Lower back pain caused by rowing/erging with arched back

[wabbiteh]

I'm 18 years old, and about a year ago I started rowing. At the time, I was told to keep my back straight, and I misinterpreted that as a suggestion to keep my back *perfectly* straight. Long story short, I ended up rowing (and erging) like this:
img405.imageshack.us/img405/7024/ohgodmybackjl0.jpg
img405.imageshack.us/img405/5628/back2lr3.jpg
(sorry, you'll have to copy and paste due to the "new users can't post images" restriction on the forum)
(the second picture is a *slight* improvement [... sort of], but the first is more indicative of how I usually rowed at the time)

After a few months, I started getting pain in my lower back, to the right and left sides of my spine, around those bony "bumps" that can be felt on the back of the pelvis; running up and down the sides of my spine (erector spinae?); and where my spine connects to my pelvis, but only when I bent over or placed myself in certain positions (usually involving back arching). Also, when hanging on a chin-up bar, I can relax the muscles in my back, and it feels like the joint(?) connecting my spine to my pelvis is about to pop, in the same way that one can feel pressure building up before a knuckle or joint pops. And finally, I can feel pain in the muscle used to "arch"/rotate my pelvis (rotate my butt up closer my head) whenever I use that muscle - probably because I was using that muscle constantly while rowing. Essentially, my back is not happy.

I am almost positive that this pain is caused by the arching of my back, as my sister rowed similarly for a while, and complained of the same pain that I first listed (lower back, on the pelvis "bumps"). Unfortunately, I only learned of this after I discovered that I was rowing improperly, and so there was no way to prevent my incorrect posture.

I ended up seeing a physiotherapist for the past 6 months, off and on, doing various stretches that he recommended, but there has been little to no improvement (if anything, things have kept deteriorating). After a break from rowing and erging, my back used to slowly get better, but would quickly deteriorate if I resumed. However, the past few weeks have been a break from all rowing and erging, and there has been no improvement.

I'm heading to see another physiotherapist tomorrow for a second opinion, but I figured that I should give asking this forum a shot just to see if anyone has had a similar experience, or any suggestions.

EDIT: Wow, that's quite the wall of text. Sorry about that

[chgoss]

I'm 18 years old, and about a year ago I started rowing. At the time, I was told to keep my back straight, and I misinterpreted that as a suggestion to keep my back *perfectly* straight. Long story short, I ended up rowing (and erging) like this:
img405.imageshack.us/img405/7024/ohgodmybackjl0.jpg
img405.imageshack.us/img405/5628/back2lr3.jpg
(sorry, you'll have to copy and paste due to the "new users can't post images" restriction on the forum)
(the second picture is a *slight* improvement [... sort of], but the first is more indicative of how I usually rowed at the time)

After a few months, I started getting pain in my lower back, to the right and left sides of my spine, around those bony "bumps" that can be felt on the back of the pelvis; running up and down the sides of my spine (erector spinae?); and where my spine connects to my pelvis, but only when I bent over or placed myself in certain positions (usually involving back arching). Also, when hanging on a chin-up bar, I can relax the muscles in my back, and it feels like the joint(?) connecting my spine to my pelvis is about to pop, in the same way that one can feel pressure building up before a knuckle or joint pops. And finally, I can feel pain in the muscle used to "arch"/rotate my pelvis (rotate my butt up closer my head) whenever I use that muscle - probably because I was using that muscle constantly while rowing. Essentially, my back is not happy.

I am almost positive that this pain is caused by the arching of my back, as my sister rowed similarly for a while, and complained of the same pain that I first listed (lower back, on the pelvis "bumps"). Unfortunately, I only learned of this after I discovered that I was rowing improperly, and so there was no way to prevent my incorrect posture.

I ended up seeing a physiotherapist for the past 6 months, off and on, doing various stretches that he recommended, but there has been little to no improvement (if anything, things have kept deteriorating). After a break from rowing and erging, my back used to slowly get better, but would quickly deteriorate if I resumed. However, the past few weeks have been a break from all rowing and erging, and there has been no improvement.

I'm heading to see another physiotherapist tomorrow for a second opinion, but I figured that I should give asking this forum a shot just to see if anyone has had a similar experience, or any suggestions.

EDIT: Wow, that's quite the wall of text. Sorry about that

What kind of stretching/strengthing excercises did your physiotherapist give you?

also

check this out, note the curved back..
http://www.invernessrowingclub.co.uk/pe ... tufte.html