Ring swings causing lower back pain

Seems like I'm having a bit of bad luck lately.

The title says it all, I always get the pain when coming down from back swing, just a moment before going through vertical hang position, so it has something to do with straightening the arch in my back while going to front swing.

The pain is in lumbar spine somewhere above the first vertebrae, but it isnt in the spine, it hurts a bit more to the right, I can reacreate the pain by doing lateral trunk lean to the left, that means my left shoudler drops, that's when it hurts. Lateral trunk lean to the right is absolutely pain free.

I'd be grateful if anyone knows what I may be doing wrong or if I have a weak link of some kind. Thanks.

I'm guessing there is something going on with that hip and lower back where they attach. Common in a lot of people.

Start doing a lot of stretching in that area.

Side to side wipers, scorpion torso switch stretches. Tons of leg swings, back and forth, side to side. The hip series. Find out if your hip is tight in any sort of way on that side.

Sometimes, Single Leg DL loosen up that area for me. Pidgeon stretch and sort of the opposite where you sit in pike, turn the knee in with the foreleg out at 90 degrees to work internal rotation.

I'm guessing there is also a hitch in your ring swing. Well, when you start hitting that arch and getting ready to "tap" your hip and spine get loaded. So the weak area/point cries out.

The area feels pretty sore now - about 3 hours later.

I will stretch it and do some arch ups and curl ups tomorrow before rings and I'll see what it does. Anyway I've been told that my ring swings look better because of this - I dont know how to explain it but now when it hurts I focus much more on the body positions (arch and hollow) and dont pull on the rings so much.

First, as Blairbob said, this could be a back strength issue. I think he covered that pretty well, so I'll just give my 2 cents with regards to form:

A common mistake when swinging rings is to tap from the hips instead of from the chest. In anticipation of tapping with the hips, a gymnast coming down from his backswing will tend to have a tightly arched lower back. This results in the tap placing a large amount of stress on the lower back. In the backswing, your arch should be largely in the upper back, with the lower back/hips only slightly arched (e.g. the reverse of a hollow position): this allows you to lead with your chest, and creates a full-body tapping motion.

So on the backswing, lead with your chest, don't arch your lower-back much, and try to tap from your upper torso instead of from your hips.

Could you explain more about "try to tap from your upper torso instead of from your hips"?

I think this is what I'm doing, as it hurts always a moment before reaching vertical hang and it has something to do with my body reaching vertical hang position with arched back, but I still don't understand what do you mean by tapping from the upper torso and full-body tapping motion.

Falcon said:

Could you explain more about "try to tap from your upper torso instead of from your hips"?

I think this is what I'm doing, as it hurts always a moment before reaching vertical hang and it has something to do with my body reaching vertical hang position with arched back, but I still don't understand what do you mean by tapping from the upper torso and full-body tapping motion.

Essentially, it's the difference between bending at the hips and bending along your torso. If you tap entirely from the hips, you'll end up in a pike position, and if you tap entirely from the torso, you'll end up with a hollow back and straight hips. Ideally you'll tap primarily from your torso and only slightly from the hips.

Try taking a video of yourself and see how much you pike in your swing.

Reviving an old post here, sorry. What exactly do you mean by tapping?

Also, My butt is squeezed tight to the point of cramping during both the back and front swings, which prevents the pike. I still can't manage to get the awareness about how to lead with the chest. Can you elaborate on the topic?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEFrqbfF4PY&feature=player_detailpage#t=300