If you are suffering from lower back pain, you are not alone. Roughly four out of five Americans suffer at least once in their lives from lower back pain (sometimes called lumbago), often between the ages of 25 and 55.

The lower back region, also known as the lumbar spine, bears most of your body’s weight and stress. Lumbar pain often results from back muscles and ligaments that get strained due to heavy or improper lifting, or following any awkward, sudden motion. You may have cumulative stress due to long-term habits, with one specific event that unleashes the pain. Often, however, there is no obvious cause.

Most back pain can be helped or even eliminated with self-therapy, whereas more serious and ongoing conditions can be addressed by seeing a doctor, a physical therapist, or specialists in a wide range of alternative modalities (e.g., acupuncture) relating to lower back pain therapy.

Physical Therapy: Getting Professional Help to Manage Your Lower Back Pain

Physical therapy helps individuals learn new and effective strategies for managing conditions such as lumbar pain. In many cases, a doctor will refer you to a trained therapist working from an outpatient clinic. However, lower back pain therapy is available in a wide range of settings, including hospitals; fitness and sports facilities; workplaces; schools; nursing homes, and even at private homes, via home health agencies.

Some people with lumbar pain find a therapist via friends and family, or via the Internet or phone book. If you have health insurance, your provider should have a list of physical therapy establishments covered under your plan.

For chronic lower back pain, a physical therapist can design and supervise an individualized exercise program for use at home, with follow-up at regular intervals to monitor progress, and modify program as greater strength and flexibility develops. Often, patients practice exercises during appointments, and receive feedback on physical form and other finer points. Physical therapists can also provide therapeutic bodywork and other forms of movement therapy.

Self-Therapy: Find the Comfort Zone

Most lower back pain does not require surgery. Medication usually provides effective short-term relief, sometimes by using a combination of over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Check with your physician before taking drugs for ongoing pain relief, however. Some medications, even over the counter, may have unwanted and even dangerous side effects.

Ice and heat help some individuals manage back pain, with cold compresses recommended for the first 48 to 72 hours following onset of pain. Ongoing bed rest should not exceed the first 48 hours. After that, the best self-therapy appears to be gentle exercise and regular movement, even a little bit each day, such as the aerobic exercise available by walking, bicycling, swimming, or wading in waist-deep water. In addition to aerobics, stretching and strengthening exercises that move you into comfortable positions are most likely to benefit you. You can find many useful instructional videos by searching YouTube for “back stretches” and “back strengthening exercises.”

To avoid aggravation of lower back pain, avoid these exercises: sit-ups, curl-ups, leg-lifts, toe touches while standing, and lifting of heavy weights above waist level, such as bicep curls or standing military press.

Again, for ongoing pain, your best bet is to see your healthcare provider to discuss an exercise program, and perhaps for a referral to a physical therapist, to ensure that your exercises do not increase your symptoms.