The QL muscle is renowned for being the prime cause of lower back pain. He brings the hips up and is important for balancing postural distortion. It is located deep into the abdomen and runs from the iliac crest to the 12th rib. It is close to many structures such as the kidneys, the colon and the diaphragm, as well as nerves, abdominal muscles and the spine. Needless to say that if this muscle doesn’t work properly, a lot of problems could occur. This muscle acts as a prime mover, a postural muscle and a respiratory muscle. Some people with back pain also experience discomfort when breathing because a cranky QL resists elevation of the rib cage, and cramps up when pulling it down firmly on exhalation. Imagine the sense of relief when this is resolved! Overuse and strain of the quadratus lumborum are one of the major causes for chronic pain in the lower back. One typical cause is the habit of sitting at the desk using a reclined seat, which releases the intrinsic back muscles and weakens them in the long term. The weak back muscles must now be compensated by the quadratus lumborum leading to painful tension and stiffening of the muscle. Other causes can be direct damage or any type of imbalance of the pelvis or spine which forces the quadratus lumborum to stabilize them. An example of that type of imbalance is unequal leg lengths. If the gluteal muscle is weakened or overused (particularly the gluteus medius), the QL will be excessively recruited in order to stabilize the pelvis. That is one of my weakest point: after carrying two babies and running, my glute muscles are just constantly sore. I experience pain in the hips sometime and massaging those areas is extremely painful. It is a good sign that my QL is being put under a lot of strain already… so working on those weak areas will relieve, eventually, some of the pressure put on my QL. Very often, one side of our body is weaker. On that side, having problems with the QL will most likely lead to chronic pain and tensions in the mid and upper back and in time it will affect further down the kinetic chain (i.e. hip, knee, shoulder, neck and head). Other causes of problems can be accidents, shorter leg, overuse or poor posture.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:27:44 +0000
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