Best harness to stop lower back pain

[Chris1973]

Has anyone used a seat harness comfortable and functional enough for wave riding???

[lenker]

My problem is I am now suffering from lower back problems.

You need to address this ASAP buddy....

Start with these simple exercises...

These are the exercises I used to have to do to stop back pain when I was still an office wreck. The reason given then was that I had no strength in my muscles - which was true. Ten years forward I'm a very fit kiteboarder but today after a fairly radical three hour session my lower back hurt so bad like back in my office days. Very difficult to get up from a chair, can't bend forwards without massive pain, etc...

All of this leads me to my current theory that while kiteboarding really trains the muscles in your abs, legs and arms well, it actually has very little impact on the back's muscles (the ones exercised in the picture above).

Like I said, it's only a theory of mine, I'm neither a doctor nor a physician so excuse my pseudo-science Nevertheless, is there maybe some truth to this? Should all serious kiteboarders do these exercise to compensate?

[Peter_Frank]

Has anyone used a seat harness comfortable and functional enough for wave riding???

I have no problems using ANY seat harness for waveriding

It adds another perspective of freedom in your upper body, which is really great when riding waves, as you can turn and twist your upper body much more and more free - I really like that

Of course, you will limit your lower body twist/freedom slightly - but IMO it all outbalances quite well

I use a waist myself for waveriding most of the time now, but that is because of other reasons

Peter

[dksurfer]

Seat!

[Chris1973]

Peter, doesn't the seat harness restrict your movement and eventually make it more difficult to ride comfortable going toeside?
I 'm asking because in the last two years i'm most of the time on my surfboard and although my waist harness feels comfortable for that an older back injury will make my lower back feel a little sore and stiff the night after (not during the session) and i was thinking of useing a dakine nitrus i have somewhere for a change. Maybe even give that dynabar a go.

[Windrider]

Peter, doesn't the seat harness restrict your movement and eventually make it more difficult to ride comfortable going toeside?
I 'm asking because in the last two years i'm most of the time on my surfboard and although my waist harness feels comfortable for that an older back injury will make my lower back feel a little sore and stiff the night after (not during the session) and i was thinking of useing a dakine nitrus i have somewhere for a change. Maybe even give that dynabar a go.

Definitely give the Dynabar a go. I've been using it for about 2 years now with my seat harness. No comparison in the range of motion. The Dynabar makes toe-side a breeze.

[poldo]

coming to the topic there are seat harness without back support and some with. this change sooo much in force distribution (and pain problems) and there also waist harness with seat addiction (Warrior, Ocean Rodeo and other more) that have main load on the back area but also some vertical force is in the seat part. I had a seat harness with no back support and whereas it works is not best choice for back problems. Never tied but Nitrous seems to me not to have back support .

about seat and wave riding. I use both and for sure in wave riding to have the pelvis free is a plus (look at a surfer riding a wave), so I would suggest a waistor a waist-seat. If for some reason should tick to a seat (but I cant' see really why), a Dynabar is really suggested in order to gain some freedom

harness is a very important part of the package, I've tried one waist with a good name but it fits no well to me and riding is really bad affected (and session are shorter), so it's good to try and compare. now I've just bought the new Shadow and will look how it perform next spring

[Pippi langsamer]

I'd agree the board-short "seat" harnesses don't really offer much in terms of actual back support. They will however take a lot of the load off your lower back that a waist harness would exert.

I'm currently riding with the ION B2 board-short harness which I have to say is superb. Much better quality than the Dakine Nitrous. My friends Nitrous shorts are torn already after one season.

Looking forward to getting abck onto the wasit harness though when fully recovered. I tried the ION apex waist harness on last weekend (with some load from the shops ceiling mounted hook), and that felt darned comfortable too.....

[Windrider]

Seat harnesses don't have to provide back support. Some do. Some don't. But the problem with waist harnesses is that they focus pressure on your lower/middle back and rib cage. All a seat harness has to do is focus the pressure on the area of your body designed to handle it.

Think about hanging in the air for any length of time. Would you rather have your body weight supported by your pelvic area or by your waist? The space between the top of your pelvis and the bottom of your rib cage is not designed to support your body weight under stress. It's simple physics.

[Chillbay]

Seat harnesses don't have to provide back support. Some do. Some don't. But the problem with waist harnesses is that they focus pressure on your lower/middle back and rib cage. All a seat harness has to do is focus the pressure on the area of your body designed to handle it.

Think about hanging in the air for any length of time. Would you rather have your body weight supported by your pelvic area or by your waist? The space between the top of your pelvis and the bottom of your rib cage is not designed to support your body weight under stress. It's simple physics.

I know what you say to be true, but, if the harness spreads over the lower (pelvis) and upper part (bottom of rib cage) then thats great, not all waist harness's do this, but some do, so you get the support and the freedom.

I have been pulled quite violently at times, at the time stated I had been wearing the nitrous shorts, so not strictly a seat harness but with a low hook, and this has pulled pretty dead centre on my body, nearly folding me in half where my feet have nearly touched the back of my head!
Moving the hook upwards, the pull can still be the same but the load is moved up the body, so if you have the right harness its damage limitation.

So me, moving from a shorts harness to a waist was a big improvement. Like everyone says’ it’s a personal thing, definitely don’t buy without trying. I got the shorts harness on-line, I got the waist harness in a shop after trying on loads, the guys in S2AS were very patient with me, and steered me away from harness’s know to be a little hard on the body, big thanks to Alex in Hythe