Lower Back Pain Recovery
I herniated a disc in my back last spring that resulted in major lower back and hip spasms and pain, and spent most of last year working to heal it and now maintaining. I'm happy to say that I'm in very little pain now, and much much less than I was even 6 months ago. But it took a good 10 months to get there.
At the outset, as much as mitigating through strength and stretching in an athletic context is important, I find that it's really mostly about how you carry your body, and specifically your pelvis, throughout your day and life. Read about hip hinging and how adults in more sedentary cultures (aka ours) move and bend vs how kids and adults in more active cultures do.
The ways I maintain fall in a few categories:
yoga/stretching - I used to think stretching didn't help me much but I changed my opinion last year.
Throughout the day, I do a lot of downdog and Ardha Uttanasana (Standing Half Forward Bend) to relieve tension.
In the evenings I either use a yoga strap and do supine hamstring, abductor, adductor stretches OR I do this 3 pose series of low lunge, lizard and pigeon, alternating legs with each pose right before bed. I got this sequence from an online yoga site I subscribe to -- https://www.theyogacollective.com/classes/juicy-hips/.
supplements - I was taking so much ibuprofen last year and I realized that was not sustainable for pain management, so I started using some more natural substitutes.
I take magnesium citrate every night before bed, it's a powder dissolved into water. There's one brand called Natural Calm that I like. Whole Foods also sells a generic version called Magnesium Fizz. Magnesium is a mild muscle relaxant and supposedly if your calcium/magnesium balance is out of whack you can experience more nerve and muscle pain. There is some evidence that Mg is effective for managing chronic pain.
Anecdotally, I incorporate a lot of turmeric into my diet, which is said to help with inflammation. I've never felt clear about how much dietary turmeric you'd need to take to get a clinical benefit, but nevertheless I go for it.
Every now and then if I really have a hard bike effort that leaves me hurting, I take CBD capsules. Mostly for deep sleep and relaxation, which works wonders.
rest days - One of the biggest mistakes of the serious recreational athlete, I think. Going a little too hard all the time and not respecting rest and recovery.
Initially, I took about 6 weeks off the bike because I was in so much pain. When I came back, it was riding easy and never two days in a row. I was able to ramp back up more quickly than I expected after a few months of this, but I was still in pain most of last fall. Racing cross definitely didn't help.
Now I almost always take one full rest day per week, especially when I'm racing. I try to make this day 100% off the bike and exertion free, with maybe some walking or gentle yoga or stretching.
core work - Any orthopod or PT will tell you that a strong core takes a lot of pressure off your back.
I did about 8 weeks of PT with someone I had worked with after I had hip surgery 4 years ago. If you're looking for someone you could call him. Colman O'Leary at Active Care in the Richmond. Mostly hip and back strength work. I have always found PT to be time and money well spent.
I do core minimum 1x/week. I think ideally I'd do it 3x week, but most weeks it's 1-2x. I have a 10-20 minute routine I go through of planks and hip body weight exercises.
bike fit - Hooked up with Ryan Moore through Byron! Huge. Changed my riding.
Switched to 165mm cranks and brought saddles up and forward on my highest mileage bikes (need to do it with all of them but $$$). I think this helped to loosen my hip flexors, which was contributing to my back pain.
On the bike, I try to change up my hand position a lot to move my torso around, stand up on the pedals every 20 minutes or so, and do this kind of cat/cow thing while riding just to keep my back from staying in one position too long.
Search for "Lumbar Self Traction." There's a way you can put your back in traction that can help with pain relief in the moment.
Six months after my injury I had a moment with myself where I was back to riding but consistently still in a lot of pain. And I told myself it was not an amount of pain that I was willing to live with for the rest of my life. That's when I put together this program. I'm really happy to say now that I'm in almost no pain on a daily basis, but still very conscious of how I take care of my back. The day after races I'll be sore in my trigger spots (left hip for me), but that doesn't last long. I've been doing all the stuff I described about above really consistently which I think is the ticket.