lower back pain while jogging?

every time i run i experience a fair amount of lower back pain. it feels more like fatigue pain than anything else, and i wonder if anyone could suggest any possible causes or solutions?

Many things could go wrong, but in general running itself should not hurt your back.

What type of surface are you running on? Hard? Uneven?

What kind of shoes? What condition are the shoes in? Do they fit well? Are they worn?

How is your form? Are you leaning forward? Are you striking hard with your heels? Are you tightening up your shoulders and/or any other body part?

Are you making any big changes to your workload? Too fast? Too long?

My back tightens up a lot when running or hiking. I have shin splints too if I run (which I don't do much.)

I would suggest STRETCHING 20 mins in the morning and 20 mins at night. Stretch you hams, quads, calves, abs and lower back.

My back hurts from running if I don't stretch. It's not the running that causes the pain, it aggravates it. I started doing more back stretches and it went away.

Your lower back pain is likely from tight lower back and hamstrings. Does the pain eventually go away while running or does it get worse? The best time to stretch this, is after running. Stretch your lower legs, quads, and hamstrings and this should start feeling better within a few days with regular stretching. Also, you may have a weakness in your lower back that may need to be addressed.

--John

"My back tightens up a lot when running or hiking. I have shin splints too if I run (which I don't do much.) "

I get the same.

After a lot of investigation etc I found that I had some pretty serious shin bone density problems coupled with a genetic disorder in my spine: nobody in my family had previously suspected it was lurking in our DNA but then again few in my family have been as committed athletes as I.

Bottomline: check it out via professionals and work out an appropriate management program. In my case I just plain don't jog. Ever. But i do cycle.

JNMedic states, "The best time to stretch this, is after running." I will respectfully disagree with this. At least in part. I do not think that the best plan of care is to put up with the pain of the activity THEN do something to alleviate it.

I feel it would be better to do some form of pain free warm-up, then stretch before running, and then do a stretching session after the run. This way the running itself will hopefully be done with less discomfort.

Best in Health and Training, J. R.

well, my difficulty now is that all of these seem like plausible explanations. i guess i'll try stretching out a bit before and after running, and i'll work on my lower back strength(hell, i can also use some better core strength!). i get this pain running both on a treadmill, and on and off road. i haven't really noticed whether the pain goes with time, but i'll keep an eye out for it next time.

thanks guys!

I think that if you get your general flexibility up, the pain should go away. It's not the stretching before/after that's going to make the pain go away, it's being flexible in general.

That's how it works in my case, yours may be different.

Also make sure to stretch your hip flexors, the only muscles that are directly attached to your spine.

Unless you are seriously inflexible so as to affect things like running, stretching might just help with the pain but not the actual problem.

"Also make sure to stretch your hip flexors, the only muscles that are directly attached to your spine."

Actually there are quite a few muscles that attach directly to the spine. Or do you mean the only muscles that attach to both the legs and the spine?

Best in Health and Training, J. R.

it's funny that everyone mentions flexibility as a primary cause of problems like this. i have always considered myself pretty flexible(i can put my feet behind my head), but perhaps i've been neglecting some range of motion. what are some good stretches for the lower back/hip flexors?

right now i'm thinking the problem is either related to my shoes or to back strength. i don't really lift at all, and though i do a fair amount of BWE there's nothing in there that specifically targets my lower back. (unless pullups count?) my shoes are also not necessarily in great condition. i'll try replacing those as well.

i've only really begun running very recently, so it's not as if this is an ongoing problem. with the help of random advice from the internet hopefully i can get this under control.

It might be a muscle imbalance. Like your back is weaker than your abs... for some people stretching might relieve some of the pain... so it might not be a flexibility problem per se.