Back pain is quite common in this day and age and much of it is caused by weak muscles, bad posture and stress.
The large majority of us have sedentary habits and tend to spend too much time sitting down in front of a computer or in our leisure time, in front of the television.
This type of life style has many nasty sequences, and one of these is having a bad posture.
Most of the time it is not physically obvious, we are not hunch backed, but sitting with a curved spine or inclined to one side does put a lot of strain on our spine muscles and ligaments.
The effect of this can be a sudden acute pain or as in many cases, a chronic case of back pain.
The difference between acute and chronic is that an acute illness, in this case acute back pain, will come strongly and suddenly.
At the same time when the cause is identified correctly and the right measures are taken, it will also be gone in a short while.
In the case of chronic illnesses (chronic back pain), the main difference will be that it is a constant pain that lasts for long periods of time.
Pain relief will also take longer.
A chronic illness is continuous and not short-term.
It is important to note that there are many causes of back pain and not all relate to bad posture, stress or lack of exercise.
Apart from posture another thing that is all too common and affects just about everybody, is stress.
Our lives are filled with moments that stress us, and to borrow the "chronic" term, for many people stress is a constant state of affairs, it is chronic stress (continuous and long-lasting).
Stress is not just a mental or emotional state, it is also reflected in our physical bodies.
Our bodies react to stress by reducing the blood flow to the tissues as the muscles contract.
This is a perfectly normal reaction to physical danger but the same neural signals are being sent through our bodies by stressful situations and times when the perceived danger is not physical.
As there is no relief to the stress, the blood flow reduction will affect muscles and in the case of your back this can easily provoke back pain.
One of the solutions to this and your back pain is stress reduction by both exercising and applying relaxation techniques (meditation, yoga, breathing exercises).
The exercise will strengthen your back, buttock and stomach muscles, and the relaxation practices will reduce your inner tension that is physically reflected by muscle contraction.
Of course correcting your body posture and changing your sedentary life style will also produce wonders.