I had a lower back injury at about that age resulting in a ruptured disk. It <i>was</i> debilitating and required surgery. The surgery worked wonders but, unsurprisingly, I&#x27;ve had intermittent back trouble in the decades since then.<p>I&#x27;ve had two periods of my life where I&#x27;ve been free from back problems for extended periods. The first was when I was doing aikido. There was some minimal warm up stretching, but the main thing was that practice involved a lot of range of motion. Despite seemingly bad things like awkward positions and getting thrown and hitting the ground hard, I had no back problems at all during that time. The second time was when I was lifting free weights. Squats and deadlifts (done correctly) strengthen the support infrastructure for the back (and everything else). During both of those regimens I also lost a fair amount of fat. (I actually gained weight while lifting but my wife remarked that I looked thinner).<p>I think that many kinds of exercise could have similar effects. Yoga, anyone? Maybe Tai Chi? Man, I need to get back to doing something regularly again!