Bed rest
In the past, many doctors told patients with back pain to rest in bed until they felt better. In fact, such advice is now understood to be harmful. Not only is prolonged rest less effective than activity in reducing short-term pain, resting for hours and days at a time has been clearly linked with joint stiffness, muscle wasting and loss of bone mineral density.

Of course it’s important for you to get a good night’s sleep and you may need to rest for pain control occasionally during the day, but such periods of rest should be brief and need to be balanced with physical activity.