My pain concentrates around L4.
I broke L4 in a bad skydive landing, and it healed, but developed arthritis in the joint.
My (current) means of remaining on the water for longer than 60 minutes without agony has me removing the entire bolt-in seat assembly from my Impex Diamante.
I fabricated a 2 piece seat, (with bottom and back sections joined by duct tape) with firm lumbar and higher support from some stiff, closed-cell foam used for packing electronic equipment.
As long as this seat doesn’t shift around too much, the only thing that gets sore is my tush, as the seat bottom is a bit too firm.
Key to avoiding the worst pain (for me) was to make sure that my lower back is TOTALLY supported, from the floor of the kayak to a point about 2" above the rear cockpit rim.
YMMV, but this is what worked for me.
Bob
Tsunami 140’s
My lower back hurts in a car or now Kayaks (started kayaking last August) after about an hour, if seat isn't quite right. When My wife and I first started, I couldn't paddle more than a little over an hour before my lower back (side) muscles started hurting, paticularly the left side.
After much research and renting kayaks,
we settled on the Wilderness Systems Tsunami 140, primarily for it's all-around everything great about it for Light or transitional touring, very versatile.
More to the point, it took about three long different day trips to get the seat into a position for me - where my lower side back muscle, left side, wouldn't hurt.
But because of their 3-way seat adj system, I was able to get to that seat adj setting and then paddle comfortably for hours.
thanks, bob
i took good notes. i appreciate your going into the details. soda
I talked with my PT today
and I mentioned to him that my back does not hurt when paddling, he said he was not surprised because I use torso rotation when paddling and that will help my back even when not paddling. My back is bad because of tight muscles in the back and legs and weak core muscles and that it will help to strenghten my core. To bad I can’t paddle every day.
Paddling great for lower back strain
I’ve lived with it for 25 years, and find that the best things for it are Nautilus (or similar weight training) and kayak paddling.
Core strengthening is the key, and I find paddling at least once a week works great. I also work on stretching out the legs and like a keyhole cockpit so I can raise a knee for a little while to releave strain. The ocean cockpit on my Greenland SOF does not allow this, but I can stretch while out on the water by pulling out and sitting up on the back of the boat, using the GP as an outrigger. The flat rear deck and GP make this work well. It’s not hard, and it wows the audience!
I also stretch periodically in the boat by laying back until I get a snap or two from the spine - feels sooo good.
I suspect that each bad back is different, and each of us has to work on finding the things that work to keep it in good shape.
AAM
bad back tip
Some great advice for all of us. I wanted to add that my brother has a bad back that goes out a lot but paddling helps. At first he suffered horribly until an instructor told him his legs were so tight and had him remove the footpegs and put padding against the bulkhead and use that for his feet. Tom claims it makes a world of difference for him with his comfort. He is a serious cyclist and skier so his quads and hamstrings just won’t relax. It seems like the taller and older you are the more likely you are to get back problems. I suppose that’s the only benefit to being short like me!
kayaking helps my lower back
I’ve had lower back problems, and when I took up kayaking I assumed that lower back pain would be made worse , but I found the opposite to work: my lower back has never felt better!
Good posture in a kayak ( spine straight, torso erect but canted slightly forward) is good for my back.
Lower back problems can be caused by, or made worse by, bad posture, often with top of pelvis canted forward and spine curved towards chest rather than straight. Hamstrings tend to counter this by tightening to re -orient the pelvis (pull it back upright), hence tight hamstrings often accompany bad posture and/or lower back pain.
Sitting in a kayak with good posture, your back will be fully supported by your abdominal & core muscles; you don’t need your hamstrings to support your pelvis, so you may bend your knees or not, based on the kind of stroke you choose : over time, as core muscles strengthen, the spine straightens and hamstrings may loosen, as they no longer need to be tight to support the pelvis. Hence, the counterintuitive (like so much of kayaking) result that paddling helps the lower back.
from soda
i’m impressed with the number of people who have seen torso rotation lessen back pain. i’m looking forward to adding that to the other things i do to strengthen (and now stretch in a new way) my back. thanks.
to bmach1
the response about body rotation was meant for you but went to the letter below you instead.
to aamapes
thanks for some specific ideas. if i get into regular kayaks, i’ll look for that kind. i sat in a SOT kayak the other day and will get some instruction in one, and then move to a closed cockpit kayak if i can. - soda
to sanddune
another great idea! you know, being tall up until now has been kind of nice, really…
to PeterBr
thanks! the problem with bending knees was that i assumed i wouldn’t have the choice - that the low cockpit ceiling would restrict bending them enough. i now know that if i want to get a cockpit kayak, there are many varieties, some with more vertical space for knees.
Knee height and paddling
How much knees are bent varies quite a bit among paddlers. One instructor I’ve had believes in bent knees, to get the most power out of the core muscles and lower body during the forward strokes.(this thinking perhaps evolved from paddling surfskis , where ones knees can be raised more than in a closed cockpit.) Another instructor advises that you can drop your legs to the bottom of the cockpit, which relaxes the hull, lets the boat do its thing, and also, the weight of your legs at the bottom of the hull acts as ballast (think about it, your legs weigh a bit, and having that weight right down by the keeel will make a difference) and stabilizes the boat. He often paddles with legs limp, doesn’t even use footpegs.
So there are are a lot of ways to paddle,(no one correct way) and the larger point is, if you find the paddlng style that works for you, (barring a specific back problem that no form of PT can improve) kayaking should help your back, especially if you start off with good posture and habits (get some instruction if you can! It helps in kayking like no other sport I’ve been into ) your back will feel better over time.
The key to kayaking (that I try to achieve with sporadic degrees of success & failure ) is torso and core muscle flexibility and well being. Since these same muscles support your spine, its a win win situation…
Backs and kayaks
I’m astonished at how many of us have dealt with back pain.
I had terrible back pain for years, and I found that kayaking helped it a lot, and was much better for my back than canoeing (of course, everyone’s back differs). As Celia said, the rotation helps a lot. I still can’t sit in regular chairs for more than a few minutes, but I’m fine for a day’s paddle–partly because I don’t sit at a 90degree angle, and I’m always rotating in the boat.
But the weight off the water is a big issue. I finally sold a boat I loved, but which weighed 50 lbs, and got a 32 lb Betsy Bay valkyrie. It wasn’t cheap, but spending extra on a light boat and on hully rollers to help cartop the boat made my kayaking a lot easier on my back. (And two days ago I finally got a recumbent bike–road bikes were just getting too hard on my lower back and on my shoulders. But that’s a whole new thread).
WS phase three…
simple… says it all, they are the best for bad backs!!!