Lower Back Pain

[Scuba fryd]

I am not a medical professional, however, I figured I'd share what has worked for me as I know that back pain, especially lower back pain, is pretty common.

My lower back was constantly a bother and painful to the point of making it difficult to get a good night's sleep. I figured that the 70 lbs (give or take) of kit was compressing the hell out of my lower back, so I purchased an inversion table.

What a difference! I have to say my back feels so much better, I sleep at night, and no pain in the morning. I do a full inversion twice a day for 5 mins and it's made a huge difference. Again, I'm not a physician, however, I wanted to share in case this could help someone else.

Happy diving out there folks!

i had same problem after 30 min dive i had to curll into a ball for a min then i were ready for the next 15 min.
did som changes to my trim that fixed my problem. figured that i were out of trim and that med me arch my back more than i shuld without thinking about it

 

[Nick_Radov]

i’m still pretty young but i would not say that i am strong. i’m now using a drysuit and steel tank plus a lot of weight, and man its heavy! in the future i would like to go to doubles, but i think i would mess up my back if i did that right now. does anyone have some exercises they recommend to strengthen their lower back or back in general to help prevent injuries from diving? i want to be physically fit for diving and looking at the big picture to still be diving without problems as i get older.

Others have given some good recommendations about resistance training. I would just caution that exercises like squats and deadlifts with heavy weights are risky if you don't have proper technique. A single mistake can leave you permanently injured so if you're new at this at least hire an experienced personal trainer for a few sessions. It's not particularly complicated, but there are some subtleties of positioning and alignment that are tough to learn on your own just by reading instructions or watching videos.

In addition to straight line exercises like squats and deadlifts, it's good to add some kind of compound twisting exercises to your routine. Like with kettlebells or medicine ball or something. In the real world you sometimes have to bear a load while turned to the side so you need to be able to stabilize yourself in somewhat awkward positions.

And if you want to get better at carrying a heavy load on your back then just spend more time carrying a heavy load on your back. Buy a good rucking backpack and load up a heavy plate, then hike fast up and down a hill a few times.

 

[crofrog]

Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training https://a.co/d/ehShqi3

 

[KiLLAH-WHALE]

And if you want to get better at carrying a heavy load on your back then just spend more time carrying a heavy load on your back.

i guess hiking/backpacking this summer will actually just be training for diving

 

[rmorgan]

i guess hiking/backpacking this summer will actually just be training for diving

Isn’t everything?

 

[boulderjohn]

most at the gym will still do it wrong thinking they do it right !

This is more of a generic response rather than to this specific quote. The question is this--how do you really know what is right?

I had my first knee surgery more than 40 years ago, and I can't estimate the number of orthopedists I have had in the intervening years leading up to my present two knee replacements. My wife also developed knee problems, and she has by now had one replacement, one on the way, and a host of orthopedists over the years. During those years, we agree that the most common advice we were given by those orthopedist is an emphatic warning not to use the familiar leg extension machine to build leg strength. "It's a terrible exercise!" we have been frequently told.

I mention this because we both go to gyms to exercise, both at home in Colorado and in Florida. We both see the professional trainers employed by those gyms leading personal training sessions for people paying them oodles of money for their expertise, and the one machine they always go to is the leg extension machine.

I was a coach of several sports for many years, and I am certified to coach by two national organizations. I have attended numerous workshops on exercises, stretches, etc. I had just attended one years ago when I went to a major league baseball playoff game very early, in time to see these major league players doing exercises I had just been told emphatically never to do with the players I coached.

 

[DANDM]

"It's a terrible exercise!" we have been frequently told.

It's always so challenging for the average folk (I'm including myself there) to navigate through these kind of exercise/medical recommendations. Like you said, gym coaches often include this exercise, but sometimes physiotherapists do too. Also, if you google around you can read articles from sports magazines, physio organisations, blogs, youtubers who are allegedly qualified, giving you all sorts of advice and often quoting some studies and even meta-analysis/reviews. Some tell you it's terrible, some tell you that it's useful if done right, others highlight some risks but also mention other common exercises that have even more risks. So us average people who are not qualified in these fields end up with this massive soup of conflicting information and have to make a decision based on that.

