Surfing Waves

Between my job, surfing, and age, I'm finding that atleast once or twice a year I'm putting my back out, which means being unable to surf or work. Usually it's pain that runs from my lower back and down the left leg (probably sciatica) and may last for almost a week...sometimes longer. Any advice on specific exercise or stretches that might prevent back injuries or even what to do to "expedite" the healing process? I usually start to go out of my mind after a week or two out of the water. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Aloha and mahalo.

Go see a chiropractor! He will be able to tell you what's wrong and probably even fix it...

mdeknudt wrote:Go see a chiropractor! He will be able to tell you what's wrong and probably even fix it...

echo that

yoga, or maybe Pilates

I always find swimming in the pool good for stretching my back, but then I don't have any real medical problems. I'm just a bad sleeper and end up in weird positions!

Real Pol wrote:I always find swimming in the pool good for stretching my back, but then I don't have any real medical problems. I'm just a bad sleeper and end up in weird positions!

Yes, swimming does seem to help, plus it feels good just to be in the water. No health problems that I know of, unless you consider getting older a health problem. I suspect the bad back is the result of cumulative abuse (surfing and not stretching before paddling out, skydiving, being a RN, poor body mechanics and posture, lying on the floor with my laptop, and the list goes on...).

I do see a chiropractor, although not regularly. Only when my back actually hurts. I ice new injuries and apply heat to older injuries, take anti-inflamatories (Advil, Aleve) and even dished out $ for a TENS unit. A few local surfers here have recommended accupuncture. I guess I was hoping that someone would have some "magic" stretch or home remedy that'll keep me in the surf all year round.

Yoga/pilates are probably a great idea.

smallwavegrovellerchick wrote: No health problems that I know of, unless you consider getting older a health problem.

HELL YEAH!

Can I ask a cheeky question?

What age are you?

33, which hopefully equates to at least 10 - 15 more years of shortboarding.

Hey Real Pol, you should never ask a lady her age...

Hey smallwavegrovellerchick, how much you weigh... lol

smallwavegrovellerchick wrote: I suspect the bad back is the result of cumulative abuse (surfing and not stretching before paddling out, skydiving, being a RN, poor body mechanics and posture, lying on the floor with my laptop, and the list goes on...).

mmmmh, I do all that.

Does this mean I'll need all this in 3 years time!?!

smallwavegrovellerchick wrote: I ice new injuries and apply heat to older injuries, take anti-inflamatories (Advil, Aleve) and even dished out $ for a TENS unit. A few local surfers here have recommended accupuncture.

oldiebeginner wrote: Hey smallwavegrovellerchick, how much you weigh... lol

Woah!!

You should be band from reply to a girls post for a week for that comment!

Where are the mods when you need them?

I get lower back pain when I surf more and I reckon that its down to building up back muscles too much when surfing. This happens when most of the time you are paddling about which is pure back building exercise - lying on your front raising and your upper torso. This throws the natural balance between abdominal muscle and back muscle out the window, and you need to do more abs exercises to even it out more. The pain is when your back muscles pull your 's' shape of your spine flat and the nerves get pinched and various muscles go into spasm.

When I surf 4 days in a row or more I start to get back ache unless I do the above. I went to Hossegor for 2wks a while ago and surfed 2-3 times every single day but due to forcing myself to do loads of situps each day I was fine.

Yoga is deffo good for loosening the back and just generally good for surfing as you become more supple which is ideal. Also any exercise which builds your pevlic floor muscle is good, as the this is the muscle which really helps keep your spine in the correct alignment.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I totally agree with you and just wish that ab workouts didn't hurt so darn much.

find sum stretches

Work outs I do to strengthen my core are leg lifts (lieing down and also when you hang and lift your legs to your chest and to each side to hit your obliques), crunches on one of those big ball thingies work great. That's all I can think of at the moment.

I find doing sit ups helps and also laying on your front and bending upwards helps too !!

Sounds to me like a possible tight hamstring issue or lumbar spine stiffness.

Things you can try :

Lie on your front and, keeping your pelvis touching the floor, push up with your arms. This will stretch your lower back back into it's natural state (ie curved slightly) thereby relieving any potential pressure on trapped nerves (sciatica). Do this for 10 minutes or so, gradually pushing further and further up with your arms to increase the stretch.

Lie on your back, tuck your heels up to your backside by bending your knees. With your feet held in place, roll your knees from side to side, trying to touch the floor with the outside of the 'outside' knee (this is known by some as the 'Million Dollar Roll').

There is another stretch I could much more easily demonstrate than explain - it's basically a means to stretch your backside (one of the largest muscle masses in the body) - but any decent physio will show you these exercises to keep your back supple......

Other simple ones are the hip/pelvis rotate (hands on hips then 'gyrate' your hips in one direction then the other) and side bends.

The thing is, you need to do these sort of things for a few minutes each day to keep your back supple and prevent the muscles from tightening too much and literally pulling your back out of shape.......

Hope that helps alittle

It helps a lot...thanks!

Yeah I'm going to the chiropractor right now because my back muscles tightened up to much and compressed and pulled my spine and hip out of place. Will take about a month of spine alignment, massages from attractive women, and stretching to fix. So it defenatley pays to do some back stretching daily and to lift weights correctly. Also not supposed to surf for the duration or treatment, but theres a 4-5 foot swell here tomorrow so don't tell te doc i'm going out.

I had back problems, but it wasn't from surfing, i always sat wrong, drove laid back, carried things the wrong way, until one day i bent over to tie my shoelase and i got stuck in that position, with the worst pain in the back, i went to the doc and did some therapy for about a month and i felt ok after that, a few years later it came back, i tried chiropractor, accupuncture, exercising and at the end i had to have back surgery, i had a hernia, so i went for it, was hospitalized 4 days, docs let me go a day early 'cuz of good recovery, i'm actually a pretty healthy person, never get sick! and they also told me to stay out of the water for at least 4 months..... would you actually be without surfing for that long?????

after about 4 weeks i couldn't help it and i grabbed my board, drove to the beach and went in, carefully at first, then it felt alot better, i suppose the exercise did me well....