Quick Tip: Stretch Your Hips & Quads to Help Back Pain

One natural reaction to back pain, or pain in any particular area, is to focus all of your attention on where the pain is, not necessarily addressing the things that might be causing the pain in the first place.  Often, back pain is brought on by excessive tightness or poor mechanics in other, opposing muscle groups and movement patterns.

With back pain, usually there is some sort of problem with the pelvis, typically presenting in what’s called an anterior pelvic tilt (to visualize, put your hands on your hips, and picture “pouring” your pelvis forward).  Your butt will usually stick out and an excessive amount of lumbar arch (called lordosis) results.  This is usually caused by muscles that connect to the front of the pelvis being unnecessarily tight, specifically the psoas (one of the hip flexors) and the rectus femoris (one of the four quadriceps muscles).

As part of your daily routine, simply apply a mix of foam rolling and stretching to the hips and quads.  It’s best to begin with foam rolling the quads, then the hip flexors, before stretching.  If done pre-workout, do your foam rolling first and static stretching after a training session, as studies have shown that static stretching pre-workout can limit power output.