Lower Back Pain

[Michael Morello]

Hey everyone,

I have been doing gymnastics with you guys for about 4 months. 

I have a problem with my shoulders as it is right now and I don't know or understand why because some of my friends do handstands also and they do not have this type of pain.

so I am asking when i do handstands like cast wall walks, handstands i get lower back pain or soreness.

so is my form wrong on handstands?

please help. 

 

[Blairbob]

 Hard to say. Are you arching your lower back a lot.?

 This is where core strength comes in to play. Hollow and Arch hold. Leg lifts in either.

[Mats Trane]

Like Blairbob says, it sounds like you are arching your back in the Cast wall walks. When doing the Cast wall walks try to flex your abs and then suck them in, now only walk out as fahr as you can whithout loosing form.

[Michael Morello]

okay thank you  Mats. sounds good because i do believe there is a slit arch in my back.

[Michael Morello]

and how can you tell if you have a weak core?

 

my FL is 25 seconds tuck.  

my BL is straddle 15 seconds. 

is front lever more taxing on your core which is why my front lever is only tuck and yes my hips drop and i extend to untucked front lever.

[Brian Li]

FL is generally harder than BL because it is a more disadvantaged position so maybe that is why BL is easier for you, but the limiting reason may not be your core for either of them since it's almost always shoulder girdle strength that is the limiting factor. The FL works mostly the abs for the core and the BL works mostly the lower back for the core, so they work the core differently from each other.

 

Test your ab strength by doing L-sits and body levers and test your lower back by doing back hyperextension exercises.

[Jacob Primeaux]

I'm not a personal trainer or gymnast or anything (YET!), so I can only come at this from my own experience and reading. I have had a similar issue with my own lower back doing wall walks, and also with exercises like kettlebell swings and dead lifts. It may not be a simple matter of "are your abs strong enough" so much as "are the core muscles engaging at the right time and in the right way". There are many things I can do that require core  strength that folks without these problems cannot, but I still get the lower back pain because in those particular positions I have bad form and am compensating. I've had some success alleviating these problems, and I would concentrate on fixing three things.

 

1) Your position doing a handstand should feel more hollow bodied than arched. I find this to be less of a problem of 'flexing harder' and more a matter of simply adjusting into the right form during wall walks and supported handstands. For instance, reminding myself to keep my ribs from rising is helpful, as this is a postural habit of mine. You'll find your own ways of thinking about it, but take the time to let these be 'practice' at getting the position right and not a workout.

 

2) Mobilize your hips. I often find myself chronically tensing my hips for stability when the stability should really be coming from my core. Working on hip mobility and re-learning how to use my hips correctly has helped tremendously in alleviating my lower back issues.

 

3) Mobilize your shoulders. On the upper end of things, if your shoulders are not alligned properly it will also throw the rest of your body out of allignment and cause you to compensate somewhere. A common predispostion is to have the arms slightly forward from being in line with the rest of your body, which I think is just the way most of us have our movement patterns wired nowadays. If this is your problem, you'll want to build some awareness around the proper position, for which a trainer is probably best, or you can just post a photo or video and I'm sure somebody on here could help. You also might go check out mobilitywod.com; he has some pretty basic shoulder mobilizing exercises in the earliest exercise sessions (back couple pages of the blog) that I have found helpful.

 

I hope this helps