Lower back pain

First of all, I am not soliciting medical advice from the MP community.  I am merely looking to see what others might do in my situation...
I am 45 and climb in gym ~4x/week, for about 4.5 years.  I climb outside as often as possible, locally and whenever I am travelling.  So I would say I am in good shape for my age generally, and at least an "intermediate" level climber.  I am 6'3" and 200lbs and have a history of recurrent, but not chronic, lower back pain.  Basically every few months I sleep funny or something and get tension and pain in my lower back, between waist and bottom of rib-cage on either side of spine (Thoracolumbar?)
So this started on Wednesday of last week, and I climbed Thursday and it go worse.  I then spent ~3 days supine on a heating pad, and had two massages.  If it was 30-35% (100% being good) on Friday morning, it is now ~70-75%.  So it is getting better
The thing is I am flying to JTree on Thursday for three days of camping/climbing
Knowing my body and past experiences, it will probably be at least almost all better by then, and it usually doesn't come back immediately.  It is more like a bad pulled/sore muscle that recovers and then goes away until some time in the indeterminate distance
The question is what can I do between now and Thursday?
Specific stretches?  Exercises?  Just continue rest/heat?
I am a bit concerned that I won't have climbed in a week by the time I get to JTree, but I think the risk of exacerbating it is not worth trying to climb for now
Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated
Thanks!

You could also consider icing the lower back. Sometimes the problem is related to inflammation in some way and icing can help.  I used to do alot of pelvic curls while on belay or hanging around on the ground... some meds like naproxen can be effective.  Good luck with it. 

Any pain radiating down leg?
I'm 6 days post op from lower back surgery.
Sometime lower back pain can be hard to diagnose
because several different issues can cause lower back pain.
My back and leg pain was caused by burst disks in the lumbar region

Take it easy and you should check with a Dr to diagnose the problem

One day I just woke up with a sore back. Stretching my gluteus muscles seem to make things less shit, but in general I just live with the pain :-)

Sounds like pretty classic musculoskeletal low-back pain. The spine evolved as a horizontal girder, not a vertical column. Happens to most people at some point in life, and more often to tall folks like you and me.

Ibuprofen, heat, stretching, gentle exercise like walking, biking, hiking or whatever doesn't make it worse until you leave. I wouldn't climb. When you're in J Tree go to a hot spring, those will feel awesome. Bring your cushiest camping pad. And I'll re-emphasize ibuprofen!

Have fun. Still an amazing place even if your climbing is limited.

odd rune wrote: One day I just woke up with a sore back. Stretching my gluteus muscles seem to make things less shit, but in general I just live with the pain :-)

I lived for 4 years with back and leg pain also numb toes It was so bad I couldn't climb
Enough was enough so I had surgery 6 days ago and I feel 75% better.
So much better that after I recuperate I believe I will be able to get back to climbing again.

Im having lower back pain- just got a job about 8 months ago and I'm sitting at a desk or looking at a microscope all day. I have never had a sitting job. Was doing  alot of flexion back stretches, two pt's told me to do more flexion-

upward dog, cobra, cat cow. might feel good for what it's worth

hamstring stretches with a strap, back on the wall

feet up on the wall

pelvic tilts

Cosmiccragsman AKA Dwain wrote: Any pain radiating down leg?
I'm 6 days post op from lower back surgery.
Sometime lower back pain can be hard to diagnose
because several different issues can cause lower back pain.
My back and leg pain was caused by burst disks in the lumbar region

Take it easy and you should check with a Dr to diagnose the problem

Definitely not

Hope your recovery goes well
Thanks!

sclair wrote: Im having lower back pain- just got a job about 8 months ago and I'm sitting at a desk or looking at a microscope all day. I have never had a sitting job. Was doing  alot of flexion back stretches, two pt's told me to do more flexion-

upward dog, cobra, cat cow. might feel good for what it's worth

hamstring stretches with a strap, back on the wall

feet up on the wall

pelvic tilts

Microscope?

Go on...???

I've had a microdiscectomy on L4-L5.

Best thing I ever did for myself was start strength training with a trainer.  Lots of dead lifts and squats, under supervision, with a ton of core exercises. NO sit-ups, but a lot of twisting exercises and planks.

Buck Rio wrote: I've had a microdiscectomy on L4-L5.

Best thing I ever did for myself was start strength training with a trainer.  Lots of dead lifts and squats, under supervision, with a ton of core exercises. NO sit-ups, but a lot of twisting exercises and planks.

That makes a lot of sense.  Core is definitely my main weakness as a (tall) climber - that and my bad technique!  I used to cycle a lot and that helped.  Maybe doing strength training is a good idea.  Thanks!

Josh Rappoport wrote:

That makes a lot of sense.  Core is definitely my main weakness as a (tall) climber - that and my bad technique!  I used to cycle a lot and that helped.  Maybe doing strength training is a good idea.  Thanks!

I'm 6'2 and currently about 210, trying to get back down to 190 for the climbing season.

Stretching has been mentioned, but I think it's worth emphasizing.  I had very similar symptoms and history and religiously stretching and rolling my hamstrings, calves, glutes, and psoas muscles fully remedied it over the course of 5-6 months.  My back still gets tight if I don't stretch it enough, but I haven't had a flare up that immobilized me since.

Mac Bright wrote:

My dad got these balm called tiger balm. He assures that it is magic, but I don't really believe that stuff. However it seems that it does a lot https://www.tigerbalm-baumetigre.com/blog/46-uses-tigerbalm/. Has anyone tried it?

Tiger balm is very common in Europe, and there are various competing brands as well. It has absolutely no documented effect besides slight pain relief as far as I know.

For "stretching," I find this short therapeutic yoga helps me tremendously whenever I get a bout of lower back pain. As he says, it's best (though certainly not essential) to do a short walk (20-30) minutes as a warm-up first if you can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p57fSPOlW7s.

The couch stretch is my go to - tight hip flexors pull your pelvis and throw things out of whack.  I finish every workout with a 1 minute couch stretch on each side and it's worked wonders for me.

If you're active in some sport that is either repetitive or requires occasional max efforts and you're not doing PT type exercises and balanced strengthening with equal regularity - you will with 100% certainty wind up injured at some point, possibly in need of surgery - it's just a matter of time.

See if your gym has a roman chair. You can use it to do back extensions, sit-ups/crunches, and side extensions. I also use mine to stretch - basically, I hang upside down like a bat. 

I found that the only thing tiger balm did was make me smell bad. ;-)

Josh - Just realizing you're in Somerville MA - I moved to Boulder from Boston -  go see Mike Melander at Treatment Training Wellness - he's FANTASTIC - he's been able to knock out every single problem I came to him with.  https://treatmenttrainingwellness.com/

I’ve dealt with lower muscular back pain from climbing/work for 5 years, tried everything from massage, PT, chiropractor, acupuncture, medication, etc... I finally found a solution this year & have had close to zero back pain in months. Simple & free—routine yoga and/or full body stretching before and after doing any activity (or work). Also, strengthening hip, leg and low back exercises. I like to use exercise bands for those. You can search “yoga for back pain” on YouTube, and find a good routine that feels best for your body. Cole Chance is my go-to YouTube yoga guide, but I’m sure there are other good ones. I’m sure it’s different for different people and injuries, but I found it made a huge difference on my back to really stretch out my hips and hamstrings.