A few weeks ago, I woke up with a severe pain in my hip (or at least, I thought it was my hip at the time). My hip was so tight and felt like it was totally locked up. Having dealt with hip pain before. I tried every tool in my arsenal to heal it—I stretched, I slept on a wooden ball (no, I’m not kidding), iced it, took baths, everything. But nothing got better until I went to my chiropractor… and it turns out, I was treating the wrong area. My back was the issue, not my hip.

This experience got me thinking about back pain—specifically lower back pain—and how incredibly common it is, especially as we age.