Training the quadratus lumborum, for me, has been a CRITICAL aspect of completely healing my lower back from pain and nothing would heal it. It’s not the only exercise but including it into a mix of exercises has made all the difference for me. So anytime someone says “quit training this muscle” I would say consult a lot of experts!
Is it not beneficial to strengthen these “unusual” ranges of motion with regards to injury prevention and mobility? Also in a scenario where someone is training the core as a whole eg. the farmer carry already, would it not be only beneficial to increase the strength of the individual mechanisms of the core? Great breakdown and explanation by the way, just pondering here:).
It's a good question and a common misconception that injuries are prevented this way. The best way to minimise risk of injury is to move well and balance movement/exercises and recovery. By doing it this way, you increase the margin of error or buffer for when you go into unusual ranges of motion. The core works best as a whole but you can change the position of the weight as this will change the position of most work within the core. E.g 1. Left side Farmers Carry for the right side. 2. Right side Farmers Carry for the left side 3. Front Squat for front side 4. Deadlift for backside 5. You can also add in Chops for rotation These are examples of the whole core is working through all of them and as the weight changes position so does the site of out work.
I think it's another unnecessary exercise (I think there are lots of those out in the world). If someone were to have a bad back i'd say it's a no no and I wouldn't have do it even if they had a healthy spine.
@@ChristopherHoleTraining hello Christopher. Really interesting content. Quick question: Front Squats Front Side you said. As how, could you give some quick knowledge please.
@@Dispensationalism With the weight racked on the anterior deltoids the abdominal wall activates to hold your torso in place. The weight placed here also change the centre of gravity and keeps your body more upright.
I don’t think it’s completely wrong , so long as you have a staggered stance while performing it , same as having one foot bent as you’ve demonstrated , correct ? Should your side bend be in the direction of the bent foot or away from it or does it even matter ?
I have a dysfunctional/weak ql on the left. It’s affecting not only my hip/spine, now my ribs. I believe my weak ql is pulling the ribs down, then the ribs are pulling down and affecting the scapulas which then is affecting the neck. It’s like a domino effect on my left side. I ‘m starting to have severe instability. It doesn’t help that my core is weak. So do you think to begin with that it would be beneficial to do side planks doing more on my weaker side? My glutes are inhibited also, can’t seem to activate them. Also Christopher, my right side ql is very tight. Would stretching that ql and strengthening the left be a better thing to do? Thank you muchly if you respond.
Have a look at this tutorial ua-cam.com/video/H4fI7A3Zsho/v-deo.html Although it's about Scoliosis, the principle of actively elongating the spine is a more effective way of balancing muscles than strengthening
At 9:50 you say when the right foot is lifted the opposite side (left QL) will engage to stop the spine from collapsing .. I thought when the right leg is lift the right QL will activate so the hips stay leveled…
It's when the right foot is lifted the opposite side (left QL) will engage to stop the spine from collapsing because when lifting the right foot your spine want to drop to the right due to the foot and leg not being there to stop it. The left QL is acting like a guy wire holding the spine up. The QL like the other core muscles work best during static and eccentric contractions not concentric contraction (like during a side bend exercise).
I wouldn't recommend it, the idea is to not bend the spine, however you can perform an exercise on a 45 degree bench and hold the weight out in front of you. This is a great exercise!
Stretching can help as it isn't as bad on the spine because of the low load. However understanding why the QL is tight in the first place is a better place to start. E.g. If it's tight due to instability no amount of stretching will help until the instability is addressed
Hello Chris, My left QL muscle have been facilitated and chronically tight in 1 year I need to take action on it, The process is very difficult to find out and to get rid of that pain. any idea to keep going? Should I stretching and strengthening the QL or what do you think Thanks for the great contents you share... 🙏💜
You often see a lot of boxers doing a kind of side sit-up of sorts either on a situp bench or off the edge of the ring. Mayweather used to do it a lot when he trained. Are you suggesting then that their training methods are Ill informed or just bad and not beneficial to boxing?
Combat athletes are better off training rotational stiffness and pulses because of the nature of their sport. It's hard to explain without images so I'll do a tutorial for it soon
@@ChristopherHoleTraining But also, boxers need to sidebend to dodge punches. Every muscle and every joint that can be used is going to make this motion even faster. But Im not a boxer so , its fine.
I have a high tendency of straining my left QL. Doing it once every half a year and some days it just tight and I have to stretch to get it to not pull me to the side. Are there other exercises where QL would be a limiting factor or at least close to it? For example during suitcase carry, my grip would give up earlier than my core, so I'm using straps and then I would feel obliques limiting me more, so in the end my QL is not getting the volume it could be getting to progress faster. Thanks for the video!
