Quadratus Lumborum: Why This Forgotten Core Muscle is SO Important

I’ve spoken at length about why it’s such a mistake that so many of us ignore training in the rotational plane. I’ve regularly spoken about how it leads to stiff movement, reduced power, a worse physique, and an increased chance of injury.

But most of us move even less in the frontal plane – that’s side to side movement. We squat and press and lunge forward and up and down but we never step side to side or load one side of the body more than the other. Even though any lifting we do in the real world is inevitably uneven. Even though rapidly changing direction and cutting from side to side is a huge part of all sports.

As a result, even the strongest lifters are often weak and fragile when the load isn’t symmetrical. Many of us feel pain in one side of our lower back or walk with a stiff and awkward gait.

The solution? Train the quadratus lumborum!

Meet: The Quadratus Lumborum

The quadratus lumborum, or QL, connects the hips to the lower spine and bottom rib. Specifically, it originates from the iliac crest and iliolumbar ligament and inserts at the L1-L4 transverse processes and the 12th rib. Like the psoas, then, the QL acts as a crucial junction that literally connects the upper body and lower body.

When it is functioning properly, the QL provides strength and stability for real world performance, as well as explosive athleticism. When it’s not working as it should, it can lead to back pain, imbalance, and stiff, awkward movement.

Like so many deep muscles, however, we have a bad habit of neglecting the QL. We can’t see it, so we don’t tend to think about it. This can lead to us becoming very strong when we’re moving straight up and down, or when we’re nicely supported, but weak and unstable the rest of the time.

In particular, the QL is a crucial player when it comes to spinal stability. If you are experiencing lower back pain, especially if it’s more on one side, there’s a good likelihood that the QL muscle is responsible. Tightness in the quadratus lumborum can compress the lumbar nerve roots that form the sciatic nerve and cause lower back pain. Commonly, extra tightness on one side can lead to increased irritation on that side.

Of course, excess tightness on just one side can also contribute to scoliosis – meaning that the spine doesn’t sit straight and this can even be visible to the naked eye when viewed from the behind. This can come from lifestyle habits as simple as always sitting with one leg crossed against your lap, or leaning more on one elbow. These minor postural imbalances can build up and compound over time, until we begin experiencing pain and restricted movement.

In many ways, you could even consider the QL to be the “symmetry muscle” as it helps to keep your core aligned in the frontal plane and to stabilise laterally under asymmetric loads. Imbalance in the QL leads to imbalanced movement, it’s as simple as that.

More Functions of the QL

But it also does a lot more than that, too. The QL muscle is also responsible for hiking the hips – raising them on one side. We need to do this in order to walk or run, so imbalance or dysfunction of the hips can negatively impact your gait, making you more likely to trip and fall or simply making you a slow and stiff runner.

Simply put, extra strength and stability in the QL helps you to raise the legs more as you run, covering more crowd with explosive strides and avoiding obstacles. It will literally give you more “spring in your step.” It also, of course, plays a massive role when throwing kicks, so it should be a core part of any martial artist’s training.

The QL even helps you breathe; pulling down on the 12th rib to stabilise it during inhalation and assist exhalation. If your QL isn’t functioning properly because it’s too tight or too weak, it can prevent you from fully inhaling and exhaling, robbing you of energy. This could theoretically increase sympathetic tone, even, making you feel more tense and anxious even at rest.

The QL also plays a significant, though often overlooked, role in rotational movement – assisting the obliques and multifudus. Anyone who has watched my channel before will know just how important this is for all human movement. Everything from punching, to wrestling, to running, to throwing involves some element of rotational movement and yet so few people train it at the gym.

How to Train The QL

The bad news is that tightness, weakness, and imbalance in the QL are extremely common among the modern population and there’s a good chance you’re dealing with tight and uneven QL muscles right now. As mentioned, this is because so few people actively train or stretch the QL. And it’s because we spend so long sitting or standing in one place – often leaning on one side for comfort.

With all this in mind, then, how do you go about training the QL to improve ?

The problem with a lot of corrective exercises is that they’re boring, fiddly, and only offer a small stimulus. Performing hundreds of stretches and strengthening exercises with bands for every single supporting muscle is time consuming and often just leads to more issues as you inevitably find new areas that need training.

Rather, I believe that if a muscle is important for functional performance, we should be able to train it functionally. Through movements that work the body as a single system.

For example, a very simple way to train the QL is simply to train more exercises unilaterally, on one side. In particular, doing one armed shoulder press will challenge you to stabilise your core using your QL muscles while still allowing you to get more than adequate stimulus for the shoulders.

Here, we are training the symmetry muscle by training asymmetrically. And we’re doing it without adding anything new – just making an exercise you were probably already doing, more functional.

Sandbag training can be just as effective. When you lift the sandbag, chances are that you’ll be a little off centre and some of the sand will move inside. This will then load that side more than the other. You’ll then shoulder the bag on one side, hitting that QL muscle again.

This is the really great thing about sandbag training. I initially was worried it would beat up my back but, in fact, quite the opposite is true. By forcing you to use your core and your spine together, it’s actually like therapy. It feels great and it supports healthy, balanced, functional movement.

If you want something more precisely targeted, you can try the suitcase carry – a loaded carry with the weight on one side. Just pick up a kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand and walk with it. This will force you to brace the other side to keep the torso straight and you’ll need to work to maintain proper walking form. This is the classic anti-lateral flexion movement.

A tip: for all these unilateral movements, train the weaker side, first!

Another great option if you have time for something extra is the old-time strongman move: the bent press.

Then there’s the Gladiator deadlifts that Wildhunt Conditioning talks about. Here you deadlift a single dumbbell or kettlebell from the ground positioned next to you, with the opposite arm.

The other reason these movements work so well is that they work the QL in an integrative, rather than isolated, manner. The QL is a reactive stabiliser. Very often we don’t consciously flex it but rather it should reflexively contract and shift in relation to the load.

All these things will make your strength so much more adaptable and functional – so that you can lift awkward objects and react to unexpected forces. This is real-world power that so few people train.

There are also a few exercises that will work the hips in this manner. Hill sprints require you to raise each leg higher than you would during normal sprints, training that hip hike while keeping the torso steady.

Step ups do this well, too. Especially on a higher platform using a slow, controlled descent where you’ll be challenging the QL under load.

If you really want to target the QL more directly, you can do so with the side plank or elevated side plank crunches. The latter is great for challenging the QL in the stretched position.

For a great mobility stretch, I highly recommend the crab reach. This stretches the QL muscle and gets you into an even greater stretch thanks to the rotation. This also reinforces rib-pelvis dissociation, leading you move the torso more freely and generate more power as a result.

Similarly, you’ve got things like the gate pose from yoga.

My recommendation is to start training more unilateral movements, to throw in something like the suitcase carries or bent press, and then to add a nice side bend to your mobility. Do all this and you might find you start to feel stronger, more mobile, and more explosive.

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One Comment

1. Aaron says:

   November 3, 2025 at 1:58 am

   My back needed this. I will try it at the gym tomorrow.

   Reply