Is Cycling Bad for Tight Hip Flexors? – Dr.Berg

Low back pain from cycling is common and simple to relieve.

Timestamps:
0:00 How to help low back pain from cycling, and relieve tight hip flexors too
0:35 If you have your feet clipped to the pedals, that’s a lot better than if you don’t
2:18 This is what I recommend to alleviate low back pain

Someone who is a cyclist asked me how to help with low back pain from cycling. They had very tight hip flexors too.

One of the challenges, when you ride a bike, is doing a repetitive motion (pedaling) over and over again. You work certain muscles way more than others. For example, you work your hip flexors, which are the muscle that bends the top part of your body over your lower body. You also work your knee extensors.

If you have your foot clipped into the pedal, that’s better because you can pull one leg up while you push down with the other. Otherwise, you use a lot more knee extension as you push down over and over.

You’ll build up specific muscles in your quadriceps; specifically, the rectus femoris. It attaches to your hip and is both a hip flexor and a knee flexor, and becomes overly developed when you cycle. Any time you have one muscle that’s overdeveloped compared to its counterpart, you’re liable to have an imbalance.

You also have a problem with an overdeveloped iliopsoas muscle, which is a muscle in combination with your psoas muscle that attaches from the inside of the lower back to your femur. The iliopsoas attaches from the inside of your pelvis to your femur.

If you overdevelop the rectus femoris and the iliopsoas, they tend to keep you in a flexed state. You lose the symmetry between the muscles in the front of the body and the back. This is what causes your low back pain.

Here’s what I recommend you do to relieve the low back pain from cycling. Of course, stretch, but you need to do more. When I test a cyclist for flexibility, they don’t usually appear to be very stiff. The real issue is the overdevelopment of the muscles I mentioned, leading to an imbalance. In other words, a weakness in the opposing muscle.

The opposing muscles I want you to strengthen are primarily your hamstrings and your glutes. I put some links below this, to videos that will show you how to strengthen these opposing muscles. I also included some links to videos for effective stretching. Your hamstrings will help your knee flexors, and your glutes will help with hip flexors.

I also highly recommend you do yoga because it involves all of your muscles to develop flexibility and strength. My recommendation actually goes for any sport that’s unilateral and uses repetitive motion, such as golf.

Now you know what to do for low back pain from cycling!

Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, age 55, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan and is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals. He no longer practices but focuses on health education through social media.

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Disclaimer: Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients so he can focus on educating people as a full-time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, and prescription or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The Health & Wellness, Dr. Berg Nutritionals, and Dr. Eric Berg, D.C. are not liable or responsible for any advice, course of treatment, diagnosis or any other information, services, or product you obtain through this video or site.

Thanks for watching!

If you have low back pain from cycling, you’ll want to watch this video.