Thanks, I'm glad it was useful. If I were in your situation I would be focusing on building up my grip strength and lateral core. This would optimise my strength and create a whole that stronger than the sum of its parts and speed up progression that way..
Christopher Hole From looking at my x-ray The measurement from the top to the bottom of my disc Is less than it was 30 yrs ago Is there a way to restore a worn thin disc
I assume there has been some dehydration or degeneration occurring, which can be due to the ageing process. I can't say it will restore but decompression of the spine is a mechanism that has the opposite effect, by moving the vertebrae apart and thus elongating the discs. This can be done via a massage or simply hanging from your hands on a bar, there are other ways but these are the simplest.
the prevent movement aspect is only true for lifting though. rotation and bending of the spine happens in "real life" or in athletics. if you watch football players cut for example the spine does bend and the ql stretches and shortens. Having those athletes only train the neutral ranges for the weight room does not seem intelligent to me. Id like to hear your thoughts on that
Good question, What I'm talking about is different paradigm that is very slowly working its way into athletic training. Currently the industry is assuming that if I train a muscle or movement like the side bend it will translate into a whole body movement like the cut. With that assumption the athlete would use, side bend, hip abduction and ankle inversion. When you look at a cut the spine isn't bending because of a contraction of the QL (plus other muscles) on the side that's collapsing. It's because the hips are changing direction faster than the shoulders and the opposite side is stiffening to prevent the spine from collapsing and this is how a farmers carry or suitcase carry works. On the point about neutral ranges it is not only more protective to the spine, it also allows greater margin of strong/resilient spine movement during athletic endeavours. I've discussed this very point with Dr McGill and how he was able to extend the careers of wresters and MMA fighters using this method. Rotation and bending of the spine is partly true, it does happen but these movements should be hip dominant because load is reduced on the spine. The core and spine is then used like a spring not a lever, which a more efficient use and transfer of energy. This may need a video but I'll have to think how I can present it!
@@ChristopherHoleTraining yeah that makes sense and thats what I was thinking too. Knees over toes guy was talking about the opposite being the case and I just wanted to hear your opinion. appreciate it. Also would love a further video on that subject
The tennis serve uses minimal side bend/lateral flexion, it's more of a coil and whip with the arms and rotation of the hips. The core muscle will pulse to start the coiling back and up of the arms, begin to relax, pulse again as the arms changes direction, begin to relax through the forward movement and pulse when the ball is hit. More effective exercises would involve chopping, throwing and pulsing of the core muscles, for example certain Kettlebell exercise.
@@wenceslara1672 You can watch a bunch of top pro’s serve in slo mo on UA-cam. They go into full extension which is coiling the spring and then it whips back. The QL is a small cog in a large chain of events
You assume a lot about the activities people are doing. I am an acrobat and bending the spine is essential in my activities. My career would have ended a decade ago if I only prepared my body with stabilizing movements.
When I was able to ask Dr Stuart McGill about how he extended the careers of combat athletes who also need to bend their spines, he was very clear about the purpose these type of exercises. They are used to create a greater margin of tolerance in the spine so they are able to bend their spine within their combat sport, rather than training a potential injury mechanism all the time.
@@ChristopherHoleTraining Thanks for the response. Dr. McGill's work is infamous in the circles I frequent because it was done on cadavers that don't adapt and runs counter to the lived experience of most people in my sport. I am not a medical researcher, but I have survived nearly 20 years in my sport without a major sport related injury and have coached at least a hundred athletes. The forces on the core are immense and it only makes sense to train the muscles through at minimum the range of motion of the sport. I agree that training integration is invaluable, but not at the expense of isolation when needed. Besides, isn't the athletic movement the integration we are looking for, rendering the farmer's walk superfluous? I got plenty strong at these movements: triple bodyweight deadlift, overhead barbell lunges with 225lb, farmer's walks with more weight than seems reasonable, but I eventually abandoned them because I still felt weak in the ranges of motion required. If anything, it just felt like I was using more force to rip my torso in half. It wasn't until a gymnastics coach recommended I train with a flexed spine with things like jefferson curls and side bends that I started to see results. It takes years for the ligaments in the spine to adapt, but I have gone from struggling to use my own bodyweight to lifting hundreds of pounds on a barbell in these movements. Last night I was training the side bend you said not to do with 135lb for 100 reps each set per side at the end of my workout. It took years of slow and steady progress to get to the point where that is easy because meaningful tissue adaptation is slow. I see no reason why the QL should be treated different than any other muscle; if a human can move a certain way they were designed to move that way. A very basic combination that never fails to make my QL sore and tight after a couple hours of training (best played at .25 speed): ua-cam.com/video/AjSOK4wdpHY/v-deo.html A higher level of expression of the sport. Notice how the spine is almost never neutral during jumping and landing: ua-cam.com/video/Y4P2qysinNs/v-deo.html
@@lostalphabet341 The Athletic movement is the outcome and it’s a common misconception that recreating those movements in the gym improves the movement. When studying athletic/Sports training there are two types, skills training and weight training. Skills Training is the refinement of Athletic movement and weight training is tissue development albeit strength, endurance, power, speed or a combination of. Based on these terms, isolation tissue development has its place, for the right athlete at the right time. If an athlete requires spine and hip stability in a single leg stance the farmers and suitcase carry have relevance. How is a side bend is necessary for Gymnastic movements? I’m not sure because all these movements are based on Elastic Strength, Power and the use of Momentum, which the side bend doesn’t include.
