Why Does My Lower Back Hurt After Working Out

Side Pain After Exercise

If you’re experiencing side pain after exercise, rest assured it’s quite common, although it can have many different causes, such as a side stitch or delayed-onset muscle soreness 3.** You might also be suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms brought on by your exercise. Occasional side pain after exercise probably shouldn’t worry you, but if you experience frequent, intense side pain, see your doctor to rule out more serious causes.

If you are experiencing serious medical symptoms, seek emergency treatment immediately.

What Causes Pain In Lower Back After Workout

If you develop lower back pain after working out or playing any sports, then you should take care of it properly. An acute pull or strain of muscle may need icing and stabilizing or resting for some time if you want the muscle strain to heal and get better properly. In case the pain in lower back does not get better after appropriate treatment and rest, it may be due to more chronic or long-term condition.

Shift The Intention For Your Exercise Routine

Once you’re sure your back can handle a bit of work, get clear about the type of exercise to do.

You might ask yourself: Given my pain level , is it better for me to stick with my usual activity, or might I be better off scaling down a few notches by means of an easier activity? An example comparison may be lifting weights or running vs. a light stretching session or an hour of aquatic exercise.

A workout to help you get past a bout of back pain is similar to an easy day workoutas long as you prioritize pain reduction.

If doing the specific movement in your chosen workout will challenge your joints to go beyond a moderate range of motion, you may need an easier activity. If not, scaling down the intensity of your usual routine may suffice.

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How This Condition Develops

Disks have high water content. As people age, the water content decreases, so the disk begins to shrink and the spaces between the vertebrae get narrower. Also, the disk itself becomes less flexible.

Other conditions that can weaken the disk include:

• Wear-and-tear
• Improper lifting
• Sudden pressure

The fibrous outer ring may tear. As the disk material pinches and puts pressure on the nerve roots, pain results. Sometimes fragments of the disk enter the spinal canal where they can damage the nerves that control bowel and urinary functions.

Should You Work Through Your Lower Back Pain

If a particular exercise is exacerbating your lower back pain, you should not try to work through the pain. This is because, as previously mentioned, pain is typically your bodys way of telling you that youre doing something wrong. Your pain may be alerting you to any of the following:

• You are performing the particular exercise wrong
• The exercise you are performing is not designed for your lower back condition
• You have another injury or lower back condition you are not aware of

So if you are experiencing pain caused by exercising, stop right away. Next, schedule an appointment with your doctor for a consultation to review your symptoms and exercise program.

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Why Does My Lower Back Always Hurt Post

It can be a sign of a good workout or something more serious. Find out what may be causing your discomfort.

Lower back pain is common for workout enthusiasts. After all, your back plays a big role in a number of facets of fitness.

Dr. Kerem Bortecen, a doctor at New York City Surgical Associates, explains that this type of ailment is commonly seen in his practice and can be linked to several other causes or issues.

While typically not super serious or life-threatening, if you consistently experience lower back pain post-cardio or strength training, you may want to know more about why its happening.

Take some notes from these fitness pros who explain what that lower back pain might mean.

How Do You Treat Inflammaging Lifestyle Medicine

No one really knows, but its probably all about just being as fit and healthy as possible, and reducing biological vulnerabilities . Systemic inflammation is almost synonymous with being out of shape and all the bad habits that tend to go with it so these very general approaches to health can be considered inflammation treatments specifically. But they are also a sensible everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to treating any health problem we dont understand .

Their superpower is that its hard to actually waste your time doing this stuff. Its all good for you, whether it helps morning back pain or not.

What about more specific inflammation treatments? There are many. Obviously there are OTC anti-inflammatory drugs. They arent a long-term solution those drugs are too hard on the GI tract for anything but taking the edge off now and then. But they might do that, and if they do its also good diagnostic evidence that the issue is caused by inflammation. Inflammation can also be nuked by some more potent drug therapies, but those cures are definitely worse than the disease of morning back pain.

I have an article specifically about inflammation that goes into more detail about managing inflammation:

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Can Lower Back Pain Be Related To Weather

If you feel like your lower back pain worsens on days when its cold or the weather is changing, you are not imagining things. Back pain can indeed be related to barometric pressure and outdoor temperature. Changes in pressure can sometimes cause pain in arthritic joints, including the spine. Muscles and joints in general react to the environment, which can make them stiffer and more likely to suffer an injury.

Other Conditions That Cause Back Pain In Older Adults

We often see a range of less serious but still painful spine conditions in seniors. Most patients with these conditions will not require surgery. Physical therapy, medication, injectable anesthetics, or a combination of treatments usually can control symptoms.

