Quadratus Lumborum

Sounds fancy, but what is it? It’s arguably of of the most important muscles in the body due to its role in spinal stabilization, yet it is so commonly neglected and hardly ever directly targeted. Over the next couple of days I’ll be showing you a few exercises you can add into your warm up or accessory work to target this muscle.

Any time you flex your spine side-to-side, or lift one side of your hip at a time (think running or walking), or any time you need to tighten your core to assist in any sort of powerful hip extension (pretty crucial if you’re an athlete of any kind), the QL is doing a large portion of that work. In addition, long periods of sitting (as in your 9-5 desk job) can put major strain on the QL as it picks up the slack for your weak spinal erectors. It *may* be contributing to excessive low back pain. Make sure you’re checking in with a PT regularly, especially if you are one who sits all day.