Because surgery has such a high failure rate, it is usually recommended only when there is danger of permanent injury such as loss of feeling, loss of muscle control or intractable pain. Steroid injections offer temporary relief, but almost never cure back problems. Strength training requires supervised exercising against progressively greater resistance one to three times a week. Stretching includes daily stretching of the back and leg muscles.
Deep massage can be so painful and so irritating to the skin that it often is done only once a week.
Superficial light skin massage has not been shown to help cure back pain. Manipulation can relax muscles that have gone into spasm and effectively help relieve pain. BW Nelson, DM Carpenter, TE Dreisinger, M Mitchell, CE Kelly, JA Wegner. A prospective study of cervical and lumbar patients. Dr. Mirkin's opinions and the references cited are for information only, and are not intended to diagnose or prescribe.