Patient Success Story Pro Pickleball Low Back Pain: Aanik's Story Dr. Tom Bomberg A pickleball player who trains hard enough to travel the pro tour asks a lot of his lower back, and at some point that back usually speaks up. Aanik called me when his low back started hurting during training blocks, right as he was preparing for tournaments. Aanik lives in Golden Valley, works a weekday desk job, and had gone from picking up pickleball to competing nationally as a pro. I knew him from the courts long before he was a patient, back when I was playing semi-professionally myself. By the time he came in around spring of 2023, he was stacking pickleball on top of lifting, cardio, and conditioning, and his lower back was carrying all of it.Key TakeawaysTHE CHALLENGELower back pain was flaring during pro-level training, and between travel, a desk job, and planning a wedding, he had almost no room in his schedule for appointments.THE TREATMENTOne focused visit of Active Release and myofascial work, manual adjustments to the lower back and hips, and targeted stretching, paired with a home routine using a foam roller and therapy balls.THE RESULTHe kept training and competing, including a second-place singles finish and a deep tournament run during his strongest stretch on the pro circuit. Aanik's schedule was the real constraint, so the plan had to respect it. Rather than build a care plan around frequent office visits he couldn't make, I used our time together to find what was actually driving the pain and then teach him how to manage his own soft tissue between tournaments. That teaching-first approach is the same one I use with every sports injury chiropractor case where travel makes consistency hard.Project SummaryPatient Profile:Professional pickleball player with a weekday desk jobProject Location:Golden Valley, Minnesota — treated at our Plymouth, MN clinicPrimary Objective:Calm the lower back enough to keep training and competing, using back pain relief that fit around a national tournament scheduleTechniques Used:Manual adjustments to the lumbar spine and hips, trigger point work, and Active Release Technique for the erector spinae and glutesKey Outcome:Continued pro play with a runner-up singles finish and a late-round run in another tournamentPickleball Low Back Pain Exam I started where I always start: history, range of motion, and hands on the areas that were bothering him. His erector spinae in the lower back were incredibly tight, and his glute medius was sore on one side only. That one-sided soreness lined up with his backhand swing, which tells you a lot about how the load was being distributed. Pickleball is harder on a spine than people expect. You live in a ready position, you bend to pick up the ball dozens of times a session, and the "just one more game" habit stacks hours onto a body that only tolerates so much. Add lifting and conditioning on top of tournament travel, and the tissue never gets a full reset.Treating the Back Between Tournaments On that first appointment we did Active Release and myofascial release to get the tight tissue to let go, then I adjusted his lower back and hips. We worked his leg through stretching to address the side-to-side asymmetry, and over our time together the hands-on work also included trigger point work on the glutes and low back, a muscle gun to loosen things up, and cupping across the lower back and glutes. Stretching wasn't limited to the back either — we covered shoulders, neck, hips, quads, and hamstrings, because that's what a tournament body actually uses. "it's a great sport for socializing and activity but it's not always the best for our spine and our spinal health" - (Tom, Bomberg Chiropractic) Because I knew his game, I could give pointed instructions instead of generic advice. I showed him how to use a foam roller correctly, taught him therapy ball work so he could do his own soft tissue between cities, and we talked through the stretch therapy and training resources he already had available through one of his sponsors. If you want the fuller menu of what we use in the office, those chiropractic techniques are laid out on our site, and the conditions we see most often are listed under spinal pain treatment.Soft tissue release to the erector spinae and glutes, followed by manual adjustments to the lower back and hips.Results on the Pro Tour Aanik kept playing seriously for several years after that. His strongest stretch came around 2023 and 2024, when he took second place in a singles tournament and reached the late rounds of another. He's still training and still on the circuit, though he's eased off the chase since getting married. I'll be honest about what this case was and wasn't. We had one appointment, and most of the follow-through was his — the roller, the therapy balls, the stretching, done consistently on the road. That's the part people underestimate. I can get a joint moving, but the work you do between visits is what keeps it moving, and he did that work.Playing Pickleball Through Back Pain? We see a lot of pickleball players here in Plymouth, from people who picked up a paddle last summer to athletes competing at a high level. Most of the time the pain isn't mysterious — it's a stiff joint, a one-sided swing pattern, and a body that was asked for one more game than it had in it. Dealing with low back pain that flares every time you play in Plymouth? Let's get your spine checked and build a plan that fits your season.Bomberg Chiropractic15600 35th Ave. N #101, Plymouth, MN 55447Call (763) 450-1755 or Schedule OnlineFrequently Asked QuestionsCan a Plymouth chiropractor help pickleball low back pain?Yes, in most cases. Pickleball back pain usually comes from restricted joints in the lower back and hips plus tight, one-sided muscle patterns from your swing. I check range of motion, feel for the segments that aren't moving, and treat both the joint and the soft tissue around it. Every patient responds differently, so I'd rather see how your body answers over the first couple of visits than promise you a result on day one.Should I stop playing until my back feels better?Usually I ask athletes to ring it back a notch for about a week so we can see how the body responds. Give me a week and two or three visits, and then I can actually tell you what the care plan should look like. One week of not playing benefits you far more than seven weeks of playing hurt.How do I keep my back healthy for pickleball?Get checked before it becomes a problem. A simple check of how your spine is moving — and an X-ray when it's warranted — gives us a baseline and lets me give you specific stretches and exercises to do between appointments. Learning to use a foam roller and therapy balls correctly goes a long way, especially if you play several days in a row.Project Photos