Back issues and running?

Question

I have played sports and ran all of my life - plus some seriously heavy lifting. As I have gotten older I noticed that the extra muscle has stunted long-distance running. So I have limited myself to 2-3 miles twice a week.

Two big issues:

1. Once I hit a certain threshold I start to develop hamstring tightness and lower back goes way out of whack. It usually lasts 3-7 days and is helped by stretching the legs and stuff. It is almost like clockwork that once I get under 12:30 for 2 miles or under 19 for 3... within 3-4 weeks boom back goes out. The problem here is I am not good at "jogging" and honestly the runs seem really easy until the next day.

2. If I run on any hard surface or even a hard treadmill. Boom... could be once or 4-5 times... upper back goes out. These usually are more severe and last longer.

So my question is what can I do instead of running that gives me the workout (I still play basketball and have no issues running on court) that I was getting or how can I run without getting back issues 5-8 times a year?

Answer 1

In my experience, and I’m by no means a pro runner, I have found a lot of these issues to be posture related. As we get tired, just like everything else, our form breaks down. We start to slouch. We bend at the waist. We supinate or pronate. The list goes on.

I always liken it to reaching failure in a weightlifting set. This is why runners are always injured. They keep running when they’re tired and let bad form dominate some of their movement patterns.

Notice that you said you reach a threshold in which issues start to arise. That really is a perfect analogue to, say, a butt wink in a squat that doesn’t cause problems until you throw 600 lbs. on the bar.

I don’t like the word core either. I would rather defer to a more generic description of “tiny little stabilizer muscles that don’t often get a lot of work.” Lower back issues means you’re probably bending at the waist, or hunching over. Upper back issues, and you’re probably not running shoulders back with your spinal column in alignment.

Furthermore, you have to be a big guy. For someone who squatted that kind of weight, I imagine you don’t look like the typical marathon runner. That’s a lot of extra weight to carry with you and although you may feel fine cardio wise, it’s probably just the body not able to sufficiently “power” all of the very large muscle groups you have when you are brushing up against that threshold. That’s causing a slouch, a lean, a bend, or whatever....

Personally, I think swimming is the best complimentary exercise to running. The overwhelming majority of my running issues resolved after I started to swim. I had better posture, more endurance, better lung functioning. Plus, when I did twist an ankle or suffer an injury, the zero impact of the pool always gave me a valid exercise option.

Just be careful. This is how you get sucked into the world of triathlon. You start running. Find that swimming is an awesome alternative. Then you think, “Hey, I already do two sports of the three, I might as well go for it.” Ask me how I know. :-)

Answer 2

According to many physiotherapists this would indicate that you may have weak core muscles (more specifically weak abdomen) and your body is trying to stabilize your spine by tightening up your hamstrings and lower back.

You however is extremely strong and some like Mark Rippetoe argue that this means you have a strong core: "Do you not see that an athlete with a 200 lb press, a 300 lb clean, a 400 lb squat, and a 500 lb deadlift has a stronger “core” than your runner who can just manage to do a Standing Reverse Wood-chop with a 2 kg medicine ball?"

In this interesting article: Core Confusion The Truth About Squats & Deads the author states that squats and deads gives you a very strong lower back but don't do much for your abdomen.

So it may be that one can be a very strong powerlifter but still have a relatively weak core (abdomen in particular).

I therfore think it could be worth a try doing some core exercise:

• The Best Core Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• Core Training That Isn't Stupid

and asessing your level of core strength.

This is of particular interest to me since I've been following the Starting Strength program for 3 months and when I tried the core exercises in "the Best core ..." link above I was still on beginner level. I have therefore started adding a bit of abdomen exercises each week.