r/backpain

alright so a few days ago i posted about how my back pain basically disappeared and a lot of you asked what i actually did. promised i'd write it up so here it is.

before i get into the exercises i want to explain what was actually happening in my body because without understanding this the exercises are just a random list and you'll probably quit after a week like i did multiple times.

when you sit all day your hip flexors, the muscles that run from the front of your hips up to your lower spine, get shortened and locked into the position your chair puts them in. when that happens your glutes on the opposite side basically stop activating. they're compressed all day, never loaded, never stretched, so they check out completely. your lower back then has to cover for both of them every time you stand, walk, bend or twist. that's why it hurts. that's why it keeps coming back even when you rest it. you're not resting the problem. you're just giving the compensation a break.

the fix is not stretching more. it's unlocking the hip flexors first so the glutes can actually fire, then waking the glutes up properly, then getting your back to move through its full range again. the order matters more than the exercises themselves. i got that wrong for a long time.

what i actually did

the first thing every single session before anything else - backward walking

just walk backwards around your living room or down a hallway for 5 minutes. sounds ridiculous but every time you sit your ability to extend your leg behind you gets weaker and walking forward doesn't fix it because your stride shortens to match your tight hips. walking backward forces full hip extension with every step. it's the one thing i do before every session without exception and on days i skip it i feel the difference immediately.

hip flexor lunge stretch

step one foot forward into a lunge and drop your back knee to the floor. front knee directly above your ankle. now tuck your pelvis slightly forward until you feel a deep pull at the front of the back leg's hip. hold it and breathe into it. don't rush. 45 seconds each side.

this comes before everything else because if your hip flexors are still locked short your glutes physically cannot contract properly no matter what you do next. you're fighting your own body. i did this wrong for months by stretching after the glute work and wondered why nothing changed.

once this felt easy i progressed it by elevating my back foot on a couch or chair behind me. that dramatically increases the stretch and starts targeting the deeper hip flexor muscle that attaches directly to your lumbar spine. when that muscle is tight it is literally pulling on your lower back every moment you stand or walk.

slow glute bridge

lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor. 3 seconds to push your hips up, 2 second hold at the top, 3 seconds to lower back down. do not just drop. the lowering is as important as the pushing up.

the slow tempo is the entire point. a fast glute bridge just moves your hips up and down. a slow one actually forces the glute to contract and hold which is what reconnects the muscle after years of being inactive. it took me almost two weeks before i could feel my left glute doing anything at all. if you notice one side is weaker or your hips tilt to one side that is your inactive glute telling you exactly why your back hurts more on that side.

3 sets of 10.

once the two leg version felt easy i moved to single leg. same tempo, one foot lifted and extended out straight, push through the heel of the planted foot only. this is where you really find out if both sides are pulling equal weight.

full range back movement

this one surprised me the most because it goes against everything i'd been told.

get on all fours, hands under shoulders, knees under hips. slowly let your belly drop toward the floor, lower back arching, head rising gently. hold 2 seconds. then reverse it completely, round your back toward the ceiling, tuck your chin and pelvis under. hold 2 seconds. move slowly between the two. 3 sets of 10 cycles.

i had been told for years to keep a neutral spine. never round your back. always brace. that advice was making things worse. your lower back muscles get weak and stiff at the ranges they never visit. by locking everything in one position all day i had trained those muscles to be useless everywhere else. once i started moving through the full range instead of bracing everything the stiffness started going away on its own.

later i progressed this to a seated version on the edge of a chair which transfers directly to your time at the desk. then i added a light weight held at my chest to start building actual strength at those ranges rather than just moving through them passively.

