Soreness and Pain

Since I was in my early teens, I've suffered from periodic knee pain. It's not always brought on by exercise, though exercise has been known to exacerbate it. For the past five or six years, I've also suffered from lower back pain as well. My spine doesn't hurt, but the muscles around it do. Looking at the illustration below, it would seem that my iliac crest and my thoracolumbar fascia are what's hurting. 

When I touch the sore areas on my back and near my knees, it almost feels like they're bruised on the inside, even though they're (probably) not. When my back hurts, though, my knees almost certainly do as well. I'll often feel pain in my ankles, too. It almost feels like my muscles are too tight and are causing my back and legs to become misaligned. Regardless of what's causing it, it's really annoying, but it doesn't hurt enough for me to see a doctor about it yet. More often than not, Tylenol does the trick. What worries me, however, is that running is known to irritate sore muscles. I really, really hope my back pain doesn't get worse when I start running more. That would really bum me out because running is something I've been looking forward to doing.

Anyway, does anyone have this problem? If so, what do you do to help with the pain? I think I need to work on strengthening my lower back and my core. I really need to start weight/strength training soon.