Question
Hi. I'm 25.  I was wondering if you could tell the best sleeping positions and just about anything non-surgical I can do to releive my low back pain.  I went to a very good surgeon/doctor 1.5 years ago and after seeing my x-rays or mri's, he told me that I belong to like 2% of the population where the two lumbar vertebra do not fully connect and they're gradually slipping. I can't remember exactly but I think he said it was called Spondylolysis. I did injure it in the weightroom doing deadlifts recently and now I feel pain in the low back when I extend my back. I can also feel a bump on my spine thru the skin.  I did injure it long before diving and pulled some muscles but now after the recent weightroom visits it feels worse. I already bought  a little velcro back brace, I swim and I'm thinking about buying an inversion table....is that a good idea?  

So what else can I do, how long till it heals and the last thing......IS IT GOING TO BE ABLE TO HEAL AT ALL IF THE DOC SAID IT'S GENETIC??????

Answer
No sleeping position will relieve back pain of the type you describe -- and do you want to have to limit your sleeping position for the rest of your life?  You need a different answer and a different approach.

You have muscles in contraction, the contraction triggered by your previous injuries and possibly by improper weight training.  That's the bump in your spine.  Vertebrae don't "slip"; they're pulled out of position by contracted back muscles.

An inversion table may provide temporary relief; a brace will, in the long term, be useless.  Surgery won't help free those muscles, but may only help with long-term vertebral degeneration.

You need to free yourself from those muscular contractions through brain-muscle training that teaches you to control those muscles through the movements they control.  Then, your back can normalize, and you won't need treatment, inversion, or braces -- or to limit your sleeping positions.  Doesn't that sound better?

May I direct you to articles I have written on back pain and on weight training, at somatics.com/page4.htm.  They say more, in detail, including what you can do, non-surgically.

toward your recovery,
Lawrence Gold