Today I'm going to talk about having lower back pain when running. Now I'm no expert on this and you may need to see a doctor for an underlying condition you may have. I am just going to give you what I do and have done to help me with my lower back pain when running.

Lets start from the beginning for me. I have had lower back pain since high school. I played sports and never injured it except for having it "go out" when playing sports. I didn't do anything that caused it but it would just hurt. Of course being young you bounce back pretty quickly from this so I didn't give it too much thought.

I just learned to live with it and figured well it happens and when it does I'll take it easy for a week or two and it'll get better.

As I've gotten older I found that it was taking longer to recuperate and the pain was more severe. So I decided to get the dreaded doctor's visit. I went to the doctor's office in an effort to find out what was really going on. Maybe there was something really wrong. Well the visit was negative and nothing was found to be wrong. I was told it was muscular and to just give it a rest and take some ibuprofin to help with the pain.

Again years went by and I still got the nagging pain every once and a while.

I talked to other runners to see if they had the same problem. Most didn't but some did so I asked them what they did to help relieve this problem. Most said stretching was paramount, especially the hamstring and lower back. So I incorporated this and did find some relief but not complete relief.

I have a friend of mine who is a chiropractor. I had been indoctrinated while growing up that chiropractors were quacks. But he was a friend and I respected his advice. So I went to see him. I found he was not a quack but he was very knowledgeable about my pain. He wasn't one of those that said "ok now you have to see me 3 times a week for the rest of your life". I had been previously told that once you see a chiropractor this is what they will want to do.

He did much more than that for me. He is actually a retired pro baseball player and his philosophy is to come and get an adjustment when needed.

Now I'm not saying that a chiropractor is the golden answer but it has been something that has helped me tremendously. He actually was the one who told me about getting proper running shoes which also helped significantly.

So if you suffer from lower back pain and do when running maybe a visit to a chiropractor may help. Remember there are "quacks" out there whether they are medical doctors or chiropractors. Use common sense and if needed get a second opinion. I was fortunate to find the chiropractor I did. You will too.

I have made it part of my running plan to see him every 6 months or so and I haven't had any problems since. I have also done a lot of back exercises to increase the strength of the muscles in my lower back. But with all of this I still occasionally have the lower back pain. I take it easy for a couple of days and then get back out there. Remember listen to your body and do what you need to do.