Makes sense my whole left body is tilted and I don’t know where to begin I guess ql is the starter point. Thank you for sharing valuable knowledge..
Brilliant video, so much logic to all you say and demonstrate.
Thanks
Excellent. Very helpful. Thanks. God bless.
Glad it was helpful!
Training the quadratus lumborum, for me, has been a CRITICAL aspect of completely healing my lower back from pain and nothing would heal it. It’s not the only exercise but including it into a mix of exercises has made all the difference for me. So anytime someone says “quit training this muscle” I would say consult a lot of experts!
So interesting. Thank you for this one👌🏾
Glad it was helpful!
Could one use overcoming isometrics for this, pull a fixed bar up?
The best exercise is a Farmers Carry
Is it not beneficial to strengthen these “unusual” ranges of motion with regards to injury prevention and mobility?
Also in a scenario where someone is training the core as a whole eg. the farmer carry already, would it not be only beneficial to increase the strength of the individual mechanisms of the core?
Great breakdown and explanation by the way, just pondering here:).
It's a good question and a common misconception that injuries are prevented this way. The best way to minimise risk of injury is to move well and balance movement/exercises and recovery. By doing it this way, you increase the margin of error or buffer for when you go into unusual ranges of motion.
The core works best as a whole but you can change the position of the weight as this will change the position of most work within the core. E.g
1. Left side Farmers Carry for the right side.
2. Right side Farmers Carry for the left side
3. Front Squat for front side
4. Deadlift for backside
5. You can also add in Chops for rotation
These are examples of the whole core is working through all of them and as the weight changes position so does the site of out work.
@@ChristopherHoleTraining awesome! What are your thoughts on the Jefferson curl?
I think it's another unnecessary exercise (I think there are lots of those out in the world). If someone were to have a bad back i'd say it's a no no and I wouldn't have do it even if they had a healthy spine.
@@ChristopherHoleTraining hello Christopher.
Really interesting content.
Quick question: Front Squats Front Side you said.
As how, could you give some quick knowledge please.
@@Dispensationalism With the weight racked on the anterior deltoids the abdominal wall activates to hold your torso in place. The weight placed here also change the centre of gravity and keeps your body more upright.
If the QL ‘compresses’ is this bad for those with disc degeneration who already have a degree of compression?
It's hard to say if it's bad, is there pain?
@@ChristopherHoleTraining Thanks. Not a specific case just a general question.
I don’t think it’s completely wrong , so long as you have a staggered stance while performing it , same as having one foot bent as you’ve demonstrated , correct ?
Should your side bend be in the direction of the bent foot or away from it or does it even matter ?
I wouldn't side bend with a split stance
Excellent video. Wouldn't a suitcase carry be much more effective at engaging the QL? Thanks.
Suitcase Carry is a great exercise for QL
I have a dysfunctional/weak ql on the left. It’s affecting not only my hip/spine, now my ribs. I believe my weak ql is pulling the ribs down, then the ribs are pulling down and affecting the scapulas which then is affecting the neck. It’s like a domino effect on my left side. I ‘m starting to have severe instability. It doesn’t help that my core is weak. So do you think to begin with that it would be beneficial to do side planks doing more on my weaker side? My glutes are inhibited also, can’t seem to activate them. Also Christopher, my right side ql is very tight. Would stretching that ql and strengthening the left be a better thing to do? Thank you muchly if you respond.
Have a look at this tutorial ua-cam.com/video/H4fI7A3Zsho/v-deo.html Although it's about Scoliosis, the principle of actively elongating the spine is a more effective way of balancing muscles than strengthening
What is the exercise they are doing at the end? Holding and walking along with kettle bells?