ATG split squat

this one is the hardest to learn but it's the most important movement in the whole thing.

stand in a split stance, one foot forward one foot back. if you're just starting elevate your front foot on a step or thick book. lower your back knee slowly toward the floor, letting your front shin travel forward over your toes as far as it can go. the goal eventually is to get the back of your front thigh to touch your calf at the bottom. go as deep as you can without pain and add a little more depth each session.

the reason this works is because it stretches the hip flexor of your back leg deeply under load. not just a passive stretch you hold for 30 seconds but a loaded stretch where the muscle is being lengthened and strengthened at the same time. that's the difference between temporary relief and actual lasting change.

once i could do this comfortably with both feet on the floor i added a pause at the bottom. 3 seconds down, 3 second pause at the deepest point, then push back up. the pause eliminates any momentum and forces the muscles to work from a dead stop at the exact position where the psoas has been causing all the damage.

elephant walk

hands on the floor, legs as straight as you can manage, walk your hands forward 4 or 5 steps and back. that's one cycle. 3 sets of 6.

after years of sitting the entire back of your body, hamstrings, posterior chain, lower back, gets so compressed that bending forward becomes a pain trigger. picking something up off the floor, tying your shoes, loading the dishwasher. this movement lengthens everything through motion rather than a static hold which actually gets the muscles to release rather than just resist. the first time i did it my hamstrings were screaming after 2 steps. by the end of the first week i could walk my hands out twice as far with no pain.

how i structured it

the first couple of weeks i kept it simple. just the hip flexor stretch, slow glute bridge and the full range back movement. short sessions, nothing intense, just reconnecting.

then i started adding load and depth. elevated lunge became foot on the couch. two leg bridge became single leg. all fours back movement became seated with weight. the progression is what made it stick rather than just helping for a few days and fading.

consistency was the real problem for me for a long time. what finally worked was doing it before i opened my laptop in the morning. not after work, not later, before the first email. if it wasn't done by the time i sat down it wasn't getting done. once i locked that in the results came fast. the pain was largely gone within a few weeks of actually being consistent.

the thing i wish someone had told me earlier is that none of this is complicated. the exercises aren't special. what matters is understanding why you're doing them, doing them in the right order and progressing them week by week rather than just doing the same thing forever and wondering why you plateau.

I had a microdiscectomy in December to alleviate severe leg pain caused by a ruptured disk.

4.5 months later my leg still has numbness, muscle tightness,minor sciatica and burning sensation in my butt.

The doctor who performed the surgery said that's normal and to give it some time. I asked for an MRI to see a before and after and he said no.

Not happy with my progress I got a second option and found a doctor that approved an MRI.

MRI showed a reherniation. Doctor said it either reherniated or original doctor didn't get all of the herniation.

Said my options were to live with the pain, get a shot to help with the paid have a fusion surgery to fix it for good.

Has anyone else gone through a similar journey and what did you do?

Ok I’m here to lighten the mood a little. I know everyone that acknowledges this thread is suffering mild to severe and I’m with you. It suck’s and we just have to keep going! But I just want to know for all that wear TENS units…. how many times have you snagged it, dropped it, forgot it was on you, and just straight up get zapped sometimes from an electrode coming loose LOL!!!

my wife calls it my ”Tail”. 3 years of consistent use. sometimes I go a month or so without taking it out sometimes its apart of me for every activity of my life. anyways, just want to get something fun going here and share your most funny, embarrassing, or just straight up frustrating TENS unit incidents.

sometimes I wear mine on an airplane and I think to myself this looks very suspicious and could be taken the wrong way by someone LOL!

I had back pain in the low back so I started doing exercises for it, it stopped the sharp pain pretty quick. Then I had muscle tightness or that achy feeling and as I continued doing my exercises it went away as well in that area but now I have tightness around the thoracolumbar fascia which is close to the top of my glutes, what exactly do I do?

Hi everyone!

When I was 14 I worked at a lemonade stand over the summer where I was required to push a 100lb cart up and down the beach everyday. This caused disc bulging in my L4 L5 and L5 S1. My dad also had this exact same thing happen to him when he was 19 playing baseball, but we weren't aware that degenerative disc disease can be hereditary until my diagnosis. He had surgery at 19 and a second a few years ago.

