The QL muscle, quadratus lumborum

This is for those of you with hip & back pain that are not aware of the QL muscle. I first became aware of this when my wife and I took the ferry to Bull Island, South Carolina to go on a nature walk. I was walking 3 miles in a hour flat in the parking lot next door every day at that time, so I wasn't anticipating having any trouble on our hike. Well, the ferry dock to the beach was over 2 miles, then up the beach, and then back. We walked over 6 miles. Between mile 4 and mile 5, I noticed I was not walking well, too much of what I call "hip dip". I felt like I was leaning, and my back above my affected hip had pain. I asked my wife if I was leaning and to take pictures. Those are the first three in this post. I had a heck of a time making it the last mile. I had run into this same leaning and pain thing a few times early in my recovery, but didn't ask about it. Hell, there was no one to ask. This time I sent the pictures to my neuro PT and she told me about the QL. I got some stretches to help prevent it, but it was more than 2 years before I found this release, shown in the last 4 pictures. This fall I had the same thing happen when we walked 5 miles at a botanical garden. This time, I tried something that actually worked! I leaned back towards my affected side and walked as straight up and as tall as I could. I walked towards my wife and had her verify that my position looked correct. We had discussed it and I had had her look at my leaning walking just prior. Anyway, the pain pretty much went away and so did most of the hip dip. I tried to help with the hip dip by walking tall and slightly exaggerating my heel toe pronation and cross-patterning hand movements - sort of half way to slow power walking. That also helped. I'll put comments on each picture. If you plan on doing the lazy dog, be sure to read about what it took me to relax into it and get it to release. Added: I mentioned this post to my PT today and she seemed familiar with it all. In talking about why you lean away from your affected side, she pointed out the obvious. You lean away to get weight off that hip / leg. Duh!  Click the pictures for a larger view.

This is when I first noticed I my back hurt and I was leaning.

This shot really shows it.  As a photographer, I want pictures of things.  I'm glad I had my wife take these.

Half a mile to go and I'm not a happy camper.  I chose not to post the picture with the grimace.

  

Information on the QL muscle.

Here's the release.  The key sentence here is, Be sure that your hips, shoulders, and head are in a straight line.  I had / have a tendency to have my head too far forward.  I had my wife take a look and tell me when I had pulled my head back far enough that I was aligned.  How to get the release to happen and other key information is on the next picture.

I positioned the chair like it is in the picture with the edge closest to me right under the back of my knee.  It was further down in my first attempt, but it was too far down and I didn't get the support I wanted to be able to relax.  Your affect butt cheek will be slightly off the ground it you are doing this correctly.  I found the first time I did this, it didn't do much.  I tried it for a few minutes but never totally relaxed into it.  I wasn't aware of that until my second attempt where I did intentionally relax into it.  That process took about 15 minutes the first time.  As I've learned, it has gotten shorter.  I relaxed like you do in yoga.  I started with my feet, my leg, my arms, my face, my shoulders, working my way towards the QL.  Right before I had everything relaxed and I felt the release, I had spasms in the muscles covering my ribs, just about the QL on my affected side.  When they quieted down, I felt totally relaxed and felt the QL release.  I don't think I can put in words what that felt like, because , in a sense it felt like nothing.  It felt like I was totally relaxed.  It worked that time and most of the times that I've tried it since.

Here are some exercises you can do to keep your QL loose and stretched.