I have known many people with back pain, and many people who treat back pain. I have studied many techniques for many years myself.
Across all my friends I have seen the results of tai chi (several types), yoga (several types), traditional chinese bone setting, acupuncture, many types of massage, alexander technique, qi gong routines, weigh training, osteopathy, surgery and lots more. I think there's a lot of evidence people should try to avoid surgery.
Two people I respect who had tried everything else rave about "Pain Free" by Pete Egoscue.
The reason for my comment is that in my experience, back pain is treatable much more often than people think. But no one thing seems to work for everybody. And the level of talent and expertise of the instructor/healer is usually more important than the label someone gives to their modality.
So if you are in pain, keep investigating! Keep trying different things! And don't fall in to the "x didn't work." fallacy. A different practitioner might do the job even if they say they are doing the same treatment.
And if something works, it will work fairly quickly and shouldn't need ongoing expensive treatment by the same person indefinitely. This stuff is usually solvable.
I suffered from chronic pain in all of my major joints - hips, lower back, knees, ankles and shoulders. I went to doctors who fobbed me off as not suffering enough to be worthy of examination.
Egoscue's book was the only thing that described what I was going through. He describes how issues in one part of the body can have a knock-on effect on the rest of it. The exercises really helped relieve the pain for me.
After a couple of years the pain started to go away. I had taken a month off work to travel. When I came back I started making a conscious effort to worry less and stress less. I think there's a mind-body connection with these things that is not well understood.
Backing this up, here's my personal journey:
I had back pain for a few years that has been basically gone for six months. A combination of these helped:
* daily inversion (Teeter Gravity Boots on a pull-up bar—I actually pull down on the door frame while inverted for extra decompression)
* daily yoga (at home, from YouTube videos)
* using a standing desk most of the time
* Rolfing about once every eight weeks (type of massage focused on aligning fascia. It's pricey and a little pseudoscience-y but actually works really well)
If there's one thing of all those that's made the most difference, it's inversion. I feel so tall now. Seriously, invest in an inversion table or inversion boots if it's safe for you to do this exercise.
My posture is still not where I want it to be, but it's much better than it used to be. I still get tight in the neck (likely due to poor sleep posture). I had chronic pain in my left foot (likely plantar fasciitis) that disappears but comes back about once every two weeks. Both have gotten much better with some targeted yoga exercises, but it's a journey.
I'm slowly going through the book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back by Esther Gokhale (https://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-Should...). The author studied posture in industrial vs. non-industrial societies, and she concluded that most pain is not inevitable. We have just forgotten about the importance of posture in industrialized societies. The book gives you eight sessions to practice primal posture for sleeping, standing, and sitting. I'm thinking about investing $400 in the Gokhale Method in-person course.
I now prioritize flexibility over strength. 20-40 minutes of yoga per day is a large commitment, but it's worth it. I'm still basically as strong as I was when I did CrossFit, even though my "exercise" is limited to yoga, basic bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and inverted sit-ups, and long, meditative walks.
Finally, I make some lifestyle choices around posture. For example, always getting an aisle seat for flights longer than 3 hours, so I can easily get up to stretch and walk around. Choosing a more-supportive chair at a restaurant over a slouchy booth. Not reading in bed often.
If you have back pain, maybe something here will be worth trying to you. Keep at it!
Across all my friends I have seen the results of tai chi (several types), yoga (several types), traditional chinese bone setting, acupuncture, many types of massage, alexander technique, qi gong routines, weigh training, osteopathy, surgery and lots more. I think there's a lot of evidence people should try to avoid surgery.
Two people I respect who had tried everything else rave about "Pain Free" by Pete Egoscue.
The reason for my comment is that in my experience, back pain is treatable much more often than people think. But no one thing seems to work for everybody. And the level of talent and expertise of the instructor/healer is usually more important than the label someone gives to their modality.
So if you are in pain, keep investigating! Keep trying different things! And don't fall in to the "x didn't work." fallacy. A different practitioner might do the job even if they say they are doing the same treatment.
And if something works, it will work fairly quickly and shouldn't need ongoing expensive treatment by the same person indefinitely. This stuff is usually solvable.