Im now 19 years old and I have dealt with this pain everyday for 5 years. I've done PT, pilates, 5 steroid injections, back brace, cupping, massages, literally anything under the sun and nothing has worked. Ive been to 3 different doctors but none of them will help. They tell me the exact sentence everywhere I go "This is so horrible for someone so young to be dealing with but we can't do surgery because of your age."

Im in constant pain everyday and although I haven't dealt with any nerve pain i'm still struggling every day to do normal tasks (sitting or standing even for short periods of time). Somedays I wake up and I have pain in my back when I breathe. Im wondering if anyone has had any luck with doctors in the South Carolina area (or literally anywhere im desperate) or know of anything I could do to help.

Ive also had 2 MRIs but it won't let me post a photo for some reason.

Thanks!

I’ve (M28) had lower back pain off and on for years but the past month or two it’s flared up bad. I’ve got a pretty extensive family history of back problems (spinal stenosis, bulging discs, ACDF, etc) all within my parents and grandparents. In other words I feel genetically I’m screwed. I had an xray at urgent care a few weeks back when I could barely walk because of the pain. They noted some degeneration, but nothing huge. Today I went to the spine doctor and they looked at the same xray and said that while one area is mild (L3-L4) my L5-S1 is moderate to severe. They recommended an MRI to get a better idea at what they’re looking at. I just hate to think that my back is going to be messed up for the rest of my life. The doctor said he didn’t want to do surgery because of how young I am and that it could create the need for future surgeries. Anyone else in a similar boat and what have you done?

Would love to hear experiences of people having lidocaine (on its own) and/or combined with ketamine infusions for long term pain.

Thinking of trying these for ongoing intractable pain as I don’t respond well to / poorly tolerate most pain / neuropathic pain etc medication.

Many thanks in advance.

