I have recently started riding trials again and this has caused my body lots of pain! I have hurt my lower back on a number of occasions and I would like to build up my core strength to help prevent this from happening in the future.

Is there a particular type of exercise I should start doing such as pilates?

http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/1998/298_exer.html

Swiss balls are also great for core stability. Try sitting on one for 10 minutes and you will noticeits effect.

I’ve been suffering from a bad back again recently (it’s given me trouble in the past) and I think it’s mostly down to work posture. When I was off work for 3 months (redundant) I had no problems at all, now that I’ve restarted, all my bad back stuff has started coming back. My gf is a physio and she couldn’t believe how bad it got in such a short space of time. 🙁
I’ve used her Swiss Ball thing a few times and I had a sports massage the other week (used to be a regular thing, now it’s maybe 4-5 times a year) which definitely helped.

One other thing that’s great at improving core stability is the VewDo balance board:
http://www.vew-do.co.uk

Thanks guys, I know my posture is bad at work and I do try to sit up straight but I constantly catch myself leaning in towards the monitor! I don’t really have space for a swiss ball but I will give the exercises a try once my back gets better

I’ve got one of these, it’s ace.

http://www.waveseat.com/