One of my favorite summer activities is kayaking. Not only is it great exercise and a neat way to see nature, my wife and I seem to get a similar work-out because she is quite a bit lighter than I am, thus she uses less effort to go just as fast as I do.
Unfortunately, I typically find that within a half-hour of kayaking, my lower back really aches. It aches to the point that the finishing my kayak trip sometimes becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. I found what I think could very-well be the reason for all this pain from a user named Jed on KayakForums.com:
This may not apply in your case but some people experience back pain that is caused by hyper-extension of the lower back. Tight hamstring muscles can prevent the pelvis from rotating forward far enough to allow the lower back to maintain it's natural curve. Constant extension of the lower back then leads to sometimes significant discomfort. An easy test for this is to sit in your boat with your normal posture and try to rotate your pelvis forward as far as you can by trying to push your belly button out towards your knees. This will contract the muscles of the lower back, rotate the pelvis forward and move the whole torso forward somewhat. If the natural curve of the lower back returns when you do this, then tight hamstrings / bad posture may be the culprit. This type of aggressive posture does more than just relieve some types of lower back pain, it also pulls the back away from the seat back / back band and allows the paddler to balance naturally with the torso slightly forward of vertical. By returning the pelvis and the lower back to a more natural posture, torso rotation is greatly enhanced which then leads to more power from your stroke. Lastly this posture greatly enhances the paddlers ability to work the extreme ends of the boat especially the forward quadrants and nearly eliminates reliance on any type of back support. I suspect the latter is something the back band manufacturers and sellers would prefer we did not know.
This may not apply in your case but some people experience back pain that is caused by hyper-extension of the lower back. Tight hamstring muscles can prevent the pelvis from rotating forward far enough to allow the lower back to maintain it's natural curve. Constant extension of the lower back then leads to sometimes significant discomfort.
An easy test for this is to sit in your boat with your normal posture and try to rotate your pelvis forward as far as you can by trying to push your belly button out towards your knees. This will contract the muscles of the lower back, rotate the pelvis forward and move the whole torso forward somewhat. If the natural curve of the lower back returns when you do this, then tight hamstrings / bad posture may be the culprit.
This type of aggressive posture does more than just relieve some types of lower back pain, it also pulls the back away from the seat back / back band and allows the paddler to balance naturally with the torso slightly forward of vertical. By returning the pelvis and the lower back to a more natural posture, torso rotation is greatly enhanced which then leads to more power from your stroke.
Lastly this posture greatly enhances the paddlers ability to work the extreme ends of the boat especially the forward quadrants and nearly eliminates reliance on any type of back support. I suspect the latter is something the back band manufacturers and sellers would prefer we did not know.
As a bicyclist who has the naughty habit of not stretching before each ride, my hamstrings are typically very tight. Reaching my toes is nearly impossible! I’ve always told myself that I should really integrate stretching into my fitness regimen, so perhaps now is the time to start.