Hey guys I am getting desperate in finding whats wrong with my back. Its been bothering me prob close to a year now. When I squat for example my middle back as shown below feels a lot of pressure. It’s kind of hard to describe but almost like my back is folding at the bottom rib line of my back.
I feel pain there also when I deadlift. When I do the seated twist stretch I can really feel it and its extremely tight. Last night I did front squats and SLDL and didn;t notice any discomfort while working out, but this morning when I woke my mid back was really tight. I felt pain when bending over and doing side stretches and just mimicking doing dumbbell side bends.
I am looking for any and all opinions about this except to go see a doc which isn;t an option right now. I have gotten into stretching everyday something I lacked before. Any help is greatly appreciated!
[quote]polished1 wrote:
Hey guys I am getting desperate in finding whats wrong with my back. Its been bothering me prob close to a year now. When I squat for example my middle back as shown below feels a lot of pressure. It’s kind of hard to describe but almost like my back is folding at the bottom rib line of my back.
I feel pain there also when I deadlift. When I do the seated twist stretch I can really feel it and its extremely tight. Last night I did front squats and SLDL and didn;t notice any discomfort while working out, but this morning when I woke my mid back was really tight. I felt pain when bending over and doing side stretches and just mimicking doing dumbbell side bends.
I am looking for any and all opinions about this except to go see a doc which isn;t an option right now. I have gotten into stretching everyday something I lacked before. Any help is greatly appreciated!
[/quote]
It could be your Quadratus Lumborum (QL), which is a deep muscle in the lower back. If I’m correct, it attaches to the lowest rib, which seems to tie in with the areas you’ve indicated in your picture. They are also heavily involved in side-flexion of the torso, which would also explain why you’re feeling them during the side-bends. Stretching will only do so much for it- if it isn’t making a noticeable difference, then it’s likely your QL is overworking to compensate for the weakness of another muscle (most likely around the hips or the core.) However, that’s where my knowledge of this ends, so I’ll leave it to someone else to see if they can add to what I’ve said.
Hey thanks for the reply Melon. I was thinking it could be my QL. I have been doing research on the QL and am going to try doing side planks and just stretching the hell out of them. If anyone else has had issues with this or any advice I would really appreicate hearing it.
[quote]polished1 wrote:
Hey thanks for the reply Melon. I was thinking it could be my QL. I have been doing research on the QL and am going to try doing side planks and just stretching the hell out of them. If anyone else has had issues with this or any advice I would really appreicate hearing it.[/quote]
I would actually consider the strength of your gluteal muscles, rather than of the QL itself. Again hopefully someone can help clarify, but I believe that if your gluteal muscles are weak, the QL is forced to overcompensate to maintain pelvic balance during movement. Strengthening the QL muscles may not be the answer- if they are tight, they are most likely already overactive; attempting to strengthen them will only likely counteract any benefit you may get from stretching.
