Goddamned Lower back pain

[brewer]

Pain in your lower back radiating out to your hip and down your leg usually indicates neurologic/disc/spine involvement. You should go to the neurologist.

If it is neurological/disc, heat may not be helping. Try ice packs, the logic is to reduce the swelling of the disc pinching/compressing the nerve. 

Ya, I have a zipper back also. L5/S1 disc blown. Blew it off, big mistake. Made the surgery (laminectomy/discectomy) and recovery worse. Still don't have full sensation in the outside of my calf after 20 years.  

The exercises in the OP are the same/similar to the PT I did post surgery. 

Good Luck.

Thanks.
The kind of pain you said going down on your leg - did you have it every time you walked or only when you did something intense? Because the pain I described going down on my leg from my back I got when I played an intense football game (not to brag: P we won the game 2-1 , both goals me ^_^). That pain seemed to have gone after some rest but I can feel from the way my body's responding that I need more rest. I've also started to walk a bit because I've read too much rest can actually weaken my back.

The pain in my hip and leg was always present but the symptoms/pain level would vary. Sometimes minor, sometimes debilitating, sometimes only back and hip, sometimes all the way down to the ankle. It all depended on how much I tweeked by back. When I got a flair it would take at least a week to subside, and that was usually with ice paks and oral corticosteroids. 

That KKT treatment mentioned, run away. Stay away from chiropractors. 

I was given the option of a course of spinal/epidural steroid injections as conservative/nonsurgical therapy. I opted for surgery after looking at the  long term success rate of surgery vs injections. The injection process is not a pleasant experience. 

I'd suggest that you not start an exercise/strengthening program until you see the neurologist/neurosurgeon.