Back Pain and Bike Glove Tan

6/8/2014 Weight 248.6, 61.4 pounds lost since July 2011
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My 1990-1992 Back Pain Episode

In early 1990, I began experiencing excruciating pain on both sides of my lower back. At the time my weight was under control, I was eating correctly, and I was bicycling extensively. I went to a doctor who could do nothing but prescribe pain and anti-inflammatory medications, which did not help. The pain was so severe that I needed to take a leave of absence from work. After a couple of months, we could not pay rent and were forced to move in with my wife’s parents.

I began to go see a chiropractor, at great expense, during that summer. Week after week I was manipulated, stretched, put on machines, given drugs, and charged a lot of money. The pain went up and down in intensity, but never went away. This particular Chiropractor did not bother to find out what was causing the pain; he just attempted to treat it. I gave up and figured back pain was with me to stay. After all, a lot of people had chronic back pain. Why should I be any different?

Eventually, the pain subsided enough that I was able to go back to work. During the summer and autumn of 1990 I worked two jobs, much of the time in severe back pain, to save money for a move we were planning to Denver, Colorado. In December, we made the move, after I found employment up there.

Living in Denver, Colorado, through many, many bicycling miles, I lost a lot more weight and size. For about 1-1/2 years, I rode throughout the Denver area, over mountain passes, in organized charity rides, and loved every minute. However, I could never get rid of the back pain. Sometimes it was barely there, and other times it was so severe that I could barely move.

Then, during the summer of 1992, for some reason the back pain increased substantially. For weeks, I could barely move and was going through horrible pain. I finally broke down and decided to go to a doctor again, even though doctors and prescriptions and everything else “medical” did not work in the past.

Bicycling gloves are great for the sport. They are light, allow your fingers to be free to operate bike levers and switches, are well padded for comfort, and the netting on the back is good to wipe away sweat. They close with Velcro at the base of the hand, by the wrist, and there is always a little spot of exposed skin on the back of the hand. Here is a picture of the gloves in question:

I went to visit Dr. Jay Reinsma, who happens to be a fellow cyclist. I told him that my lower back, both sides, was hurting desperately, and had for the last 2+ years. I told him about the chiropractor. I told him about the doctor. I told him about the stretching, manipulation, prescriptions, everything. However, he did not ask me one thing about my back – He wanted to talk bicycles! He said “So, are you a cyclist?” We discussed our favorite canyon rides (Golden Gate? Mount Vernon?). We discussed charity rides. We compared notes about mountain passes we had both crossed on two wheels. We compared our bicycles and discovered he liked Racing bikes and I liked the more relaxed Touring geometry.

I was thinking to myself “What am I paying for? We haven’t looked at or talked about my back at all.” Dr. Reinsma said “We’ll need to get together and ride up Golden Gate sometime.” He did not ask me to remove my shirt. He did no blood pressure test. He looked at my face, not my back.

Finally he said, with a smile, “Now, about your back. When you get home today, lower your seat height on your bike by about half an inch. What’s happening is that while you are seated too high, you are pulling the muscles in your back to reach the pedals when they are at the bottom of the stroke. Lower the seat a bit and you won’t do that any longer.”

He had seen the tan spot on the back of my hands . . .

. . . . .created by the cycling gloves, and knew.

I lowered the seat a half inch that day. In the 23 years since, I have not had that back pain. And that’s why I adjust seat height very, very carefully when I cycle! I cannot believe I suffered through that back pain for so long when there was such a simple explanation!