Take the weight off!
I recently attended a Health & Safety update for work and surprisingly found it both interesting and useful! We were told about the stresses on the lumbar spine in different postural positions.
For instance, standing still, the weight on the 3rd Lumbar vertebra is 80kg: rather a lot! Compare this with the weight when lying down (25kg) and we can see why lying down is so much less painful when you have lumbar spine problems.
More interestingly still, when walking the weight goes up to 100kg and when sitting, 150kg! Leaning forward by 30 degrees puts 200kg weight through L3 and full flexion (bending right over to pick something up off the floor) a massive 400kg!
These figures explain a lot about the effects of posture in generating and exacerbating back pain.
