I'm 50 years old. About 5 years ago, I developed a problem that I think was caused by doing karate kicks (I've long since given up karate for that reason). It started as a pain felt on the right-hand back edge of the sacrum bone - the knobbly bit right next to the spinal column. Sometimes, the pain would radiate through to the front - making me, at one stage, think it was appendicitis. The pain - whilst relatively mild and not too discomforting (it feels like the bone is bruised) - has persisted to this day, to a greater or lesser degree. I've tried osteopathy, physiotherapy and chiropractic - all to no avail (in fact, the chiropractor made it temporarily worse). Earlier this year, I had an MRI scan of my lumbar spine. The results are as follows: 'There is minimal dehydration in the L1/L2 disc and in the L3/L4 and L4/L5 discs, but there are no disc herniations. The spinal canal is of good calibre throughout. There are no encroachments on the neural exit canals. No suspicious bony abnormality is seen.' My GP assessed the condition as Facet Dominant Mechanical Back Pain and basically said my best bet would be a corticosteroid injection. This is fine - but it doesn't solve the problem... it just alleviates the symptoms; to my mind, this could lead to even further problems. Anyway, just recently I've changed jobs and am now doing work of a much more physically demanding nature - lots of bending, lifting, twisting - and the pain has become much more noticeable. I can manage with it, with painkillers, but I'm wondering if there is anything else I can do to deal with the problem. I'm careful with my lifting - bending my knees as much as possible - and I'm otherwise very physically fit: I jog (I use good shoes) and cycle, though I've given up swimming because that aggravates the pain. Doing things like kicking a football also makes it worse. Also, I've noticed in the last few weeks that I have limited movements with my right arm and my left leg. If I lift the arm up and back, I get a pain in my shoulder before I've reached the usual limits of movement. The same with the left leg: if I'm doing, say, groin stretches, I get pain before I reach the normal limit of lateral movement. I'm convinced these things are all connected to the same problem. Does anyone have any suggestions for exercises/therapies, please?