Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Después de caminar mucho, me duele la espalda y necesito estirarla. - After walking a lot, my back hurts and I need to stretch it.

Después de caminar mucho, me duele la espalda y necesito estirarla.

After walking a lot, my back hurts and I need to stretch it.

Breakdown of Después de caminar mucho, me duele la espalda y necesito estirarla.

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Questions & Answers about Después de caminar mucho, me duele la espalda y necesito estirarla.

Why is it después de caminar and not después caminar or después que caminar?

In Spanish, después de acts as a preposition when it’s followed by a noun or an infinitive:

Después de caminar = After walking
Después de la cena = After dinner

You must include de in this structure. Without de, después caminar is incorrect.

If what follows is a full clause with a conjugated verb, you normally use después de que:

Después de que caminé mucho, me dolía la espalda.
After I walked a lot, my back hurt.

So:

después de + infinitive / noun
después de que + conjugated verb

Why is caminar in the infinitive instead of something like caminando?

In Spanish, after a preposition like de, you normally use:

a noun (después de la caminata)
or an infinitive (después de caminar)

You cannot use the gerund (-ando/-iendo) after a preposition the way English uses -ing:

❌ después de caminando mucho
✅ después de caminar mucho

So caminar is in the infinitive because it’s the verb governed by the preposition de.

What is the role of mucho in caminar mucho? Could I say caminar muy?

Mucho here is an adverb meaning a lot / a great deal, and it modifies the verb caminar:

caminar mucho = to walk a lot

You cannot say caminar muy by itself, because muy must modify an adjective or another adverb:

caminar muy rápido = to walk very fast
❌ caminar muy (incomplete / wrong)

So:

mucho can modify both verbs (trabajar mucho, caminar mucho) and adjectives (muy cansado is different).
In this sentence, mucho simply intensifies the action walking.

Why is it me duele la espalda and not yo duelo la espalda or mi espalda duele?

The verb doler doesn’t work like to hurt in English; it behaves like gustar:

Me duele la espalda.
Literally: The back hurts me.

Grammar structure:

me = indirect object pronoun (the person affected)
duele = verb (3rd person singular)
la espalda = subject (the thing that hurts)

So we say:

Me duele la espalda. (My back hurts.)
Me duelen los pies. (My feet hurt.)

You don’t normally say yo duelo in standard Spanish; yo duelo la espalda is incorrect in this sense.
You can say mi espalda duele, but it sounds much less natural and is rarely used in everyday speech compared with me duele la espalda.

Why is it la espalda and not mi espalda?

With body parts and clothes, Spanish normally uses:

an indirect object pronoun to show whose body part it is
a definite article (el, la, los, las) before the noun

So:

Me duele la espalda. = My back hurts.
Me lavo las manos. = I wash my hands.
Le cortan el pelo. = They cut his/her hair.

Using mi espalda here:

Me duele mi espalda.

is grammatically possible but sounds redundant or overly emphatic in most contexts. Native speakers almost always prefer la espalda with me.

Why is it duele and not duelen?

Doler agrees with the thing that hurts, not with the person who feels the pain.

Me duele la espalda.
Subject: la espalda (singular) → duele (singular)
Me duelen los pies.
Subject: los pies (plural) → duelen (plural)

So:

Singular body part → duele
Plural body parts → duelen

Why is the pronoun attached at the end in necesito estirarla? Could I say la necesito estirar instead?

With two-verb constructions like necesitar + infinitive, object pronouns can go in two places:

Before the conjugated verb:
- La necesito estirar.
Attached to the infinitive:
- Necesito estirarla.

Both forms are grammatically correct and natural. In practice, attaching the pronoun to the infinitive (estirarla, hacerlo, verlo) is very common and often sounds smoother in speech.

So:

Necesito estirarla.
La necesito estirar.

mean the same thing: I need to stretch it (my back).

Why is the pronoun la in estirarla and not lo?

The pronoun must agree in gender and number with the direct object it refers to.

la espalda is feminine singular
→ direct object pronoun: la → necesito estirarla

If the noun were masculine singular, you would use lo:

el brazo → necesito estirarlo
el cuello → necesito estirarlo

For plurals:

las piernas → necesito estirarlas
los hombros → necesito estirarlos

Could I say necesito estirarme la espalda instead of necesito estirarla?

Yes, but the nuance is slightly different.

Necesito estirar la espalda / necesito estirarla.
Focuses on the body part as a direct object: I need to stretch my back.
Necesito estirarme.
More general: I need to stretch (myself), without specifying which part.
Necesito estirarme la espalda.
Uses both a reflexive pronoun (me) and a direct object (la espalda): I need to stretch my back (on myself).
This is common and natural in colloquial Spanish.

All three are understandable and correct in context; the original sentence simply chooses the more direct object-focused version.

Is caminar the most natural verb in Spain, or would people say andar?

In Spain, both verbs exist, but usage differs slightly:

caminar = to walk (neutral, often a bit more formal or used in written language, and very common in Latin America)
andar = very common in Spain for to walk in everyday speech:
- Después de andar mucho, me duele la espalda.
  sounds very natural in Spain.

In Spain, andar also has extra meanings like to go / to be:
¿Cómo andas? (How are you?), Ando ocupado. (I’m busy.)

So the original Después de caminar mucho… is perfectly correct and natural; many Peninsular speakers might also say Después de andar mucho….

Why is there a comma after mucho: Después de caminar mucho, me duele la espalda…? Is it necessary?

The comma separates an introductory clause from the main clause:

Después de caminar mucho, = time frame / condition
me duele la espalda y necesito estirarla. = main statement

In Spanish, it’s standard and recommended to put a comma after introductory phrases like:

Después de comer, vamos al cine.
Cuando termino de trabajar, salgo a correr.

In very short sentences, people sometimes omit the comma in informal writing, but here it’s good style and helps readability. It’s considered correct and preferable to include it.

The main verb is in the present (me duele, necesito), but después de caminar refers to something that already happened. Is that okay?

Yes. In Spanish (and in English) you can use the present tense to describe situations that typically happen:

Después de caminar mucho, me duele la espalda.
= Whenever I’ve walked a lot, my back hurts / My back hurts after I walk a lot.

You’re describing a general, habitual relationship:

action: caminar mucho
consequence: me duele la espalda y necesito estirarla

So even though caminar refers to something that happens before the pain, using the present tense for the main clause is completely natural when you’re talking about a regular pattern.