| I have significant back problems too and losing weight has not fixed them, but its not disc degeneration, its muscular/postural/biomechanical and in years we've never managed to get to the bottom of what is causing it. I get pain in my actual back but more concerningly, my toes on my right foot alternate between feeling like they're broken and being numb, and I have typical sciatic symptoms - pain down the back of the thigh and in the buttock. I still run regularly, and manage it with acupuncture and physio, its just part of my life, keeping my back in shape. I notice when I dont run, that my back feels better initially then I stiffen up and get worse. Most times when I run, I feel sciatic pain down to my foot for the first few minutes, then it goes as I warm up, then sets in badly when I cool down. I plan my runs for the night for this reason, I can sleep off the discomfort and am OK in the morning.
I figure I have two choices, back pain but be thin and fit or backpain and be fat and inactive.
One thing that really helps me is to treat it like its what's known as piriformis syndrome (soemthing some practitioners recognise and other's dont believe exists). I stretch out those buttock muscles aggressively and hard and I roll around on a tennis ball every day, its like deep tissue massage. If I've missed a few days, the pain of doing this is quite honestly worse than childbirth, that's how tight and adhered I get in there. But doing it regularly really reduces my symptoms.
Have a try, get a tennis ball, lie on a hard floor and put it under your buttock, roll around on it a bit and find the sore spots. You'll be able to really tell whether its a muscular problem - but dont put the ball under your spine.
__________________ Jacqui
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