[tomtom]

Hello,
I'm nursing sore back - lower back and feels like muscles from lower back going towards the side.
Cant pin down when it happened, but i came back from a two week abscence from climbing (inclluding a week in the states that fattened me up a bit!) and gave it some down the wall three times in a week. On the third time I just felt my back stiffen up over the course of the session (stopped after an hour)...
My question is whether this is the type of thing thats best left to recover for a couple of weeks (with some stretching) or to carry on bouldering carefully - once or twice a week? At present its OK after a nights kip/rest but then stiffens up over the course of the day..
Any thoughts? Thanks,
Tom

[Probes]

Ooo lower backs. I suffered a fairly significant injury about 3 yrs ago, muscle and ligament damage caused by doin 1 move on a route. I have finally got to the cause of the problem, it comes down to very tight quads and an imbalance in left/right of muscle strnegth. So to me it proves it the problem can be coming from any angle. Stretching and flexibility is key!!! Extension.. standing up right and rotation for a start and flexibility in legs ( this apparently sets your groin up right thus does pull you forward). There's no short cuts with back injuries neither.. it was 9 mnths before i climbed and 18 before i started climbing hard again. The silver lining is know i no how to deal with my back im trainin n climbing harder than i have for 15 yrs. Hope this helps. ps stretch every moment you get, become obssessed with it.

[tomtom]

Thanks Probes,
Its slowly got better (not stiff as a board every time I got up from sitting down etc..) and I went bouldering on it on Tuesday. I was really careful and took ages to warm up - on loads of easy problems/traverse repeats etc.. which was also needed as it was bloody cold!
I only went for about 90 min or so, and stopped when it started tweaking a little when I was pushing into the V4's....
But since then its felt alot free-er - much more loose and not stiffening up as much. Unfortunately since then I've had some sort of cold thing - so ache all over anyway!!
But based on the above - thankfully it would appear that its only a tweak and hopefully in a couple of weeks I can get it back to normal again. Warm up and stretches are good advice - thanks,
T

[Nibile]

i have lower back issues as well from time to time, like now, usually due to not warming up properly and huge swings out after cutting loose that over bend my spine. also from imbalances with my abs.
in these cases i usually start again doing loads of crunches for the abs, and also stretching, in two forms, one passive one and one active one:
- lie on the ground and put your feet on something high enough and close enough to your hips that your knees are 90° bended. your thighs shoul also point vertically, so that you form another 90° angle with your torso. lie relaxed for a few minutes.
- sit on the ground, with your feet to a wall so that they are vertical; place your hands behind your head, then start rolling over onto yourself towards your knees. you start attaching your chin to your chest, then you keep going down as much as you can. if you go more towards your knees you'll stretch also the back of your thighs, if you go more towards your pelvis you stretch more your lower back.
hope this helps, it's what i'm going to be doing in a few hours.

[tomtom]

Thanks Nibile, I'll give those a whirl when I get back from work today.. nice one,
T

[SA Chris]

My back is a bit fooked follwoing a ski accident involving a tree a few years back (almost a Sonny Bono), and it plays up a fair bit. recommend loads of stretching, and yoga helps. If it becomes chronic, I would recommend an osteopath (although some wouldn't)  he really sorted me out. I always try to avoid jumping off as much as possible, even at the wall, prefer downclimbing a few moves.