Farmers Carry
At 9:50 you say when the right foot is lifted the opposite side (left QL) will engage to stop the spine from collapsing .. I thought when the right leg is lift the right QL will activate so the hips stay leveled…
It's when the right foot is lifted the opposite side (left QL) will engage to stop the spine from collapsing because when lifting the right foot your spine want to drop to the right due to the foot and leg not being there to stop it. The left QL is acting like a guy wire holding the spine up. The QL like the other core muscles work best during static and eccentric contractions not concentric contraction (like during a side bend exercise).
@@ChristopherHoleTraining thank you for the explanation! I appreciate it
Are split squats effective for the ql? Or is it just better to do farmer walks?
If you're holding a weight it will activate but you don't get the single leg stance for the full effect
Is it ok to perform this exercise on roman bench (45 degree) with weight on the side that is bending?
I wouldn't recommend it, the idea is to not bend the spine, however you can perform an exercise on a 45 degree bench and hold the weight out in front of you. This is a great exercise!
I have been doing QL Walks (Butt Walks). They seem to work. Should I stop doing them and focus more on the kettlebell carry shown in the video?
What should you do if you have very tight QLs that negatively impact your mobility?
Stretching can help as it isn't as bad on the spine because of the low load. However understanding why the QL is tight in the first place is a better place to start. E.g. If it's tight due to instability no amount of stretching will help until the instability is addressed
@@ChristopherHoleTraining how can I find the root of my tight QL for example my I been suffering from left QL and left oblique
Hello Chris,
My left QL muscle have been facilitated and chronically tight in 1 year I need to take action on it, The process is very difficult to find out and to get rid of that pain. any idea to keep going?
Should I stretching and strengthening the QL or what do you think
Thanks for the great contents you share... 🙏💜
Did you find out what was the cause
You often see a lot of boxers doing a kind of side sit-up of sorts either on a situp bench or off the edge of the ring. Mayweather used to do it a lot when he trained.
Are you suggesting then that their training methods are Ill informed or just bad and not beneficial to boxing?
Does Mayweather still do side situps like that?
@@billsemenoff No idea. If he trains for a fight I presume so.
Combat athletes are better off training rotational stiffness and pulses because of the nature of their sport. It's hard to explain without images so I'll do a tutorial for it soon
I explain this in my next tutorial, released Tuesday 22nd Dec 12pm
@@ChristopherHoleTraining But also, boxers need to sidebend to dodge punches. Every muscle and every joint that can be used is going to make this motion even faster. But Im not a boxer so , its fine.
I have a high tendency of straining my left QL. Doing it once every half a year and some days it just tight and I have to stretch to get it to not pull me to the side.
Are there other exercises where QL would be a limiting factor or at least close to it? For example during suitcase carry, my grip would give up earlier than my core, so I'm using straps and then I would feel obliques limiting me more, so in the end my QL is not getting the volume it could be getting to progress faster.
Thanks for the video!
Thanks, I'm glad it was useful.
If I were in your situation I would be focusing on building up my grip strength and lateral core. This would optimise my strength and create a whole that stronger than the sum of its parts and speed up progression that way..
@@ChristopherHoleTraining Thank for the thorough response, Christopher! For lateral core something like a Pallof Press works as well, right?
@@hvaranhvaran Correct and side planks
@@ChristopherHoleTraining thanks!
Martinez Donna Miller Karen Rodriguez Ronald
Is there a way to increase the thickness from top to bottom of a worn disc to relieve pressure of a nerve
What do you mean by thickness of a worn disc?
Christopher Hole From looking at my x-ray The measurement from the top to the bottom of my disc
Is less than it was 30 yrs ago
Is there a way to restore a worn thin disc
I assume there has been some dehydration or degeneration occurring, which can be due to the ageing process. I can't say it will restore but decompression of the spine is a mechanism that has the opposite effect, by moving the vertebrae apart and thus elongating the discs. This can be done via a massage or simply hanging from your hands on a bar, there are other ways but these are the simplest.
the prevent movement aspect is only true for lifting though. rotation and bending of the spine happens in "real life" or in athletics.
if you watch football players cut for example the spine does bend and the ql stretches and shortens. Having those athletes only train the neutral ranges for the weight room does not seem intelligent to me. Id like to hear your thoughts on that
Good question,
What I'm talking about is different paradigm that is very slowly working its way into athletic training. Currently the industry is assuming that if I train a muscle or movement like the side bend it will translate into a whole body movement like the cut. With that assumption the athlete would use, side bend, hip abduction and ankle inversion.
When you look at a cut the spine isn't bending because of a contraction of the QL (plus other muscles) on the side that's collapsing. It's because the hips are changing direction faster than the shoulders and the opposite side is stiffening to prevent the spine from collapsing and this is how a farmers carry or suitcase carry works.
