A recent 5 years study in the US concluded that traditional approaches of bed rest, traction and surgery were in general ineffective and overused. The British Medical Association agrees with Canadian and US research, that mainstream medical methods tend to treat symptoms and not the cause.

They further concur that: Between 70-90% of all back pain is caused by muscle spasm. And that:
1.A herniated disk, the traditional explanation for back pain accounts for “less than 5%”.

2.Only about 1% of those with back pain require surgery.

3. 90% of back pain - is not caused by damage to the spine and vertebrae, is not caused by bulging, slipped or herniated discs, is not caused by tumours or any other dire diagnosis but simply by muscles in spasm.

As any health care professional will tell you, there can be many, many sources of low back pain involving vertebrae, intervertebral disks, and nerves. They will all point out some of these problems on your x-rays, surgeons will be delighted to operate on you for them, and others will be more than happy to manipulate them for you. But there are two things that are seldom acknowledged:

1) The anomalies of the spine seen on x-rays bulging disks, herniated disks, bone spurs, calcium deposits, subluxations may or may not be the cause of your pain. They are fairly common, even in people who have no pain at all. It is very tempting, when there is pain, to fix on some abnormality found in diagnostic images and assume that it is the cause of the pain. But in any given case, that may or may not be true.

2) Most low back pain originates in the soft tissues.

Whether your back pain is muscular or vertebral in origin, the basic rule remains: first do no harm. It only makes sense to begin with the least risky, least invasive treatment available, then escalate if necessary. That treatment is massage therapy. If it isn't effective, the other treatments are still available. But if it is effective, a lot of time, pain, risk and money have been saved.

Low back pain caused by soft-tissue problems is likely to originate in one or more of three different locations:
Iliopsoas. This is the primary hip flexor (its chief assistant being rectus femoris), running down through the abdominal cavity and the groin to the lesser trochanter. But its origins, meaning in this case its anchor points, are the inner surface of the ilium (iliacus muscle) and the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae -- which means that every lifting of the leg pulls on the pelvis and the lumbar spine.
Quadratus lumborum and its neighbours. Quadratus lumborum is the muscle between the bottom rib and the top of the pelvis. It is a deep muscle, and is situated underneath (deep to) the lumbar paraspinal muscles. If there are problems in quadratus lumborum, there are also likely to be problems in those thick muscles near the surface on either side of the spine. In addition, muscle problems are invariably accompanied by connective tissue problems. This area, unprotected as it is by any skeletal structures, is thick with connective tissue: the thoracolumbar fascia, the gluteal aponeurosis, and other tough connective tissue cover and surround these muscles.
The buttock muscles. These include the three gluteal muscles (gluteus maximus, medius and minimus), and the deep lateral rotators of the hip, especially piriformis. Piriformis pain is often mistaken sciatic pain, pain from this muscle runs down the back of the leg down to the heel in a similar pattern to sciatic pain.  The piriformis muscle is one of many muscles that can tighten and entrap the sciatic nerve.