(Lumbago / Non-Specific Low Back Pain)

This page is for general education only and isn’t a substitute for a professional evaluation. Every case is different — if something here sounds like you, talk to a licensed provider about your specific situation.

Looking for something more specific? This page covers general lower back pain. We’re building out dedicated pages for specific diagnoses soon, including: Sciatica / Lumbar Radiculopathy, Lumbar Disc Herniation, Spinal Stenosis, Facet Joint Syndrome, Spondylolisthesis, Discogenic Back Pain, and Lumbar Muscle Strain. (Not yet linked — check back soon.)

What is Lower Back Pain?

Your back isn’t broken — it’s just not moving the way it needs to, and that’s fixable. Up to 85% of low back pain isn’t tied to one specific injury or structural problem; it’s mechanical, meaning something in how you move and load your spine, hips, and mid-back is driving it.

Our approach: find the cause of the cause. The low back rarely acts alone — a stiff hip or an underused mid-back often pushes the workload onto your low back until it protests. That’s exactly what a movement-based evaluation is built to uncover.

How is Lower Back Pain diagnosed?

We start with your story — when it started, what makes it better or worse, whether it travels down the leg. Then we watch how you actually move: hip mobility, core and glute control, and which positions reproduce your symptoms. That tells us more than a scan ever could.

Imaging isn’t needed for most cases, especially early on — current guidelines don’t recommend it as a first step, and findings like mild disc changes show up constantly in people with zero pain. What matters more is finding your specific movement pattern, which only a hands-on evaluation can do.

How is Lower Back Pain treated?

Staying active with a guided plan beats rest — prolonged rest tends to prolong recovery, not speed it up. A movement-based plan typically includes:

• Restoring hip and mid-back mobility
• Building core and glute strength and endurance
• Retraining the specific movements that reproduce your symptoms
• Gradually reloading what you want to get back to — running, lifting, golf, sport

The plan isn’t generic; it’s built around your exam findings and adjusted as you respond. Injections or surgery are appropriate for a small minority of cases with a clear structural cause that hasn’t responded to real rehab — we’ll tell you plainly if that’s what we’re seeing.

What’s the long-term outlook?

The outlook is genuinely good: about half of people are back to work within two weeks, and roughly 83% within three months. Even longer-standing cases often resolve — recovery is possible at any stage.

The strongest predictor of a good outcome isn’t how bad the pain starts — it’s whether the underlying movement pattern actually gets addressed, rather than just waiting for pain to fade and going right back to what loaded it up in the first place.

Why start with a PT evaluation?

Most low back pain doesn’t require medication, injections, or surgery to resolve — it requires understanding why it’s happening and a guided plan to correct it. Once you understand your specific movement pattern and get expert guidance to address it, you have what you need to get out of pain and Return 2 the activities you care about — without the cost, downtime, or risk that comes with more invasive options.

References

1. George SZ, Fritz JM, Silfies SP, et al. Interventions for the Management of Acute and Chronic Low Back Pain: Revision 2021. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2021;51(11):CPG1-CPG60. doi:10.2519/jospt.2021.0304
2. Van Dillen LR, Sahrmann SA, et al. Movement System Impairment-Based Categories for Low Back Pain: Stage 1 Validation. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2003;33(3):126-142. doi:10.2519/jospt.2003.33.3.126
3. Deyo RA, Rainville J, Kent DL. What can the history and physical examination tell us about low back pain? JAMA. 1992;268(6):760-765. (source for the ~85% non-specific-pathology figure)
4. Hancock MJ, Maher CG, Latimer J, Herbert RD, McAuley JH. Can rate of recovery be predicted in patients with acute low back pain? Eur J Pain. 2009;13(1):51-55. doi:10.1016/j.ejpain.2008.03.007

Nothing on this page is medical advice, and it’s not a diagnosis of your specific situation — think of it as a starting point for understanding what might be going on, not a replacement for being seen. If you’re dealing with this and want an actual answer specific to you, book a free phone consult or reach out — we’re happy to talk before you ever commit to anything.