here's the routine that helped my lower back: squats, stomach crunches for lower abbs, crunches for obliques, crunches for upper abbs, lower back extensions on a machine or good mornings.

you also have to stretch well, so i would recommend talking to a physio or a sports massage specialist.

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 To update on this, coming to the end of my medical degree now!  I think the core strength exercises are the way to go, yeah if you have really persistent or severe problems get them checked by a GP but if nothing serious is found then things as simple as press ups, sit up and the plank really seem to make a difference to me, I can tell when I haven't been doing them.

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I think chiropractor can solve that type of problems you should try there.

                                                                                                                                 Chiropractor Suwanee GA

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• Scoliosis
• Bone Spurring
• Disc protrusion
• Disc degeneration
• Facet Joints
• Vertebra

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Hi again.

I think Raystrach may be on a correct path.  Chiropractors are a bit like quacks, you might strike a good one every now and them, but from my studies of the subject, Chiropractic medicine just doesn't work.   Most chiropractic patients I have known through football and other back/shoulder and ankle injuries just continue to blindly visit their chiropractor monthly. 

None of these chiropractors ever cure their patients, just put in a type of temporary fix or adjustment.  The point that Chiropractors miss, is that the majority of bone misaligment and joint injuries are soft tissue problems.  It is the ligaments, discs, tendons and muscles that hold your spine in position, not the vertebrae segments themselves. 

Just pushing vertebrae back into alignment does not fix the problem as the soft tissues (ligaments.disks...etc) are  still damaged and will allow the slip to reoccurr again, perhaps the moment the patient steps out the clinic doors.  The only true fix is to strengthen and repair the damaged tissue, so it can hold the joints or vertebrae in place permanently

If you ever let a Chiropractor start to work on your spine and they don't make you get an X-ray before they start manipulation, just get up and walk out the door, because they are a quack. Any practitioner that will work on a spinal column without an x-ray to help guide them or diagnose the problem  is likely to do your spine some serious damage and possibly render you a cripple for the rest of your life.

I've known such Chiropractors and know of patients whose lives they have ruined.

Once I was a patient of such a quack, who was considered a very reputable chiropractor who dealt a lot with sports injuries, but after many visits to fix a so-called misaligned vertebrae and paying $45 per 10 minute visit, I decided to consult a friend of mine who is a physiotherapist, he immediately requested an x-ray of my spine and concluded that  neither he, nor the chiropractor could help me as the problem was a prolapsed disc.  If it wasn't for him, I would probably still be paying lots of money to the chiropractic weasel monthly.   And worse still, I would probably be a paraplegic/quadraplegic or even dead from his false manipulations. 

You are much better to put your trust in a physiotherapist as they understand soft tissue problems.  But, they should also get x-ray evidence of your injury before proceding with any manipulation. 

So be wary and take great care.

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Personally I've been visiting a chiropractor for the past 18 months after suffering from a particularly nasty curvature of the spine. I was in absolute agony despite "being strong as an ox" as my chiropractor put it.

In my case strength wasn't the issue as it was the alignment that was causing the damage. I've met many people who suffer from muslce pain in the lower back (particularly at the same height as their belly-buttons).

One nice simple exercise to help relieve the pressure is sit on a stool with your arms held out from your body at shoulder height (like a crusafix position) and bend your arms so that you hands come into your chest. Now relax your shoulders so that there is little tension in the upper part of your body. Rotate from side to side, slowly at first and build up the total angle turned over around 10 to 20 swings to each side. Do this between games and at the start and end of the match. You should find that your back will suffer less pain.

Use cat-stretches to warm up and down your back to help prevent stiffness the next day -

This is where you begin on your hands an knees. Puch your lower back towards the ceiling, then dip your shoulders towards the floor before pushing your weight onto your arms and stretching your shoulders towards the ceiling whilst pushing your hips to the floor (your legs will straighten whilst you do this. Repeat about 10 times.

Yes I do apologise for the very poor description, but if anyone reading this know what I mean and can explain it better, then  please do!

Adz

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A couple of friends of mine have extremely strong and enduring backs.  They are both do rowing but of different types. One is a whitewater kayaking expert and the other is part of a racing team.  I get back pains and sore, occasionally after about 3 hours of squash, these blokes never seem to have any pains.  But that could be fitness, rather than strength.  In theory, strengthening routines will improve the function of the larger and quicker  "Fast Twitch" muscles that help protect the weaker "Slow Twitch" muscle tissue from tearing easily.  It also improves the speed of overall muscle movement.   The old saying that having big muscles can slow you down is just totally false.   This strengthening of the muscle tissue is one of the treatments that has been successfull for RSI recovery.

As the previous extremely wise reply stated, get a gym membership and train under a qualified instructor.

I'm not so wise and thinking of taking up rowing as a second sport. 

But I think I'll have to learn to swim properly first.

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