Disclaimer - I am a coach with a sports science degree not a doctor or physio. This post is not made to diagnose you and is written from a paddling perspective not a medical one.
One of the most common ailments facing paddlers is the sore lower back. Whether its the dull achy version or the sharp uh oh I'm crooked/can't stand up straight one. This is by no means an exhaustive list but we are going to discuss the two main reasons related to your paddling why these seem to pop up so often, especially in beginner or intermediate paddlers.
Twisting instead of Rotating
So if you've made it all the way to reading a blog like this about paddling you are likely well aware that paddling is a rotation sport and have heard of leg drive. But true rotation with effective leg drive can prove harder to achieve than just jamming your heal into the footplate one at a time. If you're not so sure about this there's a link through to an article on leg drive here.
So what the difference?
Proper rotation involves your upper body staying locked onto your lower body as your hips rotate. This means that as your hip rotates your spine stays straight and your shoulders would move at the exact same rate as your hips. Being slightly wider they move slightly further but this is the same movement being translated from the hips to the upper body.
In contrast twisting involves an imbalanced amount of movement between the hips and the upper body. The most common version of this is hips that barely move and often lock into the seat and then an upper-body and specifically shoulders that move to make up for the lack of hip rotation.
The result of this is a spine the twists through a stroke, putting pressure on your back muscles as the actively try to wrench your spine into an unnatural position. By twisting your spine rather than rotating you will utilise only one side of your back muscles at a time and then the other as you try to twist your spine one way and the other. This constant tug of war tires these muscles out until eventually one will decide enough is enough and tell you through pain or even spasm (crooked/cant stand up).
If you rotate, both sides of your back are active at the same time and instead of a back and forward tug of war going on around your spine, both sides work to support each other and brace you, not dissimilar to wearing a back brace.
So the answer. Free your hips up in the ski. Rotation is limited by how much you can rotate your hips, not your shoulders. Brace you core and hold on to your hips as they move, your abs are not meant to make movement, only translate movement.
Poke the other side
Everyone with a sore/tight lower back always wants to stick their thumb in it and start poking around. Unfortunately that sore lump is already having a bad day and pushing your thumb or massage ball into it as hard as you can isn't going to help it feel better as soon as you move again.
A lot of the time you may end up finding the culprit responsible for that pain in your back on the front of your body, with my first suspect to check in with always being your hip flexors. Paddling is obviously a seated sport and holding yourself upright while you paddle with your legs in front of you engages your hip flexors in an already shortened position. Repeated paddling sessions coupled with the amount of time most people spend in a seated positions means your hip flexors can become overactive and strong, and basically they are constantly trying to pull you forward.
Your back muscles that are hurting are usually the muscles in your lower back that work against your hip flexors to hold you upright from the other side. This works well until one side is pulling harder than the other. Eventually the weaker or neglected side starts really struggling to work against the strong side and decides to let you know about it the form of pain.
So take that massage ball and get it to work on your hips and even your lower abs. Stop doing a forward fold to stretch your back out and instead get to work stretching your hip flexors the other way. A half kneeling position and then sinking forwards into your hips might find you are tighter than you thought.
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