I'm a 40 year old male who has had back problems for about 12 years now. I have a very physical job lifting approx 45,000lb/day, 25 -50lb at a time, 10-12hrs a day. I originally injured my lower back and was sent to re-hab for about 6 months and overcame most of the problems. Then re-injured it twice more over the years, (same type of re-hab), one was as serious as the first and the last time wasn't as bad. I still feel pain in back on the right side between the hip bone "bump" and the gluteus.

I stretch hamstrings, at least 3 sets of 5, 1 minute to a side, a day, morning, lunch, evening, and then some extras thrown in there when I feel them getting tight. I also do trunk rotations, (lay down, bend knees, throw them to one side and arms the other way, hold one arm at elbow for a better stretch, 2 sets of 5 , 1 minute or longer each). Also, a back stretch,(lay down, pull legs to chest and hold 1 minute, 2 sets of 5). I do the low back trunk stability exercise 2 sets of 10 ,(the one where you get on hands and knees and lift one leg and the opposite arm hold for 5 secs). After doing a set each of the above, I sometimes still have 6 inches to go when I bend over and try to touch the floor, (i'm 6'2" by the way).

I just took a week off work, and by the end of this period I was feeling only about 10% of the pain that I feel when I was working. Obviously, if I got a different job the problem would probably go away completely over a short period of time, but I like what I do and the pay is great compared to most jobs in this area. Still, I think about getting a new job , selling the house so I can afford to live, etc.

The one thing I have learned after all these years is that my hamstrings seem to be the cause of the pain I feel in my lower back on a daily basis. If I keep working and don't do a couple hamstring stretches every hour, (that adds 40 minutes to my already long day), I get what I call a micro injury, makes that spot in my hip/back hurt worse.

I think that I already do enough stretches on the hamstrings, to the point they get sore quite often, so I don't know how to improve them any more than they already are..

Maybe they are getting overly exhausted and if I could build some muscle there it would help?

Is there any hope of making my hamstrings longer yet?

I really don't know what to try next. I'm hoping to find a fix for this here, because i've asked lots of doctors already and they keep telling me to get a different job!

Any help on this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
mike