Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Back aches and injuries are common among older adults, but some simple stretches can help

by Stacey Colino,AARP

Whether it’s chronic, acute or episodic, low back pain is a common problem among adults, causing more disability around the world than any other condition.

At least one-fourth of U.S. adults report having low back pain in the last three months, national survey data shows. Andresearch suggeststhat as many as 80 percent of adults will experience low back pain at some point in their lives, meaning if you haven’t had it yet and you don’t have it now, there’s a good chance that you will in the future — especially since back pain becomes more frequent with advancing age.

Common causes of lower back pain include overuse injuries (from doing the same form of exercise over and over again), muscle or ligament strains or sprains, trauma (from falling down…