I’ve been having lower back pain in the SI joint area, and my doctor said that it’s due to torso/back rotation straining the joint and reaggravating an old injury. As such, I was told to stop kayaking for the time being. Is there something I can do to mitigate this problem the next time I get on the water?
My pain is not as severe as yours (I’ve never had to see a doctor about it), but I get a lot of mileage from recurring back and shoulder injuries by taking an allieve before getting in the boat and one 12 hours later. I also have to frequently remind myself to back off the pace I am naturally inclined to keep. I also think biking has kept my back in better shape because of the way my roadbike has me cantilever my upper body, stretching my back as I ride.
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Recovered from back pain from slouching in chairs. Chiropractor corrected, advised about how to sit, i became selective about lumbar support. Also found that bicycling seemed to help. Started kayaking and decided that I needed a high back adjustable seat back vs. the backband. Unfortunately, the high back seat can complicate spray skirts, rolling and reentry. The high back is a must for my long distance comfort.
I was under the impression that backbands are better for your back because it supports the lower back.
Depends on your back issues. I need greater support than the backband offers. When I bought my kayaks back in the early 2000s, Wilderness Systems were renowned for the best seats, which is the primary reason I selected the Pungo then the Tsunamis. I think other brands have since improved the seating.
I once suffered from severe SI joint pain and a good physical therapist worked wonders with exercises to strengthen and balance the surrounding muscles. Fortunately I had access to a sports med orthopedist, who sent me to the therapist because he could detect slippage in the joint. If your physician didn’t evaluate for joint slippage I would ask them to do so or refer you to someone who can do it. Happy to chat via DM if you want to discuss it more. Good luck!
When I was treated by the Chiropractor in 1996, he explained the reason for my back pain. I haven’t had any recurring issues. I’ve seen so many people with similar back problems apply heat to their back, which only exacerbates the problem. He shunned pain killers, muscle relaxants, and ibuprofen in favor of ice packs. Prevention beats treatment.
As Jyak says, “Prevention beats treatment.”
3 years ago this month I strained my L5-S1 by abruptly lifting and twisting to dump a 5 gallon bucket of water while draining a leaking water heater. Felt it pop but there was little I could do to have it looked at since I was leaving the next day for Michigan Greenland kayak camp. Very uncomfortable 10 hour drive each way and the lower back spasms put a pretty big damper on being able to participate in a lot of the paddling workshops (so I spent a day and a half on land building a target harpoon instead).
Though I did see a chiro for a basic adjustment when I got home, that barely made a difference and for 6 months I had trouble standing for more than 10 minutes without severe lower back pain for things like doing the dishes, cooking and even walking around during errands. The pain would become so bad that I would have to sit or bend over deeply at the waist to temporarily ease the spasms. Kind of put a crimp in my activities – the effect when kayaking tended to be sciatic pain from hips to ankles. Started to think it was just an unavoidable result of creeping geezer-dom…
Then my local alma mater posted a Facebook notice that their sports medicine program was looking for volunteers to participate in a research study that was aimed at comparing the relative success rates of the 4 most common protocols for treating lower back pain. After going through an evaluation, I was approved as a “guinea pig” and randomly assigned to one of the therapies. I lucked out and got the most thorough one which was weekly treatments for 3 months that included massage and chiropractic adjustment followed by an hour of coaching on exercises and body mechanic awareness by a physical therapist in a gym setting. I was required to keep a weekly logbook of which exercises I did between sessions and then provide weekly and monthly on-line feedback for a year after the treament cycle ended. Getting what was effectively a 90 minute spa treatment for free for 13 weeks was quite a luxury on top of that.
The other 3 protocol groups were
(1.) medication only, pain and muscle relaxants plus rest
(2.) chiropractic adjustment only
(3.) PT therapy only
I have not seen what the final results were of the study (probably published by now) but for me the outcome was excellent. Within the first few weeks my pain went away and since then the exercises and postural corrections I learned seem to be keeping the issue from returning. I do a 10 minute “against the wall” routine morning and night that strengthens my core muscles and reminds me to maintain optimal posture whether sitting, standing or walking (or paddling – I have low back-bands in my kayaks (below the coaming rims) but mostly don’t even lean into those but maintain an erect posture with my pelvis canted slightly forward and shoulders down and centered over my hip sockets.
The problem with relying on “support” is that the muscles that are supposed to be maintaining optimal musculoskeletal posture atrophy and joint issues can get locked in. More and more physical therapists, chiropractors and even progressive orthopods are helping people avoid spinal, shoulder and even hip and knee joint surgery by applying exercise, strength training and body mechanics coaching.
20 years ago my 79 year old mom was able to avoid the disc surgery her orthopod was pressuring her to have to relieve severe back pain and leg numbness a year after a bad fall – x-rays had shown her L5 appeared to be the culprit. She found a great chiropractor who used PT and guided exercise. He determined that the vertebra was just misaligned due to the fact that she had been dragging around a hip-to-ankle cast on her left leg for several months from the broken tibia that fall caused. She never had back pain for the rest of her life after his treatment.
This New York City based PT is a big proponent of this kind of therapy (he does tend to rail against the surgery-happy practitioners in the ortho field) – he posts a lot of short videos with helpful exercise advice for many joint issues and they reflect the coaching I got during my “guinea pig” experience. He’s a little goofy (likes to show off his moves as a former ballroom dancing competitor) but his recommendations are solid.
My problem was a the L5 disc. I had numbness going down my left leg into my foot. It go so bad, I couldn’t put my socks on. The final straw was when I collapsed closing a window iver our bathtub. Family doctor put me on muscle relaxers, which I took a few then threw away. Family members recommended a chiropractor who helped them.
He did the cracking, vodoo stuff, electro stim, stretching, ice pacs, some PT, and education. I was skeptical, but slowly the pain went away. Some of it could have been witchcraft, but I’m certain that he knew his business, because he fixed me and I never relapsed. For a few years, I iced the region when I felt like the muscles were stressed.
I believe you’re correct, too much support will weaken the muscles that keep us aligned. I used a back brace for a while, but stopped once the area started to heal. The high back seat supports my back, but the core rotation strengthens the back muscles despite the support. I’ve locked my seat back in a very upright position and adjusted the height to support the lumbar region. Almost 30 years later and no recurrence.
My rotator cuff injury was a mystery to the surgeon, because it didn’t seem consistent with how I described the alleged cause of the injury. My daughter (physical therapy assistant) and her husband (physical therapist) reviewed the charts and said there was a lot of repetative stress damage. They didn’t attribute it to high angle paddling but didn’t rule it out either. I can no longer go through the motions required for high angle. That might not prove anything, but I can tell you that the permanently damaged muscle groups are the ones I need to paddle high angle.
The low angle with core rotation allows me to generate equivalent power as before, and it also locks out the damage. That’s good enough for me. I’ll never endorse high angle paddling, but that’s a decision for each paddler.