Lower back pain can be precipitated by many variables - neurogenic, muscular, ligamentous and skeletal. It is useful to discover where the pain is coming from by using special tests such as hyper extending the back and rotating to the side.
This will let you see if the pain is coming from the nerves being squashed in the foramen.
Despite the cause of the lower back pain, it is a good idea to increase core strength to take any extra weight off the lower back and to feel fitter in general.
Whilst it is usually not serious to experience lower back pain and people can get by with a mild ache in their day-to-day lives, it is common for these mild ailments to dramatically change over night into a very debilitating problem. When this happens it is usually due to the muscles around the spine going into spasm and locking the spine into a twisted position.
When the muscles are locked into this position massage helps to relieve the tension by bowstringing the locked muscle for 30 seconds the muscle will decrease in tension and slowly unwind.
Through both core exercise and massage the symptoms of back pain are lessened considerably.
If your back pain is of the constant chronic kind, it is likely to be a postural problem specifically the result of having an anteriorly tilted pelvis. Pain will be mild and uncomfortable throughout the day only lessening when your sit down or flex your back forward. This kind of pain is usually due to the posterior facets being rubbed together continually during movement. To improve your posture it is necessary to stretch out your hip flexors and lower back muscles by active and passive stretching and also deep tissue massage. Sports massage will both stretch your muscles and massage them as well, which is ideal. After these muscles are massaged it is wise to exercise your glutes and lower abdominal muscles. Both these treatments will bring your pelvis into a posterior tilt, which will take the pressure off your posterior facets and onto your spine.
If massage doesn't work and the pain is still constant the best way of dealing with your back pain is to get an MRI or CAT scan, whilst these are an integral part of the diagnosing process they do commonly show structural problems within the spine whether the client is in pain or not and so is by no means a 100% way of diagnosing the exact involvement.