Yee-haw! I just got quints on our line as a freshman 2 days ago, (camp is now) And it friggin' hurts! I haven't been doing much about it, but I will probably just do exercises an such, no new-fangled doohickeys for me!
By the way, we use the Yamaha AVS (I think...) carriers, and the bottom of the fiberglass part that supposedly curves around you digs into my stomach, it hurts like crap. I'm kinda disfiguered so the upper part of my hip bones poke out, I'm a little skinny. Both edges of the carrier scrape right into them , and I'm not aloud to bust the carrier even though we have a few dozen.

First of all, congrats on getting into tenors off the bat, not too easy any freshman to do.

As for back pain, this isn't necessarily the best way to combat this, but it's the technique I used and it worked fine for me. Go into a pool (you'll want to anyway during the summer) hang your feet over the edge and do under water situps. Make sure your back touches the wall of the pool (don't hit your head) and the muscles used to push your body down are the same muscles used to keep you from toppling w/ tenors. Another good way is to stop being a little [expletive deleted] about it and just deal with it and wear them all the time. I don't care if the rest of the line has stands, that just means when they drop during tracking, you'll still be alive cuz you're used to wearing them.

Also, being a frail, skinny drummer when I started I also had the problem w/my carrier digging into my bones. I haven't really found anything around this in the beginning. You will most likely have perpetual bruises for about a year. If you keep doing the pool thing I mentioned and you continue to march w/good technique, your abs will gradually develop and by year 2 you'll have a stomach to keep that crap off of your bones.

BTW, the bones thing my skinny friend was talking about is way worse than sore back muscles. You can massage muscles, you can't massage bruised bones. Well, you can, but it does nothing but hurt like a [expletive deleted].

I just deal with it, but i get more pain in my legs from pointing my toes way up. I keep on trying to remember to stretch before practice, but I usually forget. Stay hydrated, and keep a chair right behind you if your practicing inside, that way when the awful wind instruments spend 20 minutes tuning and messing up the song without the drums playing, you can give yourself a break without taking them off.

By the way core strength exercises also help your posture, back problems and belly problem, and are highly recommended

I just get used to it. After about two weeks of band camp and some practices your back should have gotten used to it.

Our Line has us use stands for half the time during practices, and harnesses the other half. Once band camp starts we just wear them all the time so we can get used to it. It hurts at first, but after a while you gain back strength

We have a two week band camp and our drum instructor lets us use our stands as much as we can. Although, if we give him trouble or screw off, he'll make us wear them as a punishment.

One word MOTRIN. Painkiller that helped a little. My back was still sore, and another word JACUZZI. Nice warm massage for the back. If you don't have one, like me, just suck it up. This year is my first year and they do hurt. Oh well, next year they won't hurt as much.

DON'T USE MOTRIN, or any other drugs for that matter. Get yourself into shape. Start working out, if you have access to a gym either at your school or YMCA, etc. they usually have some machines that are designed for strengthening up your back. Get in there, work out, and make your muscles stronger. The reason I say not to use pain killers is because you are more likely to hurt yourself if you can feel the pain. It's like athletes with cortisone shots, they use them to get through the pain, but end up causing more damage because they cant feel things tearing, etc. Again, get in shape and the pain will me minimal to non-existent.

Actually i didn't say everything. The motrin helped my back a little but all it was really for was when I got my Wisdom teeth removed. The pain killer really helped that. Pain killers dull the pain. They don't kill it. So really you still could take them. One motrin isn't going to make you numb you just won't feel all the aches.

I don't were a back brace. I find that it just gets in the way. I just kind of deal with the pain. There is some lower back exercises that you can do to strenghten your back, that should help.