osteoarthritis of the back and hips

Welcome, KSD9807. OA of the back is often accompanied by muscular stiffness and pain. When anything in your back hurts, the numerous muscles there that support your spine tend to go into spasm and cause the stiffness. Prolonged inactivity can also contribute to pain.

I suspect a competent PM doctor may send you to a good physical therapist for an exercise program. I find that when I'm stiff and sore, gentle stretching helps a lot. I do work out at a wellness center three times a week to help prevent the spasms. It's important to do any exercises regularly, as you will likely find that skipping them for a couple of days will lead to increased stiffness and pain.

Heat is often helpful for your situation. I love the stick-on disposable heat pads that provide gentle heat for up to eight hours. If you use an electric heating pad be very cautious not to burn yourself.

Finally, if you've never tried a muscle relaxant you might consider that. It can help when your muscles quite simply don't want to cooperate with you at all.

Good luck, and let us know how you're doing.

PT helped my back a great deal. Strengthen your core muscles and fixing your posture will help you. My physical therapist gave me a great deal of exercises just for me and my pain is a lot less.

You must not allow your muscles to get overworked and due to this there must be muscle breakdown and this makes the muscle to be stiff. So, whenever you get muscle pain don’t try to run with the pain as they may lead to tearing just try for some stretching and squeeze the muscles gently and just move by performing some of the light exercises. Consume a balanced diet and avoid dehydration.