4 ms·

does cycling count? walking hurts my back.

by uwagar 4y ago

donkeyd 4y ago
Unfortunately, you possible just need to walk more then and focus on your core muscles. I have the exact same thing and the only way to stop my back from aching is to focus on tightening my abs. Doing some basic ab and core exercises like planks, superman, etc will probably help. You need to do them correctly though and rally focus on tightening the right muscles, otherwise it'll hurt the back even more. If you have the means, I'd probably recommend visiting a physical therapist, or a personal trainer who specializes in core strengthening.
diffxx 4y ago
The great thing about cycling is that it's low impact so it's a good way to get back into exercise. If you can't walk well, aging is going to be even more unpleasant than it has to be so I'd recommend working on strengthening your body so that it can handle walking again. Cycling is far better than not exercising at all, but I would recommend walking to anyone over cycling if possible. For many years, I cycled > 10 hours per week. But these days I only walk and haven't ridden a bike in over a year. Even though cycling can be a lot of fun, I don't really miss it. When walking you have a different relationship with the environment. You feel like a part of it. Cycling is much closer to driving than walking. You are just passing through. It's also far more dangerous so you have to focus more on the road which allows your mind to wander less than you can while walking. There are things that you notice while walking that you would never see on a bike. I once watched an epic battle between a caterpillar and a wasp. You realize there is so much more going on in the world than what we tend to focus on.
- uwagar 4y ago
  haha i'd have stopped to watch that battle too. since i live deep inner city i dont enjoy walking along the pavements/tarmac. to get to the woods i have to cycle. maybe i should get there and then walk a few miles.
emptyfile 4y ago
Walking shouldn't hurt your back and its very worrying that it does, you should look into some resistance exercise.
- uwagar 4y ago
  i've started doing some yoga recently and in just a week i'm feeling a new flexibility in my back muscles. so i started yoga cos another friend of mine recommended it after i 'seized up' my back suddenly..it happened like innocuously me trying to pickup something from the floor..i can feel a pull and im like oh shit this is gonna get worse and i cant move properly for a week kind of thing. and it does. i blame it on potatoes and cauliflower cos i seem to get it a few days after i eat them dishes and lot of sitting and reading and programming. luckily it does go away in a week or so and im like as if nothing happened. but going thru it feels like im bugg3red. cycling alone doesnt cut it i guess.
  - otikik 4y ago
    I would go to a doctor just in case. A friend of mine spent most of a year having intermittent back pain and it turns out that his problem was that he had developed fructose intolerance. His pain was not coming from his internal back as he thought, but from his inflamed intestines, which happened very frequently since fructose is present in a lot of foods.
jononomo 4y ago
if walking hurts your back then you probably need to lose belly fat. Even though I am thin (6'4", 190 pounds) I have found that with an ideal diet (mostly red meat) and some moderate exercise I can lose 10 pounds of belly fat and my back pain drops off a cliff. If I get down to 170 pounds then I have almost no back pain. At 160 pounds I feel like an elevated being.

does cycling count? walking hurts my back.

by uwagar 4y ago

does cycling count? walking hurts my back.

Unfortunately, you possible just need to walk more then and focus on your core muscles. I have the exact same thing and the only way to stop my back from aching is to focus on tightening my abs. Doing some basic ab and core exercises like planks, superman, etc will probably help. You need to do them correctly though and rally focus on tightening the right muscles, otherwise it'll hurt the back even more. If you have the means, I'd probably recommend visiting a physical therapist, or a personal trainer who specializes in core strengthening.

diffxx 4y ago

The great thing about cycling is that it's low impact so it's a good way to get back into exercise. If you can't walk well, aging is going to be even more unpleasant than it has to be so I'd recommend working on strengthening your body so that it can handle walking again. Cycling is far better than not exercising at all, but I would recommend walking to anyone over cycling if possible. For many years, I cycled > 10 hours per week. But these days I only walk and haven't ridden a bike in over a year. Even though cycling can be a lot of fun, I don't really miss it. When walking you have a different relationship with the environment. You feel like a part of it. Cycling is much closer to driving than walking. You are just passing through. It's also far more dangerous so you have to focus more on the road which allows your mind to wander less than you can while walking. There are things that you notice while walking that you would never see on a bike. I once watched an epic battle between a caterpillar and a wasp. You realize there is so much more going on in the world than what we tend to focus on.

uwagar 4y ago
haha i'd have stopped to watch that battle too. since i live deep inner city i dont enjoy walking along the pavements/tarmac. to get to the woods i have to cycle. maybe i should get there and then walk a few miles.

emptyfile 4y ago

Walking shouldn't hurt your back and its very worrying that it does, you should look into some resistance exercise.

uwagar 4y ago
i've started doing some yoga recently and in just a week i'm feeling a new flexibility in my back muscles. so i started yoga cos another friend of mine recommended it after i 'seized up' my back suddenly..it happened like innocuously me trying to pickup something from the floor..i can feel a pull and im like oh shit this is gonna get worse and i cant move properly for a week kind of thing. and it does. i blame it on potatoes and cauliflower cos i seem to get it a few days after i eat them dishes and lot of sitting and reading and programming. luckily it does go away in a week or so and im like as if nothing happened. but going thru it feels like im bugg3red. cycling alone doesnt cut it i guess.
- otikik 4y ago
  I would go to a doctor just in case. A friend of mine spent most of a year having intermittent back pain and it turns out that his problem was that he had developed fructose intolerance. His pain was not coming from his internal back as he thought, but from his inflamed intestines, which happened very frequently since fructose is present in a lot of foods.

jononomo 4y ago

if walking hurts your back then you probably need to lose belly fat. Even though I am thin (6'4", 190 pounds) I have found that with an ideal diet (mostly red meat) and some moderate exercise I can lose 10 pounds of belly fat and my back pain drops off a cliff. If I get down to 170 pounds then I have almost no back pain. At 160 pounds I feel like an elevated being.