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Lower Back Pain after Exercise
Mild soreness, tightness, or fatigue in the lower back after some workouts is common, particularly if you have done weight work or other exercises specifically designed to engage those muscles. Like any other muscle group, the lower back will feel the work during and after deadlifts, kettlebell swings, barbell squats, and even long runs. This feeling should be entirely tolerable and short-lived just your posterior chain acknowledging that it has been challenged.
If the pain is severe, long-lasting, or causes you to cut back on physical exercise, it may be time to consider a few things.
How’s your form/technique?
While strength training is a key factor in longevity and mobility, Improper body alignment while lifting heavy objects, including weights, is a primary reason for injury to the lower back. When performing tasks like deadlifts, it is vitally important to push your hips back, and keep a flat back and your neck in line with your spine while in motion. Instead of pulling the weight up with your arms, think of the exercise as the result of pushing the heels of your feet into the ground. If you can’t maintain a proper posture without rounding the back and shoulders during a deadlift, you’re likely lifting too heavy.
Similarly, with kettlebell swings, the work comes from the thrust of the hips, not from any movement in your spine and shoulders. Your arms and the kettlebells only swing because of the momentum created by the lower body.
If you have pain after running or participating in stop/start sports, it is likely from repetitive stress that has caused one or more spinal misalignments in discs and vertebrae. It could also be the result of an underlying weakness in the core or gluteal muscles.
Are you Working with Opposing Muscle Groups?
With both strength training and cardiovascular activities, it is important to focus on muscles as antagonist pairs, and not just work the “major” muscles we think make us look most fit. Intentionally targeting all muscle groups not only leads to a better overall physique, it improves mobility, coordination, and balance, and it can help prevent pain and injury. Many extremely fit patients who come in with lower back pain often have unknown muscle weaknesses or imbalances, i.e. runners with weak glutes or tight hamstrings from weak quadriceps.
If you have persistent lower back pain after working out, it is important to make sure you do not have the beginning of injury or other conditions that will be exacerbated by continued activity. A sports chiropractic evaluation will be extremely beneficial in several ways.
The dedicated team at Dynamic Sports Medicine can:
- check for body misalignments and perform spinal and limb adjustments when necessary
- perform gait and technique analysis during motion
- conduct strength and mobility testing to identify imbalance and weakness
- utilize a variety of healing modalities such as therapeutic massage, dry needling, myoacoustic compression therapy, among others, to assist in range of motion and healing
- prescribe targeted stretching and strengthening exercises to balance muscle groups and optimize movement
Remember that while fatigue is normal after engaging lower back muscles, sharp and enduring pain may be signs of current or potential injury. Contact Dynamic Sports Medicine today for a sports chiropractic approach to relieving lower back pain after working out.