My best advice is simply, try to find a good qualified and experienced coach (which can be as hard as finding a good dive instructor), get advice from a physiotherapist if you have known injuries or mobility/weakness issues, try to learn your techniques right, keep ego lifting away, and listen to your body! If something feels off, it probably is!

 

[boulderjohn]

My best advice is simply, try to find a good qualified and experienced coach (which can be as hard as finding a good dive instructor), get advice from a physiotherapist if you have known injuries or mobility/weakness issues, try to learn your techniques right, keep ego lifting away, and listen to your body! If something feels off, it probably is!

My point was you just won't know who is right.

I was once plagued by numbness and tingling in may hands after a big dive weekend. I knew it wasn't DCS because I could make it go away with hand and arm movements. It kept getting worse until some of my fingers were almost constantly numb. I went to a spine specialist who diagnosed a nerve problem caused by an impingement in my shoulder. They sent me to a Ph.D physical therapist (part of their practice) who treated me for as long as my insurance would cover it, with close to zero success.

I had another problem that was more clearly related to my hand, ad I went to a hand specialist. He looked at the work that had been done and almost laughed out loud. "They got the wrong nerve!" He said both my problems were from carpal tunnel syndrome, and he treated me for that. Instant cure. That was more than 10 years ago, and I haven't had a problem since.

 

[DANDM]

My point was you just won't know who is right.

I completely agree! I was just expanding on what you were saying I'm glad you got that issue fixed. Having other people check you out, like you mentioned, is also great advice.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

There are two kinds of back pain, the pain caused my muscle cramps/overuse and pinched nerves caused by the disc herniating. The people advocating execise above are focusing focusing on the muscular issues (poor core strength, leg strength, etc.). But realize that there is the other component having to do with nerve impingement due to herniated disc(s). Also realize that the discs between the vertebra rely upon diffusion for oxygen, as they have no blood supply of their own. This is also true of the knee, which has cortllege lining the joint, that also has no blood supply. Over years, with more and more use, these exercises can contribute to problems with the discs and the knee.

So what alternative exercises can one do? One exercise that hasn’t been discussed is simply getting in the pool and swimming (or even finswimming, with your fins). If you want to use a backpack with weights, be sure you have a hip belt to put the weight on the hips and not on the back. Squats can do wonders for the thigh muscles, without jeopardizing either the back or the knee joints. I am a big advocate of bicycling for exercise, as it increases muscular fitness throughout the body; however, I bicycle mostly on trails to keep away from car/bicycle interactions (and can do it here), and so far have over 600 miles this year (as of June 9th, 2025 I have 649 miles for the year). But, I don’t bicycle on roads on Fridays, as I’ve been hit twice decades ago on Fridays, and won’t give drivers another shot at me on Fridays (drivers are a bit more weird on Fridays).

One other aspect is decreasing the amount of weight that one dives with. How? Well, one poster above talked about diving twin 100s in Puget Sound. Maybe tech diving (deep diving, or wreck diving) requires that much air (weight), but what about simply diving a single 100 instead of twins? Divers today talk a lot, and instructors/dive shops push a lot about “redundancy” which may not be needed if the dive is a sport dive (not tech in overhead environments and not deep, exceeding 120 feet). The dive shops make more money with redundancy, selling more tanks and regulators. We used to dive single 72 steel tanks, and that was sufficient at about 35 pounds. Now, these rigs exceed 100 pounds out-of-water.

But, and this is a big “BUT,” be sure it’s a musculature deficiency you are trying to correct and not a disc problem. Have a doc check that out.

SeaRat
John C. Ratliff, MSPH

PS, I still have all my original parts, in spite of being a USAF Master Parachutist.