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This. Back when I was overweight I had a fair amount of back pain. Once I started lifting (and foam rolling) I discovered one day that spending 10 minutes foam-rolling my glutes caused 100% relief in my back for a day or two.

A few years of squats and my back pain is now non-existent. Not because my back is "stronger", but rather it seems because of the increased flexibility from the waist down.

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Squats and deadlifting is what got rid of my back pain, which had been mild to moderate for years. Highly recommended, as long as you are VERY mindful of your form.

To people maybe not confident with their form: you can do free weight squats (deadlifts too, I suppose, with empty hands). Just get the form right, then add a small amount of weight. Then, in small increments, add more weight.

Very frequently one part of your body compensates for a failure in another part of your body. As a result the bit that hurts can be surprisingly far from and the part where the underlying problem exists.

That said, the principle is simpler to apply in theory than practice. There really are people who understand the human body well enough to debug it. Their results demonstrate that they aren't making it up, but I have no idea how they actually do it.

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