What is the pattern of your pain?
An important question I learnt to ask from the work of Professor Stuart McGill.
The most important step in a successful lower back rehab program is to understand what is actually causing your pain. Approach this task from the idea that your back is not weak, but rather over-worked.
What are the posture and movement habits that cause your lower back to become over-worked and irritated?
If you start the day well and it becomes worse as the day continues, what are you doing during the day? What can you change to begin desensitising the back to pain?
If you feel worse first thing in the morning, and feel better as the day goes on…you will likely have an instability problem that needs to be solved.
The patterns will give you vital clues that you MUST take heed of. So keep a diary and see what you learn about your pain, as knowledge is power!
I’ve got a basic pain diary template available for download here:
brianellicott.com/downloads/PainDiary.pdf