I'm a chiropractor. no reason to wait a minute longer, make an appointment

I consider seeing a chiropractor "natural" as your not going to get anything put into or taken out of your system that is not already there. Could save you a whole lot of pain and aid in better healing.

But, I'm guessing you are looking for some things to do at home. In that case, once your injured you need TIME more than anything. The healing process is going to take time. What you do in that time has a great effect on how quickly AND completely healing occurs.

Getting normal motion back into the area as quickly as possible provides the best results to inhibit scar tissue formation and promote healing. Other than that for the first few days to week try not to do anything to exacerbate it. Work to the pain but not through it when stretching or moving. Like nance said walking CAN be terrific, but that kind of depends on how bad you are. At your stage you could likely start alternating heat/ice/heat for 20/10/20. If your not improving after a week then you may need to make an appointment.

I recently tweaked something and found that some Cal-Mag-D as an ingested supplement, along with epsom salts (magnesium sulfat) in a hot bath did a lot to relieve my pain. Good luck! Being pain-immobile with a young one is super challenging (I know 'cause I was trying to corral my almost two year old as well!).

Keep going with hot/cold alternation, and then, when the time is apt, get the right kind of bodywork. "Right" depending on many, many factors not currently part of the discussion.

But, for now, lay low and don't exacerbate.

after it heals, get a competent coach and take up deadlifting.

I hurt my back about a year ago falling down the stairs. Different injury as it wasn't related to lifting. (Before I fell down the stairs I was deadlifting greater than double my body weight). I didn't wait long enough to fully recover and got back into the gym to early. I also tried to pick up from where I left off before the injury and ended up straining my back even more.

Acupuncture helped me almost immediately. In addition, I've been doing physical therapy for the last 2 months. Half way through I noticed immediate improvements. It was a combination of stretches, massage, and simple exercises that helped rebuild injured muscles. I'm slowly making my way back into the gym now and am feeling pretty good again. As I got to chat with the therapist, many of the back injuries she said she sees are related to weak backs rather than trauma, like my case.

I'm not an expert or doctor, but this sounds like a case of a weak back to me. Time will heal your back; however, without proper exercise and strength training, your muscles will continue to atrophy. You will be likely to hurt yourself again and require regularly seeing a chiropractor/acupuncturist.

Physical therapy can be particularly useful as they can help assess where you are weak and provide exercises and stretches to strengthen yourself. As you recover and get stronger, you should start doing exercises like backsquats and deadlifts (under proper supervision!) to build stronger muscles in your back, legs and core. This will help prevent future injuries.

For the future: Make sure your C, Zinc, and A are dialed in for repair. Protein/gelatin, too!

I noticed a significant increase in the speed of my healing after I started supplementing with 50 mg zinc picolinate to correct a long-standing deficiency.

Tui Na Massage plus acupuncture.

I have had lower back issues for years. I used the McKenzie Method (http://www.mckenziemdt.org/approach.cfm?section=int) to successfully treat lower back pain and now use it for maintenance.

It is based on very simple extensions which are repeated on a schedule. It is very effective and simple and you can do it yourself.

AshleyRoz, are you still nursing? Sometimes those mama hormones keep things very loose. You might want to consider some physical therapy or gentle pilates to get your core engaging well so you're safer. Ice is indeed your friend, and make sure it's cold - none of those soft reusable packs.

And I don't buy into homeopathy, but I swear some arnica preparations help.