Back Pain Relief Stretches: Remedies For Your QL Muscle

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hey, guys. Doctor Clayton Dr Roach here. Today we’re discussing one of the most common reasons people get low back pain. As you know, as chiropractors, we are seeing tons of cases of people coming in with low back pain. So our our source of data from our clinic is huge. And we get to see all kinds of reasons behind back pain. The one we’re discussing today is back pain due to this muscle called the quadratus lumborum. I know it’s a mouthful. Uh, we usually abbreviate it, uh, QL. So quadratus lumborum the QL muscle. Now, how does this present. Usually people will come into the clinic and they’ll say, doc, it hurts right here on the side. It goes from the top part of my hip bone all the way to the bottom part of the ribs. And they always describe it as this deep ache or pain that never seems to go away. So right away we zone in on this muscle called the quadratus lumborum. So the solution for this is one of two things or both. Either the muscle needs to be stretched and or strengthened. Typically, a muscle that’s weak is going to be short and tight. So the first thing you think, well, I got to stretch it. But maybe the reason behind all of that is that it’s actually weak and needs to be strengthened. So I’m going to show you three of my favorite stretches and strengthening exercises for the QL starting right now.

Number one. So this is taken from the yoga world. Um, what you’re going to do is you’re going to sit on your heels. So just like this, right? You’re going to sit back on your heels. Next you’re going to lean forward with your hands. Now go at it slowly. Relax your lower back and head and neck. And what you’re going to do is you’re going to pick a side to which you’re going to shimmy to. So I’m going to go to my right side. Now you should already start to feel the stretch. However, we’re going to enhance this stretch by shifting our body to the side that’s being stretched. And this absolutely feels amazing. I recommend keeping stretches for about 25 to 30 seconds, just to build a little bit of proprioceptive feedback to the brain. Hold it and then slowly get out of the stretch and shimmy over to the other side. Again, you start to feel it right now, but then what you do is you shift your hip and body onto the side that you’re stretching, and you should feel that literally from the top part of your hip, almost to the shoulders. This is an amazing stretch. Again, 25 to 30 seconds done both sides about three times. The next stretch is also a good one, so let’s dive into it right now.

So this next stretch of the QL requires very expensive equipment. A chair I’m just kidding. Everybody has a chair, so there’s no excuses why you should not be able to stretch this QL this way. So what you’re going to do is you’re going to lie with your elbow on the chair on the affected side. So if you’re feeling pain and achiness on the left side, you put your elbow forearm down on the chair. Next, you’re going to extend your legs and slowly lower your hips onto the floor or close to the floor, and you’re going to hold this stretch. This may be challenging, but 20 to 25, 30 seconds.. Whatever your body can handle. And this is an amazing stretch. So what you’re doing is you’re stretching all this side, and you’ll also feel it down into your TFL and your IT band all the way down here as well, because all those muscles are part of the same sling of muscles. So this is a beautiful stretch. Slowly come out of it by bringing your leg forward. You’re onto your knees and then off to the other side. Again, this may be a little challenging if you don’t have a lot of core strength to keep for 25 30 seconds, but I encourage you to keep it as long as you can. If you’re starting to shake and your technique is starting to fail, it’s time to get out of that stretch.

Do it on both sides three times, and this is going to be a great way to stretch not just your QL, but all the associated muscles onto that sling as well. The next stretch, I’m going to show you how to be in this position that I just showed you, but how to strengthen your QL, which could be the reason why it’s chronically short and giving you a problem. Let’s dive into this one. All right. So like I said, sometimes the problem with the QL is that it’s not that it needs to be stretched. It needs to be strengthened. And that’s why it’s shortened. Because a muscle that’s short is always weak. So how do you get out of that shortened state? How do you get that muscle to lengthen. It’s to make it stronger. So I’ve shown you a stretch with this very expensive piece of equipment called a chair that you can, you can find anywhere in your house. And the way we did it is that we lowered our body by leaning on the chair with our elbow, and we lowered our body in order to stretch this muscle. So now what you’re going to do is we’re going to modify this, and we’re actually going to do a hip hike like so. And at the end of the hip hike we’re going to pause for about three seconds.

And you’re going to feel a contraction on this side. And you continue down and you come back up. So I’m going to recommend that you do this if you can. 8 to 10 times. And we’re going to do this on both sides. And you can do it once or twice. Right. So what this is going to do is going to strengthen your QL. But you’re going to get a double bang for your buck because when you’re coming down, you’re creating a stretch on it. And you can pause there for three seconds as well and then come back up. The key here is to make sure that you’re not pushing back and that your hips, everything is in line with your body. So come down, feel the stretch for three seconds. Come up. Strengthen phase. Right. So you’re contracting your QL. Three seconds. Come back down. And like I said, I recommend doing this 8 to 10 times. And if you can repeat it twice on both sides. These are the solutions in order for you to get rid of that QL dysfunction that’s creating that low back pain on the side where people come in all the time in their clinic complaining of this problem, and finally find a solution with one of these stretches. Take care and see you soon.