Back Issues To End 2014:(

I thought I'd write about my recent back issues while it's fresh in my head. After all, I started this blog as a diary of sorts to document my training, including my back situation.

On the bright side, I nearly made it though the whole calendar year without my back seizing up on me. I definitely fought tightness and some pain throughout (seldom do I not feel at least some tightness), but no episodes where the muscles spasm up and leave me debilitated. Until December 19th that is.

My back spasmed up on me during a ride in the Santa Monicas on Friday, December 19. After feeling fine climbing up Sullivan Canyon, I descended Hectic and felt it tighten up as I started to pedal up the short steep climb out immediately after the descent. I have a few thoughts on what contributed:

• I had a very awkward dab out on one of the rocky sections just prior to this
• I crashed pretty spectacularly a week prior at San Juan and in addition to breaking my pinky finger, I had bruises on my shoulder, ribs, knee, hip, and low back.
• Being beat up from the crash and having the broken finger along with the stress of Christmas shopping kept me from yoga class and the gym for the entire week between the crash and this ride

From what I've read, the back spasms up as a protective mechanism when there is injury/strain to the low back muscles themselves (typically from the syndrome of tight hamstrings and glutes opposing tight hip flexors), or from underlying issues. The underlying issues can be bulging discs pushing on nerves, or from joint/ligament trauma, etc. The fact that I have badly degenerative discs makes me believe that my lumbar vertebrae are susceptible to trauma due to lack of cushioning. In fact, I recall that when I saw an Orthopedic Back Specialist several years ago and he told me that I had the "...back of a 75 year old with a bad back", the MRI clearly showed bad degeneration of discs, but also scar tissue due to ligament trauma.

Based on all this, it's hard to say what exactly caused my back to spasm this time. It could have been one or all of these factors.

Did I learn anything from this? Well, if I were to go back in time I'd try to avoid that crash first of all. If I couldn't do that, I'd make sure to at least make sure I was limber before riding (or doing much else). I might even go get adjusted.

When the back does start to spasm, it's important to not strain things further and to ice and take some anti-inflammatory meds. Definitely helps. It's amazing to me how tight the low back muscles get when they spasm up. The surrounding muscles (hamstrings, hip flexors) also get pretty tight. Interestingly, the last few times I've had back spasms, it wasn't as painful or completely debilitating as in the past. However, it took me just as long to recover. It's usually at least 2 weeks off the bike while I try to conservatively treat, then trying easy, flat road rides and progressing from there. Once things start to feel like they are healing I feel a different sort of tightness where I still need to be somewhat careful, but can start to move.

For prevention, I think I've been doing the right things for the most part:

• Daily stretching of my glutes, hip flexors and hamstrings (and before, during and after rides)
• Yoga (for mobility, strengthening and for stress relief)
• Additional core strengthening (I can probably do a little more here)

Going forward, I'd like to do more cross-training. Swimming for sure, but also some weight-bearing activities (hiking and stair climbing), perhaps some lower body strengthening, though this still scares me. I need to be confident the exercises I choose aren't doing more harm than good.

On an unrelated note, Strava sent us these mini year in review videos with our stats. 129 rides, 290 hours on the bike, 2,500 miles and 384,000 vertical feet:

My 2014 Strava Story