Back hurts after core workout, no pulled muscle, why?

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Caters
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Back hurts after core workout, no pulled muscle, why?

Post by Caters »

I have started exercising to build muscle again but this time, instead of just exercising abs, I am exercising abs, chest, and back muscles. For back muscles, I go from a downward dog position to a cobra position 10 times. For abs, I do 1 set of 10 situps. For chest, I do 1 set of 10 pushups. With pushups, the primary action seems to be in arms. Situps are being done perfectly. But back, it hurts. I am not low on electrolytes and I try to keep myself hydrated. Plus it happens right after exercise so it is the muscle that is causing back pain, not kidneys. Performance hasn't lowered at all, nor does back hurt the next day(both signs that I pulled a muscle). In fact, I rested for several days in case it was a pulled muscle and I noticed no back pain at all, even when I am using back muscles. So it clearly has to do with the exercise itself and not an injury from it.

The pain is mostly in lower back and specifically, in the area with the most lumbar curvature. The middle of back where I would feel kidney pain and the upper back are just fine. But what is it about going from a downward dog position to a cobra position 10 times that hurts lower back? I keep back straight when I sit in a chair and when I stand so it isn't postural back pain. momma thinks that it might be because when I sit on the couch or on bed, I tend to hyperextend back and that the exercise causes back to hurt because just as the back muscles start to contract back to normal size, I stretch them and thus it hurts.

I tried doing scapular pushes before this and didn't notice any muscle activation in the shoulders or back so I am not doing that. I am trying to avoid a muscle imbalance which I think is what happened several years ago when it went from painless to painful during abdominal exercises(and thus the reason why abdominal stretching helped).

So why would back hurt right after exercise if it is not cramps or a pulled muscle? Could this hyperextension be why back hurts after exercise? And is there anything easier on back that will not cause back to hurt but will still help with toning and building muscle in back to balance out the muscle gains in chest and abs?
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Re: Back hurts after core workout, no pulled muscle, why?

Post by Boss Man »

The pain could be partly induced by the fatigue in the lumbar region and also if you're inducing spinal lordosis around the quadratus area.

The hyper-extensions sound like the main cause or partly to blame at least, so I would suggest getting rid of them.

If you're doing body weighted exercises, then you could try romanian deadlifts or good mornings and see how that goes instead of the hyper-extensions.
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