@MinnBobber, FWIW, I've had brief episodes of disabling pain in the lower back for decades. My background's in biomed. As it got much more frequent I had it looked at with several MRIs and some competent consults.
What's happening in my spine is what happens to a lot of us over the years. Degenerative changes. Spurs form on the bone, they can press on nerves and other structures, the disks get stiffer and weak, sometimes they bulge and press on nerve roots. Collapsed disks also cause bone pressure on the nerve roots that control organs and muscles. Looking at any particular MRI, most MDs would recommend surgery to relieve the compression. But the studies show that surgery is usually not effective long term. One reason is because our understanding is incomplete, and many if not most operations of the last 40 years have been doing more harm than good. And most importantly
things in our bodies are constantly changing. Each of my MRIs (taken a year apart) has shown a different situation. Disks spontaneously get better. Even spurs recede. And then another herniation takes place. As I was getting close to saying yes to surgery at L4-L5, the MRI showed the main problem had shifted one level up to L3-L4. An honest neurosurgeon called back surgery a "bread and butter affair" for the profession, and confessed he'd had only a few months' relief from his own first (and last) operation. He said "we cure MRIs". You probably should have some imaging done, but I think my case (with the successive MRIs) is instructive.
An epidural injection of cortisone and lidocaine can help a lot for a few months if you don't do too many and you're not unlucky. My 4th one was not so lucky. I got a blinding headache that landed me on the floor, lasted a couple weeks, and that nobody could explain, as it wasn't due to CSF leakage. Nein danke, no more, for now. Inversion has to be done very gradually, I've seen it help but it could also make things worse.
I'm resigned to having a bad back, and sciatica (referred pain in legs), which can get blindingly painful. The Good Lord gave us pain pills, and cannabis. My magic strain so far is the Sour Diesel family, which is a Sativa, and not as stupefying as most Indicas. For some reason it targets lower spine for me. It only works for 3-4 hours, but it's very welcome. Cannabis can help if you find the right strain, though (honestly) for many people pain meds are less disrupting if you're in a cerebral line of work.
In fact, luck and genetics rule. You may be so lucky as to only have one episode if you take it easy and (please!)
let it heal. I'd leave competitive athletics to younger folk. If it turns chronic, you'll be like many others, and have to work out what helps you best with the least trouble. And that's assuming your doctors cooperate. If you study the anatomy and the lack of long term results with most treatments, you'll arrive at a cautious and "show me" approach rather than accepting some miracle recommendation.
The last most thorough reviews of patient data conclude that although initially many more aggressive approaches look promising, at the two year point it turns out that the most effective treatment is pain meds and letting it heal. Sleeping in the right position, heating pads, ice, acupuncture, prayer, yoga, gentle massage, swimming, moderate exercise, all of these can help, you have to observe, listen to your body. In that sense chiropractic may have a place. But IMHO chiros are quacks, a good massage practitioner can do it cheaper, and their theoretical framework is a sales pitch with no experimental basis in reality.
It's not clear if anything can prevent degenerative changes, but whatever you can do to gradually improve muscle tone in the back is probably the best defense long term. Take care!
You may also need to look into restorative therapy or homeopathy. Is the pain related to deterioration of the actual disks or is it a pinched nerve?
