I certainly can relate. I have a congenital back problem and have been a metal masher most of my life also. I was a fabricator who built custom industrial machines but welding, grinding and lifting in odd positions was part of the job.

About 25-30 years ago my back would go "out" about every 6-8 weeks. I have always worn good shoes because of my life time back problem. During one of my extended back "out" periods I went to a pain clinic which was supposed to solve the problem but when they found out that I did not have insurance they decided that they could not help me. The one good thing which came out of it was that they had me doing some stretching exercises while I was there and I discovered that the stretching was helping the problem. Since my problem usually started in the morning when I first got up by doing something like tying my shoes I started doing a stretching routine every morning when I got up. Since then I have done a series of stretching every morning. My routine is something which I have just come up with on my own and half of what I do may be completely worthless but if five minutes in the morning can solve the back problem it is well worth it as far as I am concerned.

All I can say to your stretching exercises is AMEN brother. I believe and my doctor verified that if more people just did some simple stretching every day most of the back problems would go away.