• Degenerative disc disease, which can cause whole spine pain, and lumbar arthritis, which usually causes low-back pain, commonly develop with age and are considered wear-and-tear conditions.
• Sacroiliitis is an inflammation of the joints that connect your spine and pelvis. This condition can cause pain in the low back, glutes, and upper legs.
• Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory arthritis that causes patients spines to become inflexible, resulting in a continual hunched forward position and spine pain.
• We also check for adult degenerative scoliosis and kyphosis, spine-curving conditions that can result in back pain and weakness in the lower extremities.

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Sensations That Might Indicate A Medical Emergency

1. Sharp pain rather than a dull ache: This could indicate a torn muscle or ligament, or a problem with an internal organ in the back or side.2. Radiating pain: This pain “moves” or shoots to the glutes or legs, which could indicate a nerve compression condition.

3. Sudden weakness in the legs: Limb weakness can be caused by compressed nerves in the spine due to conditions like sciatica or spinal stenosis. However, sudden leg weakness could also indicate a stroke.4. Incontinence: Back pain paired with inability to control the bowels or bladder might be a sign of serious nerve compression or a spine infection, such as discitis or meningitis.5. Numbness or pins and needles in the groin or glutes: This is known as saddle anesthesia and is also a sign of a serious nerve or spine condition.

If you have leg weakness, incontinence, and numbness together, you might have cauda equina syndrome, a serious illness characterized by spinal cord nerve damage. This is a medical emergency, and patients usually need surgery immediately to decompress the nerves and reduce permanent damage.

Related reading: Get help for back, neck, and leg pain caused by spinal stenosis

Articles Like This Dont Write Themselves

Suggested price to continue reading is $6 USD.? Dont want to pay? Just keep on scrollin by! Like passing a street busker.

You do not have to pay to continue reading. The suggested price really is just a suggestion. I refuse to clutter my pages with typical internet advertising so instead you get a strongly worded suggestion to support my work. But only in a few of the most substantive and popular articles.

And why six bucks? I would rather suggest $3 for this, honestly, but my hands are tied. Its weird, but $5 online purchases are rejected by credit card companies at an extraordinary rate, because that price point is strongly associated with fraud . And under $5, the fees start to defeat the purpose of the donation. So $6 is the minimum viable price point for a micro-transaction.

But, if youve come this far with me, you can see that this is a super deep dive into the topic of morning back pain, like a small ebook that I could easily be selling to Kindle users . Certainly its more than a mere article: its an actively maintained resource, heavily referenced, and ad-free for millions of readers over the years. Please help it exist.

Or support PainScience with a premium newsletter subscription, and get 13 mostly short posts of pain science news per week, plus some extra posts, plus members-only content scattered around the site. See the membership page.

Vancouver, Canada

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Why Does My Upper Back Hurt When Running

If youre experiencing more pain in your upper back instead of your lower back, its often a result of your head position:

• A lot of upper back pain is a result of having your head leading your body jutting out in front of your body causing unnecessary tension and stress on the upper back.
• Another likely culprit of upper back pain is your arms. If youre holding your arms up too tight or maybe even too high, or tensing your shoulders up towards your ears , it can cause strain on your upper back.

Lower Back Pain: How Exercise Helps

You may feel like resting, but moving is good for your back. Exercises for lower back pain can strengthen back, stomach, and leg muscles. They help support your spine, relieving back pain. Always ask your health care professional before doing any exercise for back pain. Depending on the cause and intensity of your pain, some exercises may not be recommended and can be harmful.

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You Might Have Venous Insufficiency

Not familiar with venous insufficiency? No problem. During exercise, the oxygen demand of the muscles increases and the heart pumps more blood to the muscles. Those suffering from venous insufficiency will have increased pooling of oxygen-deprived blood in their muscle tissue, Dr. Bortecen explains.

Try elevating your legs to increase blood flow if youre starting to get cramps in your lower back regularly. This can also get rid of any lactic acid build-up that might be occurring under the surface.

Get Help For Your Back Pain Today At The Spine And Rehab Group Ny

Back pain has many causes but should always be checked by a medical expert before it gets worse. Ignoring back pain doesnt just result in a dip in your quality of life you can also ignore potential signs of a more serious health problem.

The Spine And Rehab group has extensive experience in helping our clients manage their back pain, with certified doctors and experts always on call. We pride ourselves on fostering a partnership with each of our patients to help them regain a normal and painless daily routine. If youre experiencing back pains of any kind, visit one of our New York clinics today.

