If you’ve been dealing with lower back pain for weeks (or, let’s be honest, months) and you keep telling yourself it’ll just work itself out — I want to gently push back on that. I hear a version of this story almost every week in the clinic, and it usually starts the same way: someone tweaked their back doing something completely unremarkable — bending to grab a laundry basket, sitting too long at a desk, sleeping wrong — and then just… lived with it, assuming it would fade on its own.

Sometimes it does. But when lower back pain sticks around past the two-to-four-week mark, it’s usually telling you something more specific than “you’re getting older” (a phrase I’d like to permanently retire from this conversation).

Why It Lingers

Chronic or recurring lower back pain usually comes down to one of a few things, and the honest answer is it’s rarely just “one thing” — bodies are more interconnected than that:

  • Joint restriction or misalignment in the lumbar spine that changes how you move without you noticing
  • Muscle imbalances — often from long hours sitting, favoring one side, or an old injury you compensated around
  • Nervous system sensitization, where the area stays “on alert” even after the original tissue has healed
  • Postural habits (desk setup, phone neck, how you lift and carry) that quietly reload the same stressed structures every single day

What a Chiropractic Assessment Actually Looks At

When someone comes in with lingering low back pain, we’re not just cracking your back and sending you on your way (I promise, it’s never been that simple, and if it were, I’d be out of a job). A proper assessment looks at spinal mobility, muscle tone and strength around the pelvis and core, how you move through basic patterns like bending and rotating, and — critically — what you’re doing for eight-plus hours a day that might be feeding the problem.

From there, treatment might include spinal adjustments to restore normal joint motion, soft tissue work to release the muscles that have been compensating, and — this is the part people underestimate — specific exercises to rebuild the stability that lets the improvement actually stick.

When to Actually Get It Looked At

A good rule of thumb (not a medical absolute, just a nudge): if pain has lasted more than two to three weeks, keeps coming back, or is starting to change how you move — limping, avoiding certain positions, that kind of thing — it’s worth having someone assess it properly rather than waiting it out again. And if you ever experience any loss of bladder or bowel control, please seek medical attention right away — that’s outside what chiropractic care addresses on its own.

The Part I Always Come Back To

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that most people don’t come in on week one — they come in on month three, once they’ve tried stretching it out, resting it, and quietly hoping it would sort itself. If that’s you right now, there’s no judgment here (I’ve done the exact same thing with my own aches, and I really should know better). But the sooner we look at what’s actually driving it, the sooner you’re not just managing it — you’re fixing it.

If your lower back has been nagging at you longer than you’d like to admit, I’d love to take a look. You can book online any time, or give the clinic a call at 519-208-6900 — we’re at 279 Weber St N, Suite #17, in Waterloo.

In health,

Dr. Katie Sellars