My QL is tight because my glutes are weak???

Hi all,

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but I have a very tight quadratus lumborum muscle. It's so tight it's irritating to walk. My friend's husband said he used to have the same problem and his physio cured him by discovering that his glutes were weak and giving him glute strengthening exercises.

Is this correct? Weak glute muscles can make your QL hurt? How is that? If it's true, what exercises should I be doing? I just don't understand how my glutes are causing my QL to hurt....

Anyway, thanks for any advice...

Gotta work out why your QL is so active. Could be a number of things and the gluteals could well be one of those areas that needs addressing. We can't work it out for you on a forum suffice to say that a good PT should be able to give you a sound starting point.

Just thought I would quickly explain why this might be for anyone viewing the post who may have been interested in the topic. But I completely agree with bob, your QL overactivation / tightness could be for a large number of reasons, and you will likely need to see a good physiotherapist to get it worked out.

Your hamstrings and gluteals form some of your major hip extensors, they can also POSTERIORLY rotate your pelvis by pulling "down"on it slightly. Your QL is one of a lot of muscles which pulls UP on your pelvis (QL does not anteriorly rotate your pelvis but your hip flexors do). When you have weak hammies/quads you can get a slight rise and anterior rotation of the hips, as your hip flexors and QL are less opposed. If a muscle is shortened by a function such as this for a long time, it starts to lose sarcomeres (building blocks of a muscle) to the point where it permanantly becomes that short. Body's use it or lose it policy @ work. Therefore you end up with a tight QL, which now has a poor length/tension relationship too! and is likely to give you some problems. Do you have a large curve in your lower back? if so let me know.

I tried to keep that kind of lay man, but failed as I re read it. Sorry if you don't understand some terminology please just look it up :)

However, there are also a lot MORE reasons why you may have a tight QL.
One of the major ones being poor posture, which increases stress on your QL as it tries to keep your lower back in an upright, extended position. This leads to muscle fatigue, tightness of the fibres and spasm!

It could also be in a response to a weak erector spinae or other lower back mucsles following lower back injury or pain. Your QL tends to overactivate to compensate and digs itself a hole in the long run as 90% of people with back pain do not try to reactivate good muscle activation patterns.

But yea, as physiobob said, go see a good therapist and he should be able to tell you what's going on. If not at least get him to release your QL, do some hamstrings / gluts exercises, Correct any poor postures with education/ergonomics(if working long hours desk job or standing or something), address any back pain / issues and see how you go :)

Hope some of that at least gave you some more information to take with you on your way. Could be some off parts as most of this was off the top of my head, feel free to rip it apart if any other physio's feel the need. :) enjoy!

Musculoman:rolleyes:

Hi guys,
Thanks so much for the replies. I posted here specifically because I am in Africa until September so I won't be able to go to a Pt until I get back to the States then.

I don't have any sharp pains, it just seems like my glutes in my right buttocks don't kick in when I walk, so my muscles that run along my spine on my right side and my ones above my hip bone on my back on the rIght side seem to kick in extra hard to "swing" my leg forward.

I do travel with a theraband and I have a tennis ball I use for massage for my upper back when it gets tight. I know exercises for my abs and chest that I can do in my bedroom (no access to a gym) but I don't know any exercises I can do on my own to strengthen hamstrings and glutes. Do you have any suggestions for hamstring exercises I can do without access to a gym?

Also, I cycle for about two hours a day. Should I stop, or is cycling okay still?

One more thing, my hamstrings are tight, but I always assumed tightness means strong. I'm begining to think that is incorrect?

Anyway, I know diagnosis is hard when you can't see me, but if you could perhaps give me some exercise tips to tide me over until I return to the US, I'd appreciate it.

Some good exercises are:

Deadlifts, single leg deadlifts, bridging, prone hip extensions, standing hip extensions with theraband, walking lunges, squats, single leg squats. All these you should be able to look up :) Sorry really don't have much time at the moment.

If you have been regularly cycling and still don't have good glut activation, you may have to look at your seat height. Raising your seat height can decrease the load on your quads and gives a better length-tension relationship for your glut max activation for most day to day activities. Some cyclists have very good gluts then wonder why they have problems during the day (it's because of the sitting position while riding, teaches the gluts to acviate very well when on a long length tension, but they perform inefficently when in a standing or similar position when you don't have large degrees of hip flexion).

So try raising your seat height if you can do it comfortably, stretch your hip flexors and quads (should easily be able to find these on the net), and try running through some of the above exercises. I will report later on if I have some time with descriptions/sets/reps/weights/ways to progress exercises/links to pictures etc. if I have the time.

Keep using the tennis ball to release as well :)

Have to jet, sorry, musculoman! :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Musculoman

Some good exercises are:

Deadlifts, single leg deadlifts, bridging, prone hip extensions, standing hip extensions with theraband, walking lunges, squats, single leg squats. All these you should be able to look up :) Sorry really don't have much time at the moment.

If you have been regularly cycling and still don't have good glut activation, you may have to look at your seat height. Raising your seat height can decrease the load on your quads and gives a better length-tension relationship for your glut max activation for most day to day activities. Some cyclists have very good gluts then wonder why they have problems during the day (it's because of the sitting position while riding, teaches the gluts to acviate very well when on a long length tension, but they perform inefficently when in a standing or similar position when you don't have large degrees of hip flexion).

So try raising your seat height if you can do it comfortably, stretch your hip flexors and quads (should easily be able to find these on the net), and try running through some of the above exercises. I will report later on if I have some time with descriptions/sets/reps/weights/ways to progress exercises/links to pictures etc. if I have the time.

Keep using the tennis ball to release as well :)

Have to jet, sorry, musculoman! :rolleyes:

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I am having a very similar problem, did you sort it out?

My question is how do you know it is your QL? There are a lot of structures in the same area. If it were merely a tight muscle then stretching over time will "fix" it as long as your activities don't ovruse it. Test the strength of your gluts doing 1 leg squats, kettlebellsg, 1 leg bridges etc. When you use both legs simaltaneously, the stronger leg will always dominate and use more. And yes a tight HS does not mean a strong HS. IT means there would be difficulties straightening your leg during a long stride. You have a mechanical issue and this involves movement patterns , joints, and yes muscles. Test it. I find it rare to merely be a muscle weakness. There is a lot going on with movement.
Test the movements. Which cause problems and which relieve it. Do you get lasting relief or pain after specific activities ? Are there postural asymmetries when you look in the mirror straight on?