Why does my back hurt after ice skating? Your back can hurt after and when ice skating for one or more reasons. From personal experience and consultation with professional ice skaters and medical experts, below are the possible reasons your back hurts after ice skating.
- Using the Wrong Skating Posture and Technique
- Back Muscles Yet to Adopt to Ice Skating
- Overuse Injury from Over Skating
- Medical Condition affecting your Back
- Pain from a Fall Injury
Why does my Back Hurt after Ice Skating? (How to make it Stop)
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. In the rest of this guide, I go deep into why your back hurts when and after ice skating and how to make it stop.
Back pain when ice and after ice skating isn’t cool at all. It creates phobia and, in worst cases, can stop you from skating completely. So without much ado, let’s get to dissect the problem (s)!
1. Using the Wrong Skating Posture and Technique
Using the wrong ice skating posture and technique can cause acute and chronic back pains when skating and after skating. What’s the wrong skating posture, you ask? The wrong skating posture is all about not bending properly.
Not bending properly means your body weight isn’t distributed evenly. Thus, much of it is concentrated on your back muscles. Unfortunately, doing this significantly long-term exerts too much pressure on the back muscles, making them hurt.
The solution is to use the right skating posture and technique. And what’s that all about? You could be wondering. The right ice skating posture involves bent knees above the toes while the shoulders should be over the hips.
This posture helps to transfer your body weight to your toe balls, helping to reduce weight concentrating on your back. You want to learn and master this skating posture as early as possible because correcting the wrong posture down the road can be a hassle.
Another common wrong technique when ice skating is being rigid. It’s mainly caused by fear and not bending properly. When you’re scared to fall, you’ll most likely make your body rigid and skate like you’re walking. This isn’t good for your back and can cause it to hurt when and after ice skating.
2. Back Muscles Yet to Adopt to Ice Skating
Ice skating uses all body muscles, including the core muscles, which constitute the back muscles. Therefore, when starting to skate, your back muscles will require some time to get used to the skating activity.
In particular, the recommended ice skating posture requires that you stay in the bending position for a long time. This can hurt your back muscles and the joints in the early days of learning to skate.
The good news is, this isn’t something to worry about unless the pain persists after more than four weeks into skating. Ideally, your back muscles should get used to the skating position in a little over two weeks. So, keep practicing and look at how your back is responding.
3. Overuse Injury from Over Skating
Sometimes lower back hurts after ice skating because of overuse injury. Ice skating is fun and I get it that you want to skate more often. Probably, it’s winter, and you want to skate outdoors as much as you can while the snow lasts.
While this is a welcomed move, it also poses risks to your back and overall health. That being said, you don’t need to over skate because it can make your muscles sore. In addition, over skating exerts too much pressure on your back core muscles and the spinal cord, causing back pains.
The only remedy is to go ice skating in moderation. Skating two to three times a week should be more than enough. The good news is that you can always scale up or down. So, first, start by ice skating for three days a week and assesses the situation.
You can add more days or lower the number depending on how your back responds to ice skating frequency and intensity.
4. Medical Condition affecting your Back
Your back can also hurt after ice skating when you have a medical condition affecting your back. How does this come about, you ask? In a study, cancer of the spinal cord ruptured disc, sciatica, arthritis, kidney infections, and infections of the spine are among the leading causes of back pain.
So, if you notice your back hurts after ice skating, the problem could be as a result of one or a combination of these medical conditions. The best way to deal with this situation is to see a medical doctor for a check-up and treatment.
5. Pain from a Fall Injury
Falling is inevitable because of the nature of ice skating surfaces and the ice skating shoes. Ice skating surfaces are icy and slippery. On the other hand, ice skates have thin and shorter blades, making them hard to balance, especially for beginners.
Your chances of falling when ice skating are high, and it can lead to various ice skating injuries affecting the head, back, butt, and limbs. When you experience these fall injuries, they can cause your back to hurt, especially when you fall on your back when skating.
The remedy to solve this problem is always to wear protective gear when ice skating, skate in the company of more experienced skaters and avoid ice skating techniques you aren’t familiar with yet.
When to See a Doctor
The best time to see a doctor is when the pain persists after switching to the right skating posture, and nothing happens, or after skating for a while to get your back muscles used to skating, or after avoiding the urge to over skate.
These measures often fail to work because of an underlying medical condition like we’ve already seen. So, it’s important to see a doctor for a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment.
Why does my Back Hurt after Ice Skating? Wrapping Up
Why does my back hurt after ice skating, you ask? Your back can hurt after ice skating because of one or several reasons such as using the wrong skating posture and technique, back muscles yet to adapt to ice skating, overuse injury from over skating, a medical condition affecting your back, and pain from a fall injury.
The good news is, these causes of back pain can be prevented by using the right ice skating techniques and best practices and wearing protective gear when skating. If the pain persists, always seek medical attention.