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Where The Abs Let The Back Down

The Exercise Is Too Tough

Its sometimes that simple, even if it hurts someones pride. Its common to feel tension in your lower back, but if you perform an exercise with the correct technique and still feel aggravation, there is a chance that you may have progressed too quickly. You may be holding the plank for too long, or you need to perform fewer repetitions of leg raises. When it comes to leg raises, you may even need to alter the technique to suit your capability. Often, people need to assume a slight bend in their knees to depressurize the lower back.

Low Mobility

This is a phenomenon that I like to call the lower back sandwich. Tightness around the thoracic spine or the hips can heavily hinder the lower back. For example if the biceps femoris of the hamstrings are short, the participant will struggle to perform a leg raise without excessive movement of the lumbar spine. Low thoracic spine mobility is also harmful, as the lumbar spine may assume an over-emphasized arc to make up for the poor positioning of the upper back.

A Poorly Structured Lifting Regime

Technically Ibp Causes Night Back Pain Not Morning Back Pain

The morning pain of IBP is actually a case of leftover nighttime symptoms, which wear off as you wake up and get moving. When the symptoms are milder, you will mostly sleep through them, noticing them only when you wake up. But these symptoms will usually be obvious while you are still in bed, as soon as you are conscious or even waking you up early.

In contrast, pain that you dont notice until you actually get up and start trying to move around is less likely to be inflammatory in nature. But these are rules of thumb only, of course theres always lots of exceptions in biology.

Doctors, do not actually try giving this advice to patients! Joke by 9GAG .

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You Might Feel It Up To 72 Hours

Part of building muscle involves creating slight tears as you burpee, plank, lift, etc. However, the microtrauma associated with this gradual process can sometimes result in pain.

These could last for up to 72 hours after you work out. As Dr. Bortecen explainsespecially if you perform moves that target your lower backthe surrounding tissue could be uncomfortable for a handful of days, but shouldnt cause you any worry.

If you need a little extra TLC, he says that over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs will do the trick.

Looking for different workouts to do that will avoid causing more back pain? Take Aaptivs fitness quiz now and see our high quality fitness classes in app.

General Gym Causes Of Lower Back Pain

Poor form in general

Good form isnt just a way of targeting the right muscles as well as possible its also key to keeping your body in proper alignment and reducing the risk of injury.

When performing a deadlift, for example, you should maintain a flat back, and aggressively tense your core muscles during the lift to provide protection against the shearing forces exerted by the weight. Failure to do so will massively increase your risk of a back injury. If you’re ever unsure about your form don’t hesitate to ask a personal trainer at your gym.

Training to complete failure

A lot of bodybuilding gurus will tell you that you need to train to the point of absolute failure, and then squeeze out a few more cheat reps as well, in order to get the most out of your workout.

Tellingly enough, some of the biggest advocates of this training style, including six-time Mr Olympia Dorian Yates, find themselves riddled with serious injuries in later life.

Training to complete failure means that your form will falter sooner or later, and your joints will absorb a lot of extra stress as your muscles give out. Judge how much you can push yourself wisely and try not to push past your limits to reduce your risk of back injury.

Unaddressed muscle imbalances

A lot of back problems dont really originate in the back at all but are the result of muscle imbalances in other areas of the body.

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Try Instead: Towel Hamstring Stretches

Lie on your back with one knee bent. Wrap a towel around the foot of your other leg and use it to pull the leg up. Straighten the knee as you bring that leg up. Hold for 20 seconds and repeat on the other side. Be sure to keep your back flat on the floor during this stretch.

Dont let pain stop you from moving! Talk to your chiropractor if you have any questions or concerns.

References

1 Callaghan JP, Gunning JL, McGill SM. The relationship between lumbar spine load and muscle activity during extensor exercises. Physical Therapy. 1998 78:8-18.

2 McGill SM. Low back disorders: evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics 2007.

Make Sure You Dont Have Any Alarming Symptons That Would Require You To Be Seen By A Medical Professional Right Away

The following are alarming symptoms associated with back pain that should prompt you to be seen by a medical professional:

Unintentional weight loss

• Neurologic symptoms

• History of recent bacterial infections

• Recent history or current use of IV drugs

• History or current use of steroid medications

• Recent history of spinal procedures

If you have any of these alarming symptoms along with your back pain it can be a sign of a serious medical condition.

Depression, surprisingly, is also a common cause of back pain, and should also prompt you to see a medical professional.

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You Might Have Weak Muscles

So, after weeksor okay, a monthof resisting exercise, youre finally back on a regular schedule. Everything is off to a great start, minus your back pain.

Director of Pain Management at AMITA Health Neurosciences Dr. Ankur Dave, M.D. explains that many folks who complain about this targeted pain usually lack strength.

Though youll eventually get there, he explains that most simply strain their muscles as they progress in level. As you get more confident and stronger, youll likely see that soreness subside.