[Closed] Diagnose my back issue- does this sound like a back spasm?

It might be a herniated (ruptured) disc. You say 'right of the spine' - is that close to the spine? I've had it come on without any obvious overload. If that's what it is, the physio told me to take Ibuprofen so that I could move, and keep moving as much as possible. The thing I found I had to avoid was carrying anything, even a few kg was enough to compress my spine and make it worse. But there are a number of the similar things it could be, I'd say this is one of the occasions when notwithstanding the lockdown it is important that you see or at least speak to a doctor.

Sounds very like a spasm.

Heat, gentle movement and painkillers are your friends.

Anything else you can do to relax muscles also very important, e.g. basixc diaphragm breathing exercises (not hard, breath into your belly through your nose, out through your mouth, see youtube).

Hey Beaker, yes I have. As a paramedic who lifts and carries for a living, and who goes to a lot of 999 emergency calls for just this sort of non-traumatic, rapid-onset pain, I’m all too familiar with it. The last one I went to was a lad who’d simply bent down to pick a strawberry up off the floor. It sounds like a textbook sacro-iliac joint muscle spasm, and the worst thing you can do is remain immobile, letting the muscle go cold and tighten up even more. (Which is why the hot water bottle eases the pain.) The good news is that it’s not life-, or even back-threatening, but it will have you by the short and curlies for the next few days. It’ll be way worse when you first wake up, because the muscle will have got stiff while you’ve been asleep, but will ease as you (carefully) get up and move around during the day. Breathing through the pain as you you ease yourself sideways up off your bed really helps. Trust me. Walking is the best way to ease it. Lower backs don’t like to be hyper extended, which is what happens if you lie on your front. The muscles around the joint will likely have become strained, and then kicked off into spasm when you got up and got on with your day. I also use the cardboard box analogy to explain it to my patients. Think of your core as the four sides of a cardboard box. Your abs and your lower back muscles form two opposite sides of the box. If one side, your abs, gets soggy and loses its strength, it puts a strain on the other sides, particularly the opposite, lower back side. That strain isn’t what your back muscles are used to. They get tired and grumpy having to support more than their fair share of your body weight, and therefore can go into spasm in protest. Women who’ve just had a Caesarian often have back pain, because they’ve just had their abdominal muscles cut, which can put extra strain on their lower back. So, long term, strengthening your core muscles is the best way to prevent future lower back pain, as is lifting correctly, and not lying on your front for long periods of time. Hope all this makes sense!

It’s highly unlikely that you will have slipped a disc at rest, but that’s the worst case scenario. This would manifest in referred pain, numbness or tingling down into your buttocks and one or both legs. (Not to be confused with sciatica, another non-threatening but chronic pain condition, but which develops over time.) That’s when you pick up the phone to your GP. The same goes if you experience any urinary incontinence or numbness in your bits or saddle region, again a manifestation of nerve compression called cauda equina, which needs hands on medical assessment chop-chop. If you don’t have these symptoms, try not to Google them. Google’s a bugger for terrifying you in these instances!

If the ibuprofen doesn’t help, try humble old paracetamol offset with it, so you’re taking either every two hours (but neither more than four hourly, if that makes sense). Your GP may be able to prescribe something stronger such as tramadol to make getting moving a bit easier. But whatever you do, don’t tell them a paramedic on a mountain-biking forum has told them to!

That’s quite a read, I realise, but I hope it helps matey. I feel your pain, I really do. Good luck!

It’s not close to the spine, more above the pelvis. I’m going to try and ride it out another day before trying to see the GP, especially given current circumstances. I’m doing everything that @13thfloormonk has suggested. I guess this a waiting game now, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone....

@cheekysprocket thank you for taking the time to post that, it’s very much appreciated, you’ve given some great info there. I mentioned the waking up on my front as I never sleep on my front. I shall ride this one out and start and do some work on my core.

My physio seems to be very much of the new school (still doing her PhD, don't know the title) and is fairly dismissive of conventional core work, but very keen on glute work.

Most of my problems (I think) have come from overdeveloped quads from lots of riding, and under-developed glutes. The more and harder you ride, the more work the lower back muscles have to do to make up for the glutes not doing their job or being out-muscled by other muscles.

