@lion: It can definitely be a long journey getting to a point where you feel confident enough in your skills to do most things without having to think about them. One thing that always helps me immensely is to not just learn for the sake of learning, but to try and achieve a specific goal and just learn stuff in the process of doing that. For example, I've never really spent much time reading ASM tutorials, and when I did, you can bet that I forgot 80% of the stuff I read shortly afterwards. Instead, at some point in my life I decided that it would be really cool to make an RPG-styled HP counter for SMW, so I got started on that and pretty much just looked up/learned the things I needed to accomplish that specific goal. In fact, if you go and download v1.0 of the patch that is hosted here on this site, you will have the exact patch I wrote back then and see the exact code that I wrote to actually learn coding itself. It sounds bizarre, but learning by doing is indeed a very powerful tool. Naturally, learning this way doesn't always lead to great solutions. In fact, more often than not, you will end up with horrible solutions (or sub-par solutions at best). But as it turns out, even bad solutions are just as useful for learning as good solutions (if not even more useful). By my standards nowadays, the HP counter patch I wrote back then is pretty much garbage, yet I wouldn't even be able to recognize that if I had never written it, because it was one of the things that actually gave me the skill to do so in the first place.
@Counterfeit: I have visited a doctor once, yeah, and while that has been a few years ago, the symptoms of the back pain are pretty much the same as a few years ago, so the causes are likely also still the same. She described it as a typical symptom of office work and recommended doing certain exercises, including yoga, but my problem is that I don't really feel comfortable with those exercises and even when I start doing them, I just never manage to keep at it. The only exercise I've managed to do for an extended period of time was swimming, though of course that doesn't really do much for back problems (well, at least not breaststroke swimming, which is the only style I can really perform). It was still good for my health and overall fitness, just not for the back per se.
What did have a big positive impact on my back, however, was getting a height-adjustable desk at work. Basically, it allowed me to alternate between sitting and standing while working, so I would sit for one hour then stand for half an hour and then keep alternating multiple times throughout the day. Limiting the amount I spent sitting greatly benefitted my back. Like, the pain never fully went away, but it was basically reduced to just a side note 90% of the time. Only issue? Well, as I mentioned, the desk is at our office, and these desks are way too expensive for me to afford one at home. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem as I'd be spending the majority of my computer time per week at work, but due to Corona forcing home office onto us, that's just no longer the case, and thus my pain got worse again. I do sometimes get up when my pain gets too bad, but it's not something I do regularly because I keep forgetting about it. As for hydration, I do on average drink between 2 and 3 litres of water a day, maybe even more sometimes, but I don't know if that's enough. Allegedly, I'd need to drink 4+ liters of water a day at my weight, but I just don't consider that a possibility. If I did that, I might as well spend my entire day at the toilet because I'd be peeing non-stop. Also not really sure how to best describe the pain, but it's in the center or maybe the lower part of the spine. Not sure if any of your descriptions fit, but I suppose "achy" would be the closest to what I feel, though I do think it's more spine-related and less muscle-related.
Regarding ergonomical chairs, that's actually one of the major issues here. I don't even know what chair can be considered ergonomical or what chair would be best for, but I know that I haven't found the perfect one for me yet. One issue that I kept having was that most of the chairs I've owned in my life weren't durable in the slightest and already gave in under just my slight overweight, breaking really quickly and as result forcing me into uncomfortable - and likely very unhealthy - sitting positions. Eventually, I got fed up with it, so I decided to invest some more money and get a chair specially designed for heavy people. I did just that and the good news is that the chair I got did actually turn out to be really stable and has lasted for probably over two years now without breaking. At (if I remember correctly) around 200€, it was also pretty cheap for chairs in this category. The downside? As this chair is designed for heavy people, it is apparently also designed for big people. As in, people who would likely be way more overweight than me. The chair is simply too big for me. The armrests are too far appart, and the area of the seat is too big/the backrest is too far back for me to sit on the chair as intended. So once again, sitting on the chair actually forces me into an uncomfortable and likely very unhealthy position, and I don't really know what to do about it. I can't just keep blindly buying chairs, not knowing if they'll be any good for me or what kind of chair I need in the first place, yet I also don't know where I can go to try chairs before buying them. Well, I mean, I did try some chairs at IKEA, but the problem is that those were the chairs I mentioned above that pretty much broke after just a few weeks, and that's another key problem. I think most chairs only show their problems after a few weeks in use, and that's not really something you can test while visiting a furniture store.
Anyways, my big chair is also where my footrest comes into play. It's not that I really had any pain in my legs (except for in my knees sometimes, but that's a different story), it's just that I hope to compensate for the size of this chair a bit by using a footrest and thus shortening the distance from my legs to the "ground". I don't know if it'll actually work (I've just ordered it yesterday and it won't be here until Monday), but I've tried my girlfriend's footrest for a short while and it did seem like it could lead to a better posture on this chair overall.
Also yeah, I am a side sleeper, but unfortunately, other sleeping positions are pretty much out of question for me. Basically, all sleeping positions are uncomfortable for me, but side sleeping is the only one that is actually tolerable. Belly sleeping is impossible because it puts way too much pressure on my belly and face (though I guess belly sleepers are rare, anyways, and they probably use special beds?), back sleeping, on the other hand, is impossible because my head feels incredibly uncomfortable doing it. I don't even know how to describe it, but I suppose to my head it feels like the world was "upside down" or something like that. It's so uncomfortable that it'd be absolutely impossible for me to fall asleep that way. As for side-sleeping, as you've mentioned, it puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders. On top of that, my arms also get very uncomfortable and I never know what to do with them. Basically, I just keep rotating around every couple of minutes until I finally fall asleep.
So yeah, the back pain is definitely a tricky problem and one that isn't easy to improve. My best bet is pretty much getting back to office and using my adjustable desk again, but that isn't possible as long as Corona is still around, so I can really just hope that the situation ends as soon as possible. Anyways, thanks for all the tips and recommendations!
Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!