3 yrs ago an excruciating medical nightmare began. (Not sure of relevance but had 3 c sections, single mom of 14, 17, 18 yr old. I also had a radical hysterectomy about 11 yrs ago due to extreme periods, iron deficiency, and severe endometriosis. Ovaries were also covered in scar tissue so removed) I was given little to no education on all of the possible side effects that that surgery would have in my life. It was then that I gained a significant amount of weight although I was not leading a very healthy lifestyle I didn’t change anything and gained 80-100 pounds within a year, . I was never thoroughly educated on hormone replacement therapy and I was put on a very small amount of oral estradiol. For a decade have had an estradiol level in the 15-20s or low 30s ever since and I’ve never been told that that is actually lower than it should be to prevent such things as osteoporosis, degenerative disc disease, etc. )I was then in the best shape of my adult life after being clean and sober long term (past meth/ opiate addict/alcoholic/ on and off smoker) . I lost 100 lbs in 10 months as I decided to adopt a “dirty keto” diet and became obsessed with exercise. I did hiit workouts regularly, lifted free weights, hiked a few miles a day, avid advanced snowboarder, etc. Im not sure how to keep this short. Symptoms first began in RUQ area as stabbing acute horrific throbbing pain, like an organ rupturing or something. I also began losing more weight , though effortlessly which does NOT happen to me. The pain resulted in repeated er trips to both the hospital in my town and neighboring town as I was treated pretty horrifically at my closest local ER. (I sure wish I did not have addiction an mental illness in my history as that has been the biggest hurdle-convincing providers I am not pill seeking, not faking etc) I have a high pain tolerance and this reduced me to screaming and crying to God to save me regularly in front of my children. Every scan under the sun was performed. I had long struggled with chronic constipation/ possible IBS, etc but was so used to that I just learned to deal with it naturally by eating as well as I could /exercise etc. GI symptoms worsened horrifically. All blood work and scans came back normal except slightly heightened liver enzymes. I also had hep c which I took medication and was cured (or in remission )around 10 yrs ago. Gallbladder scans came back normal , however HIDA scan revealed high ejection fraction - I was told hyperkinetic gallbladders can sometimes be the source of these symptoms and pain and agreed to gb removal. I will regret that decision forever. Immediately I awoke and knew that wasn’t it. The pre surgery pain was far worse, also was diagnosed with H pylori and put on horrible quad antibiotics for that which I took before and after gb removal. Gallbladder pathology was perfectly normal .For months I had extreme reflux that tasted like laundry soap, I was dismissed by my primary care as being depressed, hypochondriac etc. My pain then changed to feeling more structural especially in my ribs. I started to be unable to lie on either side of my body comfortably as my ribs seem to sublux underneath each other, and I had extreme pain in my rib cage, also wild, spasms nodules, etc. tons of knots throughout my coat hanger region in a along both sides of my spine, etc. I have had sciatica for 7+ years often on and was used to dealing with it also with exercise, stretching mobility, etc.. I begged my primary care doctor to have my ribs evaluated, and he acted like I was insane that my ribs could not possibly be causing any of my symptoms and that most likely my spine was the culprit. While acknowledging I would like a spinal work up and that I have had issues with my back, I insisted the debilitating pain that caused me to take FMLA from work was mainly throughout my rib cage.. I’ll note that growing up. I often had a wonky rib that would pop in and out during an activities such as toe touches. I really thought nothing of it since it didn’t hurt which sounds really dumb. I also wasn’t a health anxiety ridden, miserable chronic pain patient then though either. It took much begging and multiple different providers to find someone who would do thorough hormone, testing, nutrient, testing, etc. which I found out I had many deficiencies. My estrogen and testosterone were extremely low and I had nonexistent progesterone which I have always been told. I don’t need without a uterus and ovaries. I did find out I have kyphosis. I have been told three different degrees. I believe the last MRI red somewhere around 50° curve of my spine and some DDD. Other than the intermittent sciatica and some lower back pain, I really did not feel the focus should be on my back considering my rib cage was an absolute nightmare. I did a bunch of my own research, of course because I was absolutely denied and gaslit by so many providers. I had now have new set of PTSD and intense fear of clinical settings and doctors in general. I also have had hyperhidrosis since I was 12 a severe case which which I learned to live with over the last 30 years, but it is extreme and has affected my quality of life ever since. Hyperhidrosis as a normal healthy 12 year-old was my first introduction to be gaslit by doctors and completely neglected. I never did learn of any helpful treatments for that condition aside from getting an Iontophorosis device about five years ago which is essentially sending electric current through water into hands and feet, which paralyzes sweat glands and with dry hands and feet remainder of body also sweats less. Any other treatments for hyperhidrosis or medication medications that have horrific side effects. There are no cures. Anyhow. It is so difficult to retail the story and probably no one will read it because we’ll be eight novels long. I was so proud of my heart earned extremely strong body, good health, solid long-term sobriety, success in careers and helping others etc and have lost so much in these 3 plus