Back muscle ache stemming from poor posture due to coccyx injury - should I run? Swim? Etc

Hi

I was wondering if anyone might be able to offer some advice or suggestions on my particular back issue.

In general, I'm a fit and healthy 37 year old. I do a desk job and don't really play any sports, but eat healthily and regularly visit the gym and try to keep active.

About 3 years ago I injured my coccyx (tailbone) somehow; possibly from a fall. We never really worked it out. Regardless, sitting down was incredibly painful. The doctors couldn't find any obvious damage and thought that I'd either bruised it or possibly 'activated' nerves in the general area.

For a year or so I used a coccyx cushion at work and when driving, and avoided certain exercises at the gym that seemed to aggravate it. When it flared up again from over doing it at the gym and a longer driving trip I went back to the docs who referred me to a pain specialist. They gave me some exercises to help strengthen my back. In the end I had the injections into the base of my spine which calmed it a little. By then though I'd learnt how not to aggravate it, and after 2 years I no longer needed a cushion at work or in the car, as long as the journey was no longer than an hour.

However, I'd started to suffer from other back, neck and shoulder aches. I think this was down to me 'sitting funny' sometimes to avoid putting pressure on my coccyx.

I then started a new job and also bought a new car. The commute was just over an hour, which seemed to be a bit much to ask of my coccyx. I found myself shifting around in the seat to avoid putting pressure on it. The chair in the office was also awful and didn't offer any support. I found that my back was aching more and more often; lower and upper, no specific one place.

After two months of dealing with red tape I managed to get a more supportive office chair, and I also replaced my car with one with 'sports seats' which seem to suit my back better. Meanwhile I'd been on my first long haul flight - and that played havoc with my back.

I managed to arrange to work from home more often to reduce the time spent in the car, and started doing the back exercises the pain specialist had shown me which admittedly I'd been lax on of late. Whether it was the better chair, the reduced driving time/better car seats or the exercises, things got better again...

Until we moved offices. I now have an even longer commute.

I managed to arrange a bit more frequenty working from home, and leaving earlier to avoid traffic to reduce my time in the car, but I'm loosing the battle. I tried to exercise and swim more, but no joy.

My coccyx is more or less ok - but the rest of my back is now the problem; particularly the muscle down the right hand side around the shoulder blades - this is the one that feels tense and aches the most. I've looked at diagrams of the back but I couldn't say for certain whether it's the latissimus dorsi, the infraspinatus or the teres major/minor muscles.

I recently used a masseur/physio we knew and speaking to him realised that the swimming I was doing may have not been helping matters - I've always swam breast stroke, with my head up, out of the water. Swimming around casually like this may be ok, but it seems doing 30 mins solid swimming like this is putting a strain on my neck, and ultimately on my back. I need to learn to swim 'properly' and dip my head under water on every stroke.

I tried last week and nearly drowned!

I'm leaving this job next week anyway and will hopefully find work more locally. But ultimately I think I need to ensure I'm doing the right exercises at the gym and to strengthen my back.

My back aches when I stand up for a while - still that is, not walking - walking, and running, seems fine. It's when I'm washing the pots or making food; after 5 mins or so it's really uncomfortable and I feel like I need to bend over or sit down. It also hurts when using the computer mouse or my right arm to steer in the car for too long.

What exercises can I do to strengthen this muscle? Or should I just leave off the back exercises all together?

I will address the swimming issue and learn to swim 'properly', but how about running? Will that 'jolt' my back and make it worse? The cross trainer at the gym seems to result in less general vibration, might that be better? I'm also trying to get back into cycling - but I guess that could be worse for the coccyx!!

Any advice/suggestions welcome please... I am going back to the doctors next week but it will no doubt take a month or so until they refer me to someone who probably won't help much anyway!

Many thanks

Ross 

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