Mild Lower back pain, help with action plan

Hi All,

Thank you for taking the time to read the post below and for any comments thoughts, they will be very much appreciated. Am hoping I might be able to get some help and am looking for advice/comments on my plan of action after getting mild lower back pain on my right side. The location of the pain feels is immediately to the right of my spine just above my hip. I didn’t hurt whilst I was training on Wednesday morning, but came on the later in the day. It seems to get worse throughout the day and be gone the next morning. The pain is very mild and when it’s been there I only really feel it when I arch my back and lean backwards, until today. I was working on my bicycle in the garage today and standing and leaning forward at 90 degrees for a while and when I stood up I felt quite stiff and the pain seemed to be in a slightly more severe in that area. After that pain went away but came back later in the afternoon about 1h15 mins into a bike ride, I ended up riding for another 15-20 mins as I had my two year old in the kids bike seat on the back. 

I don’t have a history of any long term injuries and haven’t had any major injuries or health problems which could be contributing to it. I’ve been relatively active most of my life, cycling, windsurfing, on the flip side of that I have a desk job and spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer,

So I’m trying to work out my plan of action with respect to my GST training. I’m currently working through Foundation 1, I’m on the first level step 6 of each exercise and I’ve not trained since F1 since Wednesday. 

My guess is it was either the Russian twist (SL/PE1) or the Standing Hip Circle (SL/PE1>IM) which has triggered this. I think tried to make the range of motion too large for both of these. I also had some clicking in my back when doing the hip circles but that didn’t cause any pain at all, not sure if that could have anything to do with it

 I’ve started putting together an action plan but wanted some advice on some aspects which I not sure about. 

• Stop the Russian twists and Standing Hip Circles until the pain has gone. 
  • Should I also stop the entire F1 training until the pain has gone in my back or are there exercises I can continue perform? I’m happy to do whatever is required.
  •  I also have the handstand and stretch series. I started to integrate the handstand series into my training and have done a few of the stretch sessions, can I continue with these which resting the F1 elements?
• When the pain has gone restart the exercises I’ve stopped with reduced range of motion, rep count and take it very slowly to ensure I don’t cause it to happen again.
  • Again I’m happy to do whatever is best for the longer term so should I start at step 1 once I resume the exercises? I’m currently on step 6

Sorry for the lengthy post but thought I’d try to cover any background questions I thought maybe asked.

Thanks,

Mark

You have the right idea. I would rest the russian twists and circles for 1-2 weeks then perform them with reduced range of motion and progress them slowly.

To confuse you I'll take the opposite view from mr Collins. Move the back as much as possible but unloaded and not into ranges that causes pain. Do the twists with a dowel, slowly and focus the curvature of the back. For the hip circles, step wide and rotate slowly. Bring your feet together a little every set. 

I have no medical training as Mark does, but continue to train GST with a pretty messed up back and every now and then I need to restart something due to pain and the fastes way back is to move, a lot. It might feel like you're spinning the wheels, but every pain free rep is telling your nervous system that this ROM is ok and we can try a bit more, while also increasing blood flow to a trouble area.

Also rolling the glutes on a lacrosse ball or similar seems to help.

This is also what I would recommend, move as much as possible in a pain free way. However with the aggravating exercise you need to be cautious and take your time with the load and range of motion.

You also make a great point in how moving is changing our brain and its interpretation of healthy movement patterns.

Mark, Hans, 

Thank you so much for the input. I did a bit of reading around Hans's post and thought I give it a go. I very gently did a number of movements very slowly to the point where I could just feel it starting to feel the pain  to get a reference, I'm talking about a very very low level of discomfort, I wouldn't even call it pain. Then did the hip circles very very slowly with my feet apart as suggested and I found that after I'd done a couple the reference point where the pain started to occur had move and my pain free range of motion had increased, so did the same with a few Russian twists with no weights very slow and with a significantly reduced range of motion and found the same, then again with leaning back with my back arched which is where I noticed the pain. I also found moving really really slowly the pain wasn't there at all, it was when I was moving quicker that it hurt, so I'm hoping this is actually a really minor issue and should be sorted out in no time at all. 

The results have been amazing, this morning pain I had felt to the right of spine has gone, and I don't feel any pain when I lean back and arch my back. I know its was significantly less in the morning anyway but it was non-existent today. 

I'm going to take it very easy, doing the Russian twists with no weight and a reduced range of motion for a couple of weeks to make sure the issue isn't going to flare up again and likewise with the hip circles, obviously no weights involved here. Hopefully spending time doing this will help reprogram my brain to know that the moment is OK so. 