On the point about neutral ranges it is not only more protective to the spine, it also allows greater margin of strong/resilient spine movement during athletic endeavours. I've discussed this very point with Dr McGill and how he was able to extend the careers of wresters and MMA fighters using this method.
Rotation and bending of the spine is partly true, it does happen but these movements should be hip dominant because load is reduced on the spine. The core and spine is then used like a spring not a lever, which a more efficient use and transfer of energy.
This may need a video but I'll have to think how I can present it!
@@ChristopherHoleTraining yeah that makes sense and thats what I was thinking too. Knees over toes guy was talking about the opposite being the case and I just wanted to hear your opinion. appreciate it. Also would love a further video on that subject
What if your sport required these unusual ranges of motion?
There are layers to this answers as it depends on the Sport, do you have a specific sport in mind?
@@ChristopherHoleTraining I was thinking of tennis, specifically the serve motion.
The tennis serve uses minimal side bend/lateral flexion, it's more of a coil and whip with the arms and rotation of the hips. The core muscle will pulse to start the coiling back and up of the arms, begin to relax, pulse again as the arms changes direction, begin to relax through the forward movement and pulse when the ball is hit.
More effective exercises would involve chopping, throwing and pulsing of the core muscles, for example certain Kettlebell exercise.
@@ChristopherHoleTraining I was doing it wrong then! hahha thanks for your response!
@@wenceslara1672 You can watch a bunch of top pro’s serve in slo mo on UA-cam. They go into full extension which is coiling the spring and then it whips back. The QL is a small cog in a large chain of events
You assume a lot about the activities people are doing. I am an acrobat and bending the spine is essential in my activities. My career would have ended a decade ago if I only prepared my body with stabilizing movements.
When I was able to ask Dr Stuart McGill about how he extended the careers of combat athletes who also need to bend their spines, he was very clear about the purpose these type of exercises. They are used to create a greater margin of tolerance in the spine so they are able to bend their spine within their combat sport, rather than training a potential injury mechanism all the time.
@@ChristopherHoleTraining Thanks for the response. Dr. McGill's work is infamous in the circles I frequent because it was done on cadavers that don't adapt and runs counter to the lived experience of most people in my sport. I am not a medical researcher, but I have survived nearly 20 years in my sport without a major sport related injury and have coached at least a hundred athletes. The forces on the core are immense and it only makes sense to train the muscles through at minimum the range of motion of the sport. I agree that training integration is invaluable, but not at the expense of isolation when needed. Besides, isn't the athletic movement the integration we are looking for, rendering the farmer's walk superfluous? I got plenty strong at these movements: triple bodyweight deadlift, overhead barbell lunges with 225lb, farmer's walks with more weight than seems reasonable, but I eventually abandoned them because I still felt weak in the ranges of motion required. If anything, it just felt like I was using more force to rip my torso in half. It wasn't until a gymnastics coach recommended I train with a flexed spine with things like jefferson curls and side bends that I started to see results. It takes years for the ligaments in the spine to adapt, but I have gone from struggling to use my own bodyweight to lifting hundreds of pounds on a barbell in these movements. Last night I was training the side bend you said not to do with 135lb for 100 reps each set per side at the end of my workout. It took years of slow and steady progress to get to the point where that is easy because meaningful tissue adaptation is slow. I see no reason why the QL should be treated different than any other muscle; if a human can move a certain way they were designed to move that way.
A very basic combination that never fails to make my QL sore and tight after a couple hours of training (best played at .25 speed): ua-cam.com/video/AjSOK4wdpHY/v-deo.html
A higher level of expression of the sport. Notice how the spine is almost never neutral during jumping and landing: ua-cam.com/video/Y4P2qysinNs/v-deo.html
@@lostalphabet341 The Athletic movement is the outcome and it’s a common misconception that recreating those movements in the gym improves the movement. When studying athletic/Sports training there are two types, skills training and weight training. Skills Training is the refinement of Athletic movement and weight training is tissue development albeit strength, endurance, power, speed or a combination of. Based on these terms, isolation tissue development has its place, for the right athlete at the right time. If an athlete requires spine and hip stability in a single leg stance the farmers and suitcase carry have relevance. How is a side bend is necessary for Gymnastic movements? I’m not sure because all these movements are based on Elastic Strength, Power and the use of Momentum, which the side bend doesn’t include.
I put 2 25lbs plates in my suitcase and it broke on the way to a meeting 🤔
This was painfully slow and ineffective to watch.
Thanks for you constructive feedback