Think Safety: Lower Back Pain and Kayaking or “Yak Back” is the title of an article that can be found on the New England Kayak Fishing website.
The author, a chiropractor, dubs himself “riddler.”
The article discusses certain aspects of the ‘yak back’ syndrome, its causes, and the dangers of injury.
The article recommends ways to deal with it – primarily exercise, but the more you read it the more you get the feeling that it’s all talk and no substance, basically because the writer ignores the principal cause for the problem, which is the product of kayak fisherman’s own legs pushing his lower back against the backrest.
It appears that at the time this article was written the writer was unaware of the existence of a new solution to this problem, and that’s to quit using sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks, and start fishing from a W fishing kayak.
The article offers a good insight into how the rotational motion typical to traditional kayak paddling is harmful to your lumber spine.
Again, the traditional L posture in sit-in and SOT kayaks offers just one way to paddle, which is to uncomfortably contort your upper body left and right while harming your spine in the lumber area. In contrast, paddling the W kayak does not require such harmful rotational motion, and offers a variety of paddling positions and paddling styles – accordingly, as shown here: Bio-mechanical and Ergonomic Solutions in Kayaks.
