Obviously I do not know what back pain your wife suffers from so I can only tell you mine. From time to time I get intense muscular pain in my lumber region. Sometimes I can do something really stupid, which is what I did the other day. I moved a washing machine using my trusty sack trolley and was bent over, holding it so it wouldn't fall off until I got it in my garage, which is about 100 yds away from our house. I know how my back problems work, I should have known better but for some reason I just could not help or stop myself. The next two days I was in acute pain, at its worst after sitting down in a chair for a while and then trying to stand up. To get from a sitting position to being upright my body feels just like a rusty hinge. Once upright I have no problems at all, I can walk and run normally. As my wife said, the answer is don't move washing machines without help! I've had this now-and-again problem for about 12 years now and have caught myself out about 5 times in that period. To avoid it, when I bend over, or bend down, for example to pick something up from a low coffee table or from the floor, I stand up straight as soon as the job is done. If for example I stayed bending over to pick up say ten things, one after the other, that would be enough to get my back pain raging for a few days.
I also used to have a Lightwave rucksack, caused me no end of back muscular pain, sometimes I would spend most of my hiking day shifting my bag, just trying to find that one position where it stopped nagging at me! My solution was to dump the Lightwave and buy an Osprey rucksack, my back ache whilst walking has never happened again since. I also have a pair of Polarpoles and when hiking up or down steep areas I've convinced myself they really help me because I can push down on them rather than have to vertically grip like the other types. For me hiking backpain is now a thing of the past.
Luckily I have never personally suffered from a slipped disk and I do not have any knee, hip, or arthritus problems either. It must be magic because everyone that I know around my age group, when I meet them in the pub all seem to have varying types and intensity of back, knee, hip and leg pains.