I think I've learnt a big lesson here. I have been trying to improve my range of motion in each session and trying too hard. I need to let that range of motion happen naturally without over reaching my capability over time and accept some of this may take a long time, which is fine. I'm hoping this will be a minor set back, with the lessons learnt actually very positive in the long run. More haste gives less speed of progression seems to be the lesson here. 

Thinking about it I've not done much activities which has involved a lot of twisting like the russian twists and I'm guessing I've got a lot of work to do on mobility and strength in my lower back and the time I've spent sitting at a desk is going to have taken its toll. But of course I'm in exactly the right place and this is why I made the investment in the GB courses I knew that and wanted to rebuild my body so that as i start to get older, I'm 43 now, I don't get to a point where I have lost so much mobility and strength that my body is permanently compromised. 

Thank you for the advice,

Mark

5 hours ago, Mark Allen said:

I think I've learnt a big lesson here. I have been trying to improve my range of motion in each session and trying too hard. I need to let that range of motion happen naturally without over reaching my capability over time and accept some of this may take a long time, which is fine. I'm hoping this will be a minor set back, with the lessons learnt actually very positive in the long run. More haste gives less speed of progression seems to be the lesson here. 

 

Mark

Well said, Mark.  

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Great to hear Mark! I find I need to really get a lot of unloaded volume in when I get back issues. I do my age for reps and try to squeeze in at least 5 sets during the day. I prefer one undulating motion like cat/camel and one with twist/rotation. I find to work rotation in the joints above and below to be really helpful so hips and upper back get hit frequently. Also hanging slow leg twists are really nice when done slowly, gives a bit of traction and unloading to the back while still being a strength exercise for the grip.

Hans, 

Thanks for the extra information, I hadn't considered doing that much work on it a day. 

thanks, 

Mark 

I've been thinking about my overall structure of my GST workout schedule and whether I could improve it to give more focus to what I think are most likely my limiting factor, mobility/flexibility. I've been an average club road cyclist pretty much since I was in my early teens and although I was never that great I've done a lot of volume over the years and I know my back, legs etc are tight and need to work to loosen them up. 

My current weekly schedule is:

• 2 x Foundation Sessions with each session including all 7 exercises
• 2 x handstand sessions
• I've tried some of the stretching but am struggling to fit it into my week from a time perspective at the moment. 

Would it be worthwhile placing a greater emphasis on mobility/stretching and change the weekly schedule to something along these lines until I've improved my mobility, so something like this?

• 1 X Foundation Session all 7 exercises
• 1 x Handstand
• 2 x stretching sessions, so doing two sessions of each stretch series over a 3 week period. 

Again, thanks for reading and taking the time to reply.

Mark 

Definitely worthwhile to increase the frequency of your stretch courses, Mark. Focus more on your biggest deficits now for better progress later.

Everett,

Thanks, that's what I was starting to think. I'll go with the above or maybe see if I can combine the foundation and handstand into one session to get two full sessions of Foundation and handstand a week. I don't normally feel tired the next day after a session at the moment so think I could probably take that increase in volume, I'll see how it goes. 

Mark. 

Sounds good, Mark. Not a problem at all. The recommendation for each stretch course is each 1x per week. Sound like you're busy (we all are) but the closer you get to that frequency, the better. Especially since you're tight from all the cycling. I've had a similar dilemma due to a high volume of distance running in the past. The stretch courses will really accelerate your progress.

OK, again that makes total sense, I'm new to this and still finding my feet in terms of understanding it all. At the moment I think I'll struggle to do more than 4 sessions of GST a week consistently 

So it sounds like a better approach would be to place the focus on the stretch sessions and do one of each a week and then use the remaining session to do the foundation and handstand?

Sounds great. You can set that up on your workout scheduler. I recommend getting your foundations and handstand in at least 1x per week each along with all the stretch courses. Finding a schedule you can stay consistent with is what you're really looking for though. 

Hello Mark, the Russian twist tweak may or may not have something to do with the actual movement or it may have to do with an underlying or previous injury OR just the way you were doing the movement. After taking your 1-2 weeks rest from Russian Twists - upload a video with reduced motion for the GB forum coaches to give you advice.

Mobility is absolutely and always worth prioritizing Mark.

Thanks for all the help today. I'll post a video of the Russian twists and hip circles in a couple of weeks, will be good to get some feed back. 

Hi Everyone, 

After taking 2 weeks of I've posted up a video in the form check section, if anyone has time to have a look that would be very much appreciated. 

Thanks, 

Mark

Got it 

Hey! I'm new here and new to this, but I just want to let you know that I was dealing with similar issues and just tried the suggested fixes. They worked like a charm. I know this wasn't for me, but I'm really grateful that this was here. Thanks guys!

You're welcome Ryan, it is our pleasure.