Good morning and happy 07/19/23. To my knowledge, there’s no significance to this date, other than that it’s National Hot Dog Day (if you have any left over from the 4th, eat up). I hope it’s a happy day nonetheless! 🌭 

(If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to receive this weekly newsletter, sign up below!)

Quadratus Lumborum!  

It’s not a Harry Potter spell. It’s a muscle! From now on, we’ll refer to it as the QL.

Here are a couple pictures so you can see where it is. You have two—one on each side of your spine. The QL originates at the upper crest of your hip bone (ilium) and attaches to the side of each of your five lumbar vertebrae and then to the bottom of your 12th rib. Pretty unique muscle!

To get a feel for it, take your thumb and locate the space it occupies on your back. Relax your muscles and press deeply in the space between your hip bones and lowest rib, a couple inches to the side of your spine. If you feel that tenderness, you might’ve found your QL!

If you haven’t studied anatomy or some sort of health science, there’s a good chance you didn’t even know these muscles existed. But I’m here to make the case for why the QL is actually a very important muscle.

Lower back pain: If you suffer from it, nothing else needs to be said. If you’ve gotten over a bad spell, congratulations. If you’ve never had it, brace yourself (pun intended).

While I’ve written before about not assigning ourselves a lifetime diagnosis and identity for what can be a temporary issue, lower back pain (LBP) is something that plagues millions of people, and often chronically. Due to some insult or injury, or just improper care over a long time, people can develop LBP and never go through the proper rehab to get out of pain again.

You probably aren’t consigned to a life of back pain, though. Odds are, holistic rehabilitation, including targeting the QL, can make great improvements to the LBP you feel.

The QL is often implicated in LBP, especially if it hurts on either side of your spine. With all those attachment points, any tension, spasms, or inflammation could really irritate the sensitive areas around your spine.

Often, if there’s been any kind of injury, our back muscles will spasm in an effort to “protect” the injured areas by stabilizing it. This is great temporarily, but when it’s ongoing, this can actually be more of a cause of the pain than a prevention.

That is exactly what I experienced after a lumbar herniation in college. I struggled with subsequent reinjuries and pain that would flare up if I didn’t care for my body right. One targeted therapy that always helped was showing some love to my QLs!

And even if you don’t currently experience LBP, strengthening and stretching this muscle is a great way to help prevent it in the future.

Let’s talk about three ways to give your QLs the love they deserve.

1. Stretching

2. Massaging

3. Strengthening

Stretching

Hang! Find a bar and hang from it! Don’t walk—run! Hanging is such a great way to release tension on your back and stretch things back out. So great, I even wrote a post about it awhile back ;)

Experiment with a little side-to-side swaying while hanging to see what gets the best stretch. Remember, since this muscle goes from hip to spine to rib, lengthening the space between those bones on one side is what will stretch it. This means it’s probably easier and more effective to focus on one side at a time.

A few other stretching options (I’ll describe stretching the right QL; obvi flip sides to do both):

• Stand tall and put left hand on left hip. Raise right arm up and reach over your head to lengthen your right side, while pushing your hips to the right as well. Then try leaning/bending forward a little to really stretch the QL out

• Put your right elbow & forearm on a wall, standing facing left of the wall. Plant your feet or cross the left over right foot, keeping most weight on right foot. Drive your hips toward the wall and keep your shoulder more away from it than this guy

• Turn the opposite way with your left shoulder near the wall, at an open doorway. Reach over your head and clasp both hands around the doorway. Bring your right foot into the base of the wall. Streeeeetch!

• Bonus: Try foam rolling on your back! This can feel super fantastic in a scream-across-the-gym kinda way.

With all of these, really play around with the positions. You may feel nothing in some, and light on fire in others. Listen to your body and safely experiment until you find what’s most effective for you!

Massaging

This either feels incredible or terrible, depending on your pain tolerance. You likely rarely, if ever, massage or put significant pressure on that part of your back. Let’s change that, and loosen things up.

Self massage:

• Stand, sit, or lie on your stomach. Straighten out your hand, use your pointed thumb, or make a fist and use your knuckles. Massage away! Go deep and slowly. Make sure to cover the entire muscle from the hip bone to ribs. Spend extra time on sensitive spots. You can also try lying on your back and putting your fist or a ball under your back.

Partner massage:

• Lie on your stomach. Instruct your partner use any of those hand positions above, or a reinforced double hand straight position (similar to CPR) to stabilize. Have them find your lumbar spine, then go over to the top of that hip bone, then apply deep pressure. Experiment and move around until they find it. Work in slow, repetitive motions, gradually moving up the muscle to the bottom rib. They can also use massage lotion/oil and apply deep pressure strokes with fingers, thumbs, or knuckles.

Strengthening!

My favorite part! Here are some great QL exercises to strengthen them. These involve other muscles, too, but know that you have some body awareness of your QLs, try to really feel both a stretch and a contraction in them during these exercises.

Remember that a “tight” muscle is usually a weak/overworked muscle. It could also be that it’s compensating for or protecting other tissues. Remember to use good form and posture on all your exercises!

• Side planks with dip. Do what this lovely stock image woman is doing and hold it! If you can, dip your hip down to the floor and raise back up. Repeat that for repetitions.

• Kettlebell/dumbbell side bend. Hold a weight in one hand and stand tall. Side bend to lower the weight as far as you can, stretching out the opposite side. Bend just a teeny bit forward if you need more stretch in your back. Then raise the weight back up and contract the side you just stretched. Take it slowly and aim for 10+.

  • KB carries are a great alternative. Stand straight and neutral and walk with a heavy KB in one hand, bracing your core on the opposite side.

• Windmill! Bit chaotic, but just watch this video lol.

Remember that a strong core includes many more muscles than the QL. So other ab and core exercises are essential accompaniments to our low back stabilization team! Do these alongside other exercises that strengthen your core.

Stretch, massage, and strengthen your Quadratus Lumborum! Before you know it, you will wingardium leviosa right out of lower back pain.

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Try the stretches!

Level 2: Try the massages!

Level 3: Try the exercises!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Listen: Quiet the Diet is ended season 2 with another banger of a podcast! “Everything Wrong with Nutrition on Social Media.” (It’s a bit of a teaser for next week’s topic! 👀 

• Read: “Rethinking ‘Weekend Plans.’” This is just a really good little article. I’ve been feeling some typa way about my weekends lately, and I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s like there’s so much I could do, I do a few things but not all, then feel unaccomplished?? What’s that about? Maybe there’s something to slow errands on the weekend.

Gotta blast! 🚀 

Share this with a friend! (I know you’re not gonna do it. You won’t. YOU WON’T! ALRIGHT PROVE ME WRONG THEN.)

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).