yrs. I had more spine imaging done. I do have stenosis and lumbar disc degeneration at L4 and five and l5/s1.. was mild initially. With stenosis and mild spondylitis. I was basically told with physical therapy to address my spine issues I would be fine. I agreed to the physical therapy. I got injections in my thoracic spine that made my pain worse. I kept seeing different specialist and begging for my ribs to be evaluated and usually I would be completely ignored/gaslit/accused of seeking pain pills etc. I learned about slipping ribs syndrome via a Facebook support group. I became quite obsessed with desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with me so I could get my life back that I love so much. I ended up seeing a thoracic surgeon in Seattle, who I had found out about via slipping rib syndrome website and also Facebook. I flew to Seattle with my mom and was evaluated by him. He had apparently changed my CT scans that have been done locally to 3-D and explain that I had a healed fractured rib on the right side (6th I believe) that was sticking quite a bit farther out than it should’ve and I was explained that I had what appeared to be spaces between cartilage that should not be there, and that my intercostal nerves could be affected and impinged in healed in injuries and or cracks in cartilage in my ribs. I was convinced to consider a very invasive surgery in which he would clip off parts of some ribs, possibly resect an entire rib or more, then clean out any areas between the cartilage and untangle nerves, then basket weave sutures to stabilize the entire rib cage he also told me that my kyphosis was most likely due to the instability in my rib cage, not my spine and that if I do not get my rib cage fix my spinal issues will worsen. I got plane tickets and was to fly for pre-surgery appointment with him and decided at the last minute to cancel my flight with my mom, as I had learned of many, very poor surgery outcomes from this surgeon. Mainly women, but a couple of men were having to have revisions done and had new fractures because the sutures were too tight. Basically they were worse off than than before, and had an excruciating recovery from the surgery itself. I couldn’t imagine being any worse during this time. I also got on a hormone replacement therapy for the first time in my life from a natural path that insisted my estrogen should be much higher than it had been for a decade since my hysterectomy and recommended a very small amount of testosterone. After getting on these hormones and a very strict gastritis healing diet/supplement regiment I began feeling a little bit better and could start doing some of the things I used to do, although every single day of my life has been painful, I basically resigned to just trying to be as healthy as I could , do as much physical therapy as I could, etc., and see if my symptoms would just get better overtime when I would not need such a scary surgery. All of the rib symptoms come in flares where I will have horrific weeks or months and sometimes a few days here and there where I almost forget I have rib problems, although I have not been able to lie on my right side in over three years as it is worse than the left. I have not ever been able to return to my previous beloved HIIT workouts and exercise regimen, though I continued walking and making sure to do mobility workouts and move my body much every day. Now, in May, it will be a year since I woke up one day with new symptoms. I was at a Housing conference in another town and had gone on a long Bus tour of the city and had spent a lot of the previous day sitting in a very tight spot. I am 5 foot nine and was about 190 pounds at the time which surprisingly is a healthy weight for me. It sounds like it’s quite overweight, but I was lean and muscular and look the best I basically ever have in my adult life before all this. At that Housing conference I woke up in a hotel room with my legs weighing about 2000 metric tons and aching as if I had hiked Mount Everest the day before. I thought perhaps I was getting sick or I was just getting old and things were achy and it would go away. It has been a year in May and my leg symptoms have worsened much. My right leg, especially has had calf weakness, cramping, pins, and needles, intense knee pain, which I have had two sets of injections for even though they told me I had arthritis in the knee, but nothing serious. My thigh, especially in the back but often in front also feels constantly achey and painful and like I am having cramps, but I’m not. I get hip pain as well. I get all of these pains on both sides now but they’re generally worse on the right side still. New imaging of my lumbar spine has proven that my issues in that area have progressed and I have a moderate root impingement worse on the right side than the left. I was told by the spine doctor I was seeing that that could very well be the cause of my leg issues and then had more injections in my lumbar spine that gave me no relief and then had a neuropathy test, which they said I passed and that I do not have neuropathy. Previously to having that test, I had asked if a laminectomy might be an option for me in the future as my father had very similar lumbar MRI, weakness in both legs and had a very successful laminectomy surgery, which was minimally invasive, and he recovered from fantastically and has been great since. Spine doctor said that that could very well end up being an option but at my follow up appointment after having the nerve test and I was told that because I do not have neuropathy and that the injections I received did not give me relief that they could not offer me any surgical options they offered to send referrals to immunology, rheumatology, etc., which I already have referrals into from my newest primary care doctor because she believes that I might have fibromyalgia, EDS, etc although so far I’ve been told my blood work is normal for autoimmune issues and negative for alkalizing spondylitis. In