bad back pain: what do some of you do to relieve it?

non narcotic methods, please. NOT SEEKING MEDICAL ADVICE please see below:

I have lumbar arthritis and it is killing me.

what I am mainly interested in is if any of you have come up with any type of exercise program that you can do without aggravating the low back.

Thinking of things like:
recumbent bicycles
elliptical machines
treadmill
etc?

I know swimming is good, and I so suck at swimming, even though I like it, and have access to indoor pool through YMCA, but we are considering a piece of home exercise
equipment and so I wanted some input from others who have similar conditions re: what is helpful and won't make me hurt MORE!!

My husband recently purchased an inversion table and I used it without pain but my chair at work just tore me up..after a week of vacation my bod does not know how to sit in it.

Mostly centered around the area where I broke it. I try to do a lot of walking which seems to help it but I'd be interested to see if you get any other good ideas because I'd like to utilize them, too (I don't swim, either - I sink like a stone). People don't realize how much pain simply sitting can cause - that compression on the spine is murder when it's arthritic. :hug:

:)

Gentle Yoga......

Good stuff all around.

If you can get some private sessions with a Pilates instructor, that would be great. Good luck, hope you can get some relief, I feel for you.

When I was doing the hiking book I was also 8 years closer to the auto accident that caused most of my back problems (12 years ago) and found to my surprise that in spite of lower back agony I could climb straight up a mountain and, so long as I'd been careful about getting my daypack on and off, would actually feel a lot better by the end of the day. Of course this isn't arthritis, but does indicate that walking/hiking doesn't put much strain on your back and might actually help. Treadmill of course prevents you from winding up 5 miles from the car in agony if it turns out I'm wrong.

Best of luck to you regardless. You may also want to try one of those knee chairs. Mine wasn't too helpful, but then I got it secondhand from a thrift store; it may have already had its better days. I got the most help from a slant pillow, but again, I don't have arthritis.