You younger folks on here need to really take care of your back and spine. You do not ever want to start dealing with this crap.
Don't let yourself get overweight, exercise and if you do play football you are asking for problems later on in life.

You
Just can't get the young to understand.

Dad told me, concrete work would make me an old man. I thought he meant I would live longer.

I never found concrete work to be so hard on the back. Now, the knees, are a different story!

I can vouch for the back problems suck. Too many years of concrete forms have taken thier toll on me. I now only do layout and elevation control work.
I try to tell the younger guys to be careful, lift properly, and life is better with hydraulics!i hope you get to feeling better!!!

Roofing earned my bad lower back.

I'm glad the stretches and exercises they told me to do 30 years ago have kept my back from blowing a disk again
My friend has had 2 back fusions, it is horrible to recover from, but better than not fusing it

I fractured a vertebrae in high school and have had lower back problems since. Pitched in college with it giving me problems off and on. In my mid 30s now and a couple years ago started using kettlebells doing primarily swings and a couple other things. Also use an inversion table regularly. Lifes better doing these two things.

Back problems are terrible. I have to be very careful with what I do. Since I stopped sitting on my wallet my back is less troublesome. That's not the cause but just an aggregation

i'm sure the younger folks will listen as well as you did Sheepdog

Many of the jobs that ruined the backs of previous generations are done by machines now. Growing up I unloaded produce out of semis all by hand, 100,000 lbs some days. My back should be shot but I've been lucky so far.

Not just your back keep setting conis with your hands and it will catch up to some of you later in life! Along with jumping out of the truck on the knees and freezing your hands a lot it will get you one way or another some day.

I worked off tall extensions ladders all my life. The doctor said that is where my sciatica comes from. That and riding rigid framed Harleys and lifting real heavy, awkward things without help.

44 years of being a mason is not good for your back either.

Bad backs really suck!!! That is a correct statement, but you couldn't tell me a thing like that when I was younger. I was tough, strong and a go-getter. I worked hard. Since before I was 10 I was tough as nails working on the farm. I watched my Grandparents get old and suffer in pain from bad knees, hips, and backs. My dad was killed when I was 15 so I don't know how he would have been in old age but mom has had both knees (runs in my family)replaced and suffers from a bad back. Now in my 60s I have knees bone on bone, doc said my one hip is shot. And I am getting spinal stenosis....... plus bad arthritis in my lower back. Slows me down some days pretty good. Some folks want me to start letting the doc's try to fix me up. Some say they tried that and the operations didn't work. Guess I'll have some pain in my "golden years" as hard work all my life had something to do with that. But If I had to do it over again I'd rather work hard than slide thru life sucking off the government!!

Neither is being a Marine for 23. Lol.

I have been blessed with no back problem yet in life. A tired back from running a shovel all day but nothing more then that. I do feel bad for people with bad backs it can restrict a person from a job etc. Not good.

My dad had back surgery 55 years ago he turned out very good with no issues for the rest of his life. I know it was a 50/50 deal for him but now they have came along ways with back surgery since then.

I had 2 herniated disc years ago, got lucky with no surgery, I watch very carefully what n how I lift things. I saw my mother n sister suffer with bad backs.

I had a total knee replacement surgery. April 10th,,,I guarantee you that was not fun at all,,,never had such pain

I didn't listen in regards to my knees but my sophomore year playing varsity football and starting both ways is when I got messed up. I recovered an onside kick and the play was blown dead. Some big joker from the other team speared me right in the top of my helmet after the whistle while I was on the ground. ended up with two vertebrae fractures, C6 and L5. I Woke up in the ambulance headed to the ER and then on to Houston Hermann. I didn't play anymore after that other than kicking field goals my senior year.