research, I have done an pouring over experiences from people with similar MRI results as me, the right leg issues are quite common, so I was quite devastated that I was given no surgical options as this is now progressed to me being unable to work. I had a very high stress job when this all began working with the homeless population in Housing. I had an extremely huge client load and dealt with the extremely mentally ill often. I decided that the stress of the job might be contributing to my chronic pain and was offered a different position with a different organization, which would be similar, though not as high of stress and not as high of a caseload. Three weeks into the new job I realized that the chaos of my previous job actually had been keeping my pain at bay from what it could have been and I was exactly wrong. Also sitting or standing at my desk all day long at the new job was absolutely excruciating and I highly regretted leaving my previous job where at least was on the move a lot with many duties aside from sitting or standing at a desk/computer. At that point, I did start to seek pain management, and of course have been denied for any opioids from basically every provider I’ve ever seen because of my history of addiction. I had to quit my job as I could not stand the agony anymore. It has been four months since I worked, I’m terrified I will eventually lose everything. I was able to get six months of mortgage assistance and get on Medicaid and food stamps, which I never thought I would have to do again, but I’m grateful for. I had hoped taking some time off work would help me quickly come to a diagnosis and treatment plan to get my life back and be able to go back to work. I am nowhere near any sort of treatment plan. The spine doctor had seen for two years offered no surgical options, I then saw my father’s spine Doctor Who had done his laminectomy, who informed me, he cannot help me and referred me to a very well-known spine doctor for disc replacement surgery. The specific surgeon is well known for doing radical surgeries on almost any patient he ever sees a lot of people locally refer to him as a butcher and have had horrific results from surgeries from him. I was very surprised to be treated quite poorly from my father’s surgeon who really did not explain why i was not a candidate for a laminectomy, but would refer me for a much more invasive scary surgery. It was quite conflicting information than my previous spine. Doctor had told me which was that basically my spine issues are not causing my leg issues and to navigate rheumatology. I still have all of the issues with my ribs, being hypermobile and constantly in pain and feeling like they’re coming out of my back, but I am so used to that at this point I would do anything to have the normal use of my legs back. I recently read a story of a woman who was misdiagnosed for over a year and had blood clot issues in her legs, and I am wondering if I should get evaluated for that at this point I am scared to even ask doctors questions. My new primary care nurse practitioner seems kind and empathetic, however has not sent any referrals since I have seen her and it’s been a few months, does not know much about hormone replacement therapy and I can no longer afford the telehealth specialist that I have been seeing prior. I’ve been basically treating my hormones myself with the injectable E and T I was prescribed by a previous telehealth hormone specialist. Current NP added Prometrium 300 mg my stomach cannot tolerated it and it caused me extreme mental health issues and disrupted my sleep so she recommended rectal administration. I did attempt that for a month and my pain worsened as well as my gastrointestinal issues, worsened and my depression worsened so now I’m just doing 100 rectally of progesterone. I recently saw a pretty horrible story of a woman being misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia, etc., and ended up having had blood clots in her legs. I’m wondering if that is the next thing I should ask about even though I’m honestly terrified to even call my doctor at this point I have been up all night since my legs have been so bad. She is the only doctor in this nightmare Battle that has agreed to prescribe me low dose of a mild opioid pain medication which is extremely mildly helpful but better than nothing. Would it be possible to have blood clots in my legs for almost a year and not know it? And not have ever had a doctor recommend checking for them since my leg symptoms started last May? If anyone has any advice of any of my other issues it would be greatly appreciated. I lost my relationship of 3 1/2 years during this health battle. I have lost the respect of many family members who don’t believe my issues are real or that I am exaggerating them, that I am possibly slipping into old habits, etc. I have lost faith in myself. I am terrified of losing my home that I was so proud to achieve five years ago, etc. I spent my life savings on naturopaths, massage, chiropractic, hormone therapist, physical therapy devices, meeting deductibles, massage etc., until I finally could not work anymore and got on Medicaid. A friend has suggested I apply for disability, which sounds absolutely devastating but at this point I I cannot work. I attempted to just start a part-time job printing T-shirts at a friends shop and could not even handle three hours of running a T-shirt press and stepping to the right to put the shirts as it inflamed all my issues horrifically. It really sucks that so many of us have to look to reddit and or Facebook, etc., for experience and advice because it is so difficult to get any of the providers that I have seen to be willing to take my situation seriously and at times I have started to believe that I deserve to be in this much pain every day of my life because of the past poor choices that I made in younger years. My kids really need me to not give up and I’m doing my best. I could really use a little bit of hope.

