When you suffer from back pain there are common muscles people and practitioners think of that are involved. There are of course your hip flexors, your hamstrings and your lower back muscles. You then accept your abdominal muscles have a part to play as well.

There are 2 muscles that are not commonly thought of as being a cause of back pain. The first is your calf muscles which we discussed in a previous post, and your Quadriceps.

Your Quadriceps are the large thigh muscles in the front. This muscle is used when you walk as it helps raise your thigh from your hip; it also extends your lower leg (meaning your foot comes forward).

Being a larger muscle and thought of as mainly related to your legs, it is often missed when dealing with back pain. The Quadriceps is very important for lower back pain and back pain in general due to where it attaches.

The muscle attaches just below your knee and again into the front of your pelvis. If this muscle tightens then your pelvis is dragged forward. This helps to create a sway back and places extra strain on your lower back joints. It will also create a twisting in your pelvis if one muscle is tight and the other not.

As a result it is a muscle that is very important to stretch…

To stretch this muscle there is two possible ways. The first is the common stretch where you bend your knee and grasp your foot with your hand. Then you pull your leg backwards creating a stretch in your thigh muscle.

(Also doing a hip flexor stretch will also stretch this muscle if the Quadriceps is tight – so actually there is 3 ways to stretch it.)

The other way to stretch is to kneel on the ground, and lean backwards. This will also stretch the muscle, but you need to be cautious as this will also place strain on your lower back if you have moderate back pain. If you want to increase flexibility in the muscle once your back pain has disappeared, then this is a better way to perform the ideal PNF stretches for this muscle.

However, please err on the side of caution if you have back pain and perform the first stretch above. Once back pain has disappeared, then you can use this second stretch.

Remember, back pain is caused not just by tight muscles; you need to address weak muscles, joint disruption and pelvis imbalance. Then and only then will your back pain leave and not return.

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