Baby Got Back...Trouble

If you do too, you're a member of a very large, not very fun club. You don't even get a T-shirt when you join! But you do get this advice on how to manage the pain that affects most of us at some point in our lives.

- AMY MACLIN

IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged (by most spine specialists, anyway) that if you're an adult, you either have had back trouble, will have back trouble, or are having back trouble right this minute. According to a study in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, an estimated 80 percent of people in the United States will experience lower back pain at least once-but Brett A. Freedman, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, believes the figure is actually closer to 100 percent. "Part of understanding back pain is understanding that it's part of being human," Freedman says. In fact, a Mayo Clinic study found that it's one of the top three reasons people go to the doctor (after skin issues and joint pain).

Why do most of us have painful, er, backstories? For one thing, it's the price we pay for walking upright. "Our spine looks straight when we're born," Freedman says. "When we start to walk, our body naturally adjusts our alignment to provide more flexibility and support, which is how we wind up with the classic S shape."

Though humans' signature standing posture has come in handy for throwing spears, carrying babies, and pushing carts around Target, it puts stress on our spines, especially in the lower back, or lumbar region. Plus, we did our backs no favors by inventing the chair: Sitting tightens our hip flexors and lower back, weakens our legs and glutes, and compresses the spinal disks, the cushioning shock absorbers between our vertebrae.