(35F) I most likely injured my lower back doing RDLs on Mar 23. I'm no rookie at the gym, I've been going for decades but had taken a 6 month break. Today is Apr 20, so it's been exactly 4 weeks and it hasn't gotten better. At all. I saw a chiropractor on Apr 1 but it didn't help much. She did say it's likely an inflamed disc but I would obviously need to get an MRI done to be sure. I'm between jobs right now and don't have health insurance but oh boy, does it hurt! Has anyone been through the same? I read that the disc usually gets better on its own but I've seen zero improvement so far. It hurts when I bend down, it hurts when I'm sitting, it hurts when I sneeze (!!!). Oy! TIA

I'm usually not the person to post on reddit but im wondering if anyone else is struggling with this same issue..

I sit 8-10 hours a day for my job and before, it wasn't really an issue.

At some point, my back started stiffening up and aching by the end of the day but it would go away as soon as I got up.

But nowadays, the pain persists even after I get up..

Anybody else experiencing this? What are some solutions I can try?

I'm only 32

Lower back has been wrecked for a year. WFH 9 hours a day, early 30s, feeling 80 by 5pm. Already tried a lumbar pillow and a cheap Amazon ergonomic chair — both useless. Ready to actually invest. Few questions: Is the Herman Miller Aeron worth it specifically for back pain? Steelcase Leap V2 — better lumbar support than the Aeron? Are gaming chairs (Titan Evo, etc.) legit for back issues or just marketing? Anything solid in the $400-700 range or do I need to spend $1,000+? For anyone who upgraded to a high-end chair — how long before you actually felt the difference? Rather spend $1,200 once than keep cycling through junk. Any honest long-term experiences appreciated.

I have a permanent knot that appeared several years ago and will. not. go. away. It’s gotten worse over time. My job is making us work from the office 4 days a week, so I’m sitting at my desk more than I did when I was working from home. I’ve noticed that my permaknot is more painful than it used to be, and I’ve got increasing upper back pain and neck tension.

I’ve read good things about cupping and the revo cupper has a bunch of good amazon reviews but wondering if anyone here has used it for chronic knots. Did it help?

i have been dealing with back pain for 3-4 years. it all started with a very aggravated feeling in my si joint area on my left side. after a couple of doctors visits and pt i ended up only finding full relief from the chiropractor. i was set up on an adjustment plan 2-3x per week at first then eventually 1x a week and eventually every 2 weeks and i ended up getting back to normal. this pain was rarely felt in my lower back, mainly in my glutes, hips in my left leg. i believe im having another flare up that’s worse this time, and the pain is starting to creep up into my lower back causing muscle tightness in my lower back muscles and a bruised feeling on the left side of my spine around l4-l5-s1. i can deal with the si pain itself but the tight lower back muscles and lower back pain is driving me crazy. bending forward and sitting on the couch aggravates it. is it possible that my si joint has gotten so bad it’s causing this? i had a si joint injection a week ago and haven’t felt much relief in my lower back. has anyone else ever experienced this? i feel i mainly see pain in glutes, hips, piriformis when it comes to si joint pain. i rarely see people complain about lower back pain accompanied with it

I 22 male had a slight slipped disk yesterday I’m just wondering how long till I can realistically go back to work, my jobs requires decently heavy lifting of machinery but I feel like I can avoid it for the most part but the jobs is overall pretty tiring and requiring lots of walking twisting and bending over.

I have had back pain for two days now after I got like a jolt sting in lower back It hurts so bad I can't get comfortable getting up hurts. Feels so bad have tried everything!!