Of course, to compound things I then jumped into a big regime of squats etc. but a combination of over-doing it and bad form led to more spasms, as of course, squats put strain on your lower back too.

Glute bridge and bird dog are other exercises commonly recommended but which come with their own caveats, e.g. with both it's easy to arch your lower back (e.g. hyper-extend as per Cheeky sprocket's advice).

Am slowly learning exercises to engage and strengthen glutes whilst also not stressing lower back too much. Slowly slowly...

Muscle spasm - movement is the best cure, it will relax eventually.

Some good stuff on here. And you thought there’d be a simple answer, Beaker. Welcome to the wonderful world of sports injury anatomy and physiology! I’ve biked for years, obvs, and started trail running in the last two. My retired physio mum’s 1960’s copy of Grey’s Anatomy has never been down off the shelf as much as it is now. Knowledge is power. Hope the next few days are as bearable as can be hoped for. Let us know how you get on.

I shall let you know... I need to be better by tomorrow as I’ve got some new road bike wheels being delivered and I want to fit them then get out for a ride!

Sounds like it, movement, heat and lots of drugs will hopefully make it go away. I take diclofenac, codeine, paracetamol when mine goes (not much else touches it)

Lots of cycling producing tight quads and hip flexors. Have you been doing lots of sitting around and laptop/ tablet use recently?

Strengthening glutes and hamstrings etc will help to realign the pelvis to a natural posture there for increasing the work your lower back does which strengthens it reducing the pain.

Beaker, my physio is pro cycling, but take it easy on the road bike, no big efforts, low gears, easy cadence, keep it relaxed e.g. breath out, let the belly hang!

Little and often also, I'm 4 months post-surgery and just doing 1-2hr efforts

I get sacro-iliac joint problems occasionally (every 3 or 4 years), and find that an initial day of rest, with a hot water bottle, helps to recover quickly.  Just one day, then try to keep moving, with the aid of ibuprofen, etc.

As for other medication, valium (diazepam) instantly relaxes the muscle spasms - and makes me very cheerful!  But I was quite startled when the GP first suggested it.

I’ve not been sitting any more than normal, no major changes to activity levels either. I am moving about as and when I can, pain killers and hot water bottle as necessary.... I certainly won’t be pushing hard if, by some miracle, I can pedal tomorrow.

Stressband worry can contribute too, anything that causes you to tense up muscles basically.

Once I got the idea I was surprised how often I would be tense and need to 'breathe' it out.

Also piriformis stretches seem to be a good idea just on general principles.

I suffered a lower back spasm 20 years ago & GP said its a muscle spasm & it will get better, blah blah blah. Cue mild back pain & odd recuring spasm for 15 yr + until at my current work place, after I flared it up pretty badly.

OH sent me to a osteopath wifey in Staffin on Skye & after a strip down & instructed to bend over she instantly said your pelvis (SI Joint) is 'squint' on the table & the old shoulder & knee levering & loud crack. After a day or 2 it was like having a new back , not experieced nagging lower back pain freedom for so many years it was amazing.

I have an SI joint dysfunction & occasionaly I twist it out with heavy lifting typicaly while standing on 1 leg or uneven footing & if I dont get it cracked it lasts weeks & when cracked , 1- 2 days & it's gone.

Lot's of people slag off Osteopaths as quackery , my experience tells me diferent. I suffered for years after listening to various GP's.

osteopathy is pure quackery. There is no evidence base for it. There is however lots of evidence of osteopathy doing harm

Quick update, my back has eased up a heck of a lot since yesterday evening and last night before bed I felt much better. Today I’ve moved and got on with my day and I’m nearly back to normal this evening. I’ve never experienced back ache like this before but will certainly be looking into Yoga, Pilates and other exercise regimes to prevent a reoccurrence.

Mine went into an almighty spasm yesterday, added an exercise I'd not done for ages to my routine (Kettlebell windmills) to try and improve range of motion and my brain decided it was too much range of motion, so completely locked up the RH side of my back! Since its a fairly regular occurrence, I'm quite used to it happening, although not normally this bad. My day off will be spent cycling through cat/camel, childs pose, hot water bottles and co-codamol rather than riding 100km in glorious sunshine!