My back has been bothering me for a couple weeks now for no real apparent reason that I can pinpoint, (except for maybe laying on the cold ground under my truck for 2 days), it hurts in the lower back just above my ass.
Now here’s the strange part, stretching certain ways makes it worse, for example tonight I pulled my knees into my chest to stretch and while my back felt good during the stretch as soon as I relaxed and let my legs out it felt worse, so should I avoid stretching or should I continue?
Sometimes sitting with my feet up on a desk gives me a quick sharp pain in my lower back area. Seems to be when I elevete my feet too much too fast. Also when coming back from a stretch and extending my legs straight out in front of me like yourself crushes my back.
[quote]Joe84 wrote:
My back has been bothering me for a couple weeks now for no real apparent reason that I can pinpoint, (except for maybe laying on the cold ground under my truck for 2 days), it hurts in the lower back just above my ass.
Now here’s the strange part, stretching certain ways makes it worse, for example tonight I pulled my knees into my chest to stretch and while my back felt good during the stretch as soon as I relaxed and let my legs out it felt worse, so should I avoid stretching or should I continue? [/quote]
Sounds to me like an SI Joint problem. Three things I would recommend.
Do wall sits. Just like what it sounds like. Sit up against a wall. It will probably hurt like hell at first and you won’t be able to get your hips all the way back towards the wall but gradually work on it. Sit like that every day for 3-5 minutes. Basically until relax and it becomes comfortable.
Go to an ART guy and get the psoas muscles released and get your hips adjusted.
If you have access to a reverse hyper, it is my opinion this machine is crucial for people with a predisposition towards SI problems.
Don’t let your lower back flex when you stretch. When you’re doing any kind of lift, your lower back shouldn’t ever be rounded, so it doesn’t make sense to stretch with a rounded back. Plus, for every good stretch that I can think of, you get a much better stretch with a neutral spine than with a rounded spine.
Yeah, skip the knee to chest. I have a herniation l5-s1, and before it was diagnosed as such people would suggest stretching although i pretty much knew it was a bad idea. Only when I limited the range of motion in my lower back, increased hip and upper back mobility, combined with gradual re-loading (planks, birddogs at first, then squats, etc.) it started to get better.
I used to not be able to bodyweight squat without pain, now a 400lb deadlift is not a problem, but take your time with that area.
Ok, thanks for the advice, I’ll stop rounding my back when stretching and work on hip and psoas flexibility, I am very unflexibile since I don’t usually stretch…it’s kind of pathetic actually.
I doubt I’ll see a doctor though, maybe I’ll make a physio appointment, I’ve gone to the doctor before with much worse back pain (3 years ago and I couldn’t even bend over to tie my shoe) and after a few prods with his hands he just told me to rest, so I know I won’t get any helpful diagnosis or treatment there, let alone an MRI.