Illness, Injury and Medical Advice from the Internet

If you have the money, because it is expensive, just go straight to the physio.

NHS physio will be 12 weeks away minimum in my experience (8 months for a mate to see an orthopaedic specialist)...after your GP referral. Thats if you dont get referred for a scan first...might have to double that time if thats the case.

Or it might go away eventually.

(Sorry you probably know all this just frustrating innit)

What @Stoo61 says - GPs, for all that they are good for, are at best just going to refer you for a long wait, particularly as it sounds like you have a muscle strength / weakness problem, rather than an acute injury.

A proper physio* will assess you for anything that might require medical intervention, in any case.

My current lower back problems are caused by lifting - my QL (and sometimes the spinalis) keeps going into spasm, sometimes flooring me.

OHPs are fun, as when my shoulders hit the limit, my back twists and then cramps up.

My treatment plan involves working on my lower back extension - hip hinges and pelvic tilts, progressing to rack pull deadlifts and shallow squats - building strength and awareness of extending my lower back under load, and getting to the point that it enables me to do the real lifting with my glutes and hams, while keeping a solid frame.

I also do a lot of hockey ball work - warm up and activate the lower back with tilts and hinges, then use a hockey ball to dig right in and release the muscles that are locking. It's a strange sort of nice agony.

* not an osteopath, and 100% not a chiropractor. They might be able to address the pain, short term, but they'll do nothing for anything systemic, and a chiropractor could just damage you.

You can often self refer for an NHS physio so skip the GP entirely. Have a look on your borough and your GP's website. You might be waiting a while though and depending who you see it may vary from getting you back to full fitness to just being able to walk ok.

On osteopath/physio I wouldn't rule out all osteos so quickly. The osteopath I'm currently seeing is much better than the physio I was previously seeing. Majority of my sessions are still assessment, strengthening, exercises and stretches with the goal of long term improvement. It's worth asking them how they work.