny tiny bit from my waist.

I'm taller than most girls, and quite a few guys, plus being a little top-heavy I'm a bit self-conscious around others, so, apparently, my body has been responding for who knows HOW long by bending forward a little bit from my waist.

Isn't that stupid? But I straightened up, and the pain went away. Immediately. I mean, TOTALLY. My erector spinae have been "in use", holding up the entire weight of my back - but only via a tiny extension of the muscles! - for so long due to this posture that it created a lot of pain . . . it's like holding your arm up, just a little bit, for years and years . . . The muscles start to protest and get REALLY REALLY TIRED.

Any time I start to feel lower back pain, I remember to stop freaking bending forward a bit at the waist! and it works. It's so stupid that I did this in the first place.

So maybe take a really detailed look at yourself, or get someone neutral to, just to make sure you aren't doing something silly like chronically leaning forward some, or similar. It may be hard to spot (I didn't see it for how many years?), especially because habits (whether good or bad) often appear "normal".

Also, and this is particularly true for women, a lot of us stick out our butts. Big guys are really guilty of it too, tho I'm not certain why. If you don't have a naturally deep lordosis for this (one that's been present since like birth and needs medical care), your body will start to present pain at the lower back because of this habit of sticking out your butt. I mean, you're constantly contracting your erector spinae, whether a little or a lot. Every day. They're going to get tired and present with pain. This happened with me as well. So I started tucking in my butt a bit. Levelled my pelvis so it wasn't dipping forward to stick out my butt. I initially thought, "Good lord it's going to look like I've just wee-d my pants or something" but it actually looks like I have really good posture! Ballerinas don't stick out their butts, and, absent an uncorrected medical issue of extreme lordosis (which really should be medically addressed as it will create big time problems later in life), neither should anyone else.

Sometimes the pain is not because of some problem with our bones or something, but in the way we move and hold our muscles (usually a chronic contraction/extension outside of their normal, ie "relaxed-feeling", motion range). That's a good thing, though, because we can change how we move and hold our muscles.

Take stock and try to fix these problems because they are NOT going to get better unless you do something about them.

I wonder if this isn't because for the past 20 years you've been doing a lot of bending forward looking under hoods or similar. That's a lot of extension and contraction of your erector spinae.

Cycling usually feels good to people with back problems because, when cycling, you aren't using your erector spinae to hold yourself up anymore. You're sticking out your arms and using your shoulders to hold your upper body weight. Which lets your erector spinae pretty much relax.

It's like kneeling on the floor and bending over, with your hands behind your back. Ughrhrhg.

Now kneel and stick out your hands, ie go on all fours. Your back can totally relax. But because it's tired from extending, it's probably going to protest on contracting as well, so just letting your lower back flex where your butt sticks up probably doesn't feel too good either. It helps to tuck in the butt, ie "flatten your back".

Or ride a bike.