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Hi, I have a bit of a predicament and before going to an osteopath thought of sharing the experience as I believe it might be something that others have run into as well and would love to hear your stories. My lower back area tends to have some kind of structural / unbalance problem which in normal life doesn't really cause problems but in some positions / stretches it sometimes has caused even lumbago out of the blue. For example once I was sitting in pancake stretch and when trying to get out of it my back just snapped and was really painfully "stuck" for days. One way that especially makes itself known is dead hang. If I try to dead hang from a bar and relax my core, the lower back spinal area immediately causes sharp pain which I can only alleviate by either causing tension in abs or some other way "not relax". Hence I am feeling that there is some unbalance / tension there which doesn't really get help from dead hang kind of relaxation and it feels bad because I think that I should be able to have the back decompress without this kind of pain / problem happening. Usually after this kind of dead hang even for 10 seconds or so the back "stays in pain" and I have to do careful positional shifts and muscle activations in the lower back to "get it back to normal" again. Like I said if I don't aggravate it it doesn't really cause trouble in normal day to day life and even in exercises but I probably have learned to intuitively "be careful" with it and there is probably some kind of preventative constant tension there that prevents the area from aggravating. If anyone has similar situation and has found some ways to work it out I appreciate and stories! Like I said I'm going to see an osteopath and hopefully can get some professional evaluation regarding my own situation but I believe there is something quite generic going on that somebody else has had as well.

Hey guys, This is a bit of reading so I appreciate everyones time for helping here. Hoping I can get some feedback in here. Any help is appreciated as this has been a frustrating issue. Alternatively I am in San Diego, if someone knows any great therapists/etc out here. In the past 5 years I've had about 5 back "pulls". They are always just to the right of the spine, very low, almost the SI joint, and the pain tends to radiate in that area and to the glute. Twice it's happened in BJJ, the other times were lifting. Up until about 10 weeks ago I was fine for a couple years, then pulled it bad in BJJ. So I rehab'd, got chiro, A.R.T, done egoscue/mbf alignment type stuff, Rolfing etc, all of which has cost a ton of time and money lol. I started in GB a few weeks ago as well when I was feeling better. A couple days ago, and yesterday, I had 2 harder BJJ sessions. Last night I did the front split stretch series. This morning I felt a bit tight so before doing my foundation work I did some mobility stuff, warmed up, etc. Then, I was doing a warmup set on MN-PE1-im, with no weight. I've done this movement many times before. At the bottom of the movement I felt a slight pinch/pull, unfortunately, again on the right side. Obviously this is getting disheartening to say the least. I've done tons of research, implemented spinal/SI joint stability protocols, etc. The stretch series has pointed out that I have a lot of lacking flexibility in certain positions. Anyway I guess I'm hoping for any feedback on what the issue could be, references to any pros or extra education for me. If I am to look at my "symptoms", I've noticed these a lot: • left hip much tighter than right • left erector displays more hypertrophy than right • right glute max/med slightly smaller than left • left hip typically wants to rotate forward • left leg tends to be stronger/slightly bigger in general, but tighter • left leg "feels" longer. Chiro and therapists have pointed this out as well Obviously I have some imbalances that have been hard to fix. My first real injury was when I was 16, where I broke my right ankle and tore tendons in it. Like an idiot instead of rehabbing properly, I hopped around on my left leg for a month. Also during my MMA/muay thai career, I was always left leg forward. Thanks in advance for the help.

So during my workouts I've been getting some soreness in my lower back. Sometimes when doing front lever work and sometimes from doing leg work on other days. I should add that in addition to Foundation I also do leg press, leg curl, and leg extensions for my leg workouts. After the workout I put some IcyHot or something on and it's ok later that night and the next day. So it's not a lingering pain, just soreness. I stretch before and after the workout. This only started happening in the last few weeks, could it be due to using too much weight on the leg exercises? And really I could use some reccomendations on what to do before/during/after a workout for your lower back mobility and health. Thanks.

I posted this in another thread but the issues on that thread were already resolved and it seemed like I was starting a new thread within a thread, so I just decided to post it as a new topic again instead. Whenever I used to do exercises that involved hyperextension of the back, my "Lower/side" back would cramp up. The thing is though, my erector spinae wasn't what was cramping. The way I figured it out was doing Iliopsoas stretches directly after, which soothed the low back pain but not the deep dull side pain, which remained for days on end. Did a bit of research and figured that it had to be my Quadratus Lumborum, a muscle for which I haven't yet found a stretch that could be performed without a partner and that actually targets this muscle. Even foam rolling or using a tennis ball fails at successfully reaching this region. As a way to deal with this issue, I try to always perform exercises with a "stacked" spine or at the bare minimum to be mindful of my coccyx being "tucked", which reduces pulling tension on my Iliopsoas and to some degree on my QL. 1)Are there holds/exercises where the back shouldn't be tucked? (in martial arts, tennis, swimming, and many other sports they teach you that being stacked is how you control your body as one single unit) 2)Is the QL involved in hyperextending the back? or in anterior pelvic tilt? 3)Are there any good solo QL stretching exercises out there? 4) Say you have tight hip flexors, hamstrings or any muscle you want. It's tight and you can also feel a pain that resulted from this tightness. Do you recommend stretching?(I assume yes) BUT do you recommend strengthening: -after the pain has gone away? -while there's pain, but to train the muscle within the confines of what one would consider tolerable pain/not debilitating pain? -what if you haven't been strengthening the muscle, but kept stretching it correctly for a number of months and there is an increased range of motion and flexibility but still some residual pain. Could this be because of a lack of training this muscle? Should you start strengthening it? I would really appreciate Kitlaughlin's input on this(as well as anyone else that wants to shed some light on this issue)