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Illiopsoas

theBlob

Bokeh master
Sep 28, 2011
3,014
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Ever since I switched to a hard carbon seat, I had a growing discomfort in my lower back that would occur when standing after cycling. I ignored it as it wasn't so bad. and seemed kind of intermittent. 2 months later after a series of over 100km rides that involved long stretches in the saddle, my back reached a critical point.

The lower back pain had reached a point that I couldn't ignore it anymore. So I went off to a physio, who introduced me to a muscle I had never even heard of before, let alone attempted to stretch. the illiopsoas group. I weaves out of the muscles at the top of the femur and connects around the lumbar region.

Diagnosis : Overly tight illiopsoas combined with the vibration transferring through the harder seat, and the longer runs I have been doing of late has resulted in inflammation around the lower lumbar.

The truth is I am a slack stretcher, very slack, not as in never, but as in occasionally and not systematically or very effectively.

Jump forward 10 days, lower back pain is still not good. stretching every day, Got out for a relatively pain free 40km yesterday followed by my stretching and releasing routine.

My plan is to take it easy for the rest of the month and hopefully start my summer training plan in the beginning of March...

Lessons from it all?
1) Don't ignore new pain.
2) Being a decent cyclist requires more than just cycling lots!

Take care folks!
 
@theBlob Unnecessary question maybe, but since you didn't mention it, did you switch back to the old saddle?

Apologies for the +alpha here but another factor that may be easy to forget when switching saddles, is to adjust the seatpost. Since different models have different height from rail to top of the saddle lowering or raising the seatpost may be required, same with the for-aft adjustment. From experience having just a slightly new saddle position can really make longer rides hard on the lower back.
But I'm sure you have thought of that.

Hope you get better soon, and be able to join us on a few rides!
 
I have now changed the seat back to my old fizik. It's a plush ride after the carbon.

When I changed seats I was careful to get the height right calculating the height and adjusting for padding and size etc, so I don't think it was a height related issue.
 
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