Lower back pain has a way of making itself the center of everything. Sitting gets uncomfortable. Picking things up requires a strategy. Training gets shelved. If you have been managing it with heat packs and painkillers and waiting for it to pass, you are not alone, and most people at that stage already suspect the heat pack is not a plan.
What causes lower back pain?
You may have had imaging that showed disc bulges or degeneration, or a report worded to sound more alarming than the finding deserves. Those findings turn up in plenty of people with no pain at all, which is worth knowing before the scan report keeps you up at night. Imaging is one input. Back pain can come from several places, the joints, the discs, the hips refusing to do their share, so we assess how your back behaves under load, how your hips and thoracic spine contribute to the pattern, and what your work or training keeps asking of the back. It is rarely the only thing involved.
How is lower back pain treated?
Treatment is progressive and exercise-based. We find the movement patterns loading the back beyond what it can currently handle and build strength around them. Sometimes that is hip and core work to share the load. Sometimes it is thoracic mobility, because stiffness above forces the lower back to compensate, and almost always it ends with loading through the movements your day or your sport actually contains. As capacity climbs, the plan climbs with it.
Who can help
Any of our physiotherapists can assess and treat lower back pain. If yours is specifically connected to lifting or gym training, TJ Chen can assess how your squat, deadlift, and overhead mechanics are loading the spine. If your lower back pain has been persistent and has not responded to general treatment, Ivan Tam brings a mechanical diagnosis approach to spinal assessment and can identify directional patterns that guide loading. If your back pain comes from grappling or contact training, Daniel Ng understands the spinal loading those disciplines demand.