I'm 30, female, overweight but active (I run about 3x a week). About 3 months ago (1 month before my wedding), I started having a lot of lower back pain. I've never had back problems, and we don't have a family history of it. At the time, I was lifting more heavy stuff than normal, but nothing extraordinarily heavy, and I've stopped now for about 2 months. My weight, job, and every other factor has remained constant. My job is low stress. There was no one event where I felt like I hurt my back 3 months ago - it felt like fatigue.

The pain I feel is a "tightness", usually in the lower part of my back, going into my tailbone. When I bend over, you can visually see my spine protruding from the affected area, and the muscles "bunch up" on either side of the spine. Sometimes I feel some pain going into my legs. This sounds weird, but sometimes it moves - when I get up in the morning, the tightness extends from my midback into the tailbone. During the day, the pain and visible tightness is confined to a smaller area in my lower back. Sometimes I also have tightness in between my shoulder blades.

I've gone to my doctor and physical therapists to help me fix what the problem is, but no one can seem to help me. I've done the exercises they've given me and modified how I sleep (back flat, knees raised, with plywood board to make mattress stiffer) how I work (walking every 20 mins or so away from my desk) and wearing low heel shoes. The only thing that gives me temporary relief is massage/physical manipulation and "cracking" my back - I'm able to bend over more and with less pain.

I practiced iyengar yoga a few years ago, as a newcomer, and seemed to recall that iyengar has some therapeutic applications for this kind of tightness. Any recommendations for kinds of stretches or poses? Thank you so much!!