Are your buttocks making your back ache?

How can your butt muscles (aka your glutes) be making your back feel sore?

A sore and achy lower back can be caused by tension from muscles around the hips, not solely your gluteus maximus (the buttocks), but they shall be the focus in this blog.

Tension can be a result of both shortened muscles (locked short)as well as lengthened muscles (locked long). Both will feel ‘tight’.

Image: Essential Anatomy 5

So how do your glutes cause your lower back to ache and feel sore?

Do you spend long hours sitting?

If so, your glutes spend all day in a stretched position leaving them locked long. This means they aren’t able to contract and create the force they need to extend your hips (help you stand up straight).

But what’s this got to do with your lower back?

Your glutes can affect the position of your pelvis and you’ve guessed it, your lower back muscles are affected by the position of your pelvis. The way you sit can also exacerbate the issue.

Feel the soreness mostly to one side?

Do you by chance sit on a wallet or lean more to one side. It is possible that only one side is affected.

When glutes are locked long, your pelvis is stuck tilted forward, this pulls on the muscles of your lower back, enlarging the curve in your lumbar spine.

Neutral spine occurs when muscles are balanced (Image: Posture by Muscle & Motion)

Increased arch in the lower back occurs when the pelvis tilts forward. The glutes are lengthening when sat like this. (Image: Posture by Muscle & Motion)

Your lower back muscles will tire which can be the soreness you feel or you my even have spasms in your lower back.

Shortened muscles can occur if you overuse your glutes, this can equally be bad news for your lower back as your pelvis is pulled backward.

What can you do about it?

Strange as it may sound, massage or soft tissue release of the glutes can make everything feel a whole lot better. A good soft tissue treatment will reset the length of the glutes releasing the tension in your lower back. It will also return your ability to contract your glutes returning the power to your muscle. a therapist can treat you or you can use a foam roller or massage ball.

So how are your butt muscles?

You may not necessarily feel it in your lower back or you’re so used to it you don’t notice it, so check in on your glutes.

Can you contract them strongly?

Can you do each cheek independently?

Is there anything you can do to better engage your glutes?

Start by looking at the way you sit and how long you sit for. If you are still struggling to feel your glutes, this free mini course will take you through the steps to familiarise yourself with them.

I am Sabrina Qua - Soft Tissue Therapist, Movement Coach and Personal Trainer based in Worcester Park, Greater London, who helps people reduce their muscular aches and pains through an integrative approach, so they can live active, enjoyable lives.

Do you have tight hip flexors?

You may have been told you have tight hip flexors, or perhaps you suspect they’re tight because you spend most of your day seated… so how do you know if they are tight and what can you do?

Where are your hip flexors?

Your hip flexors are the muscles at the front of your hip that help your body hinge into a seated position. They also help you raise your knee to your chest, so they can become tight and shortened due to long periods of sitting.

Image: Essential Anatomy5

Why is having tight hip flexors a problem?

Tight or shortened muscles (anywhere in your body) will affect your mobility and posture. Tight hip flexors will stop your glutes (butt muscles) from functioning properly, leading to imbalance and poor movement. Your glutes are one of the most powerful muscles in your body, if they aren’t functioning properly, you will have to gain your power and movement from elsewhere.

Because of your tight hips, you may experience hip pain, knee pain, lower back pain, ankle pain just to name a few.

3 Common Signs Your Hip Flexors Are Tight

1. You have an excessive arch in your lower back that often feels sore or achy. When the hip flexors are tight, they will pull your pelvis forward creating the arch. Try lying on the floor - you will find you have a large gap between your lower back and the floor. Now try to engage your abdominals by drawing in your belly button in towards your spine and tucking your pelvis bone. If you find this a struggle, this could be an indicator that your hip flexors are tight.

2. Lying down on your back with your knees bent, bring one knee into your chest. Any pinching at the front of your hips could indicate tightness of your hip flexors. The tightness leaves less space for movement, hence you feel pinching. You may find one side moves more freely than the other, this is also quite common.

3. One leg appears longer than the other. When the hip flexors are tight, which can occur just on one side, the pelvis is pulled forward, changing the way your femur sits in your hip socket. This results in one leg appearing longer. You may feel knee, ankle or back pain as a result of this as your body tries to manage the imbalance.

There are many ofther signs and tests for tight hip flexors, but you have to remember, they should not be blamed for everything. Muscles work in pairs and there are groups of muscles that support each other. Dysfunction could stem from any of these areas.

What can you do about tight hip flexors?

1. Reduce the amount of time you are sat down. frequent movement allows your muscles to shorten and lengthen, preventing ‘tightness’ from developing..

2. Stretch tight, shortened muscles. There are many different ways to stretch your hip flexors. This is just one of them.

3. Soft Tissue Therapy can really help give you a kick start, allowing you to feel what it’s like to have more open free moving hips., and making it more accessible for you to upkeep.

Are you aware of how tight your body is?

Often people don’t know how a relaxed free moving body feels because they are used to the body they live in. You live day in day out with your restrictions which are normal for you.

As a Soft Tissue Therapist, I can feel areas of tension that you aren’t aware of. It’s only through palpation that you realise just how “tight” you are.

EMMETT technique is just one of the therapies I use and it is extremely efficient and effective at releasing hip flexor tightness.

Relaxed hip flexors will improve your posture and the way your move. Any pains you felt before will also likely change and reduce.

As with all soft tissue therapies though, you do need to follow it up with stretching and strengthening of the relevant muscle groups.

So how do you feel about your hip flexors?

Do they need attention - movement, stretching, soft tissue release?

If stretching and movement isn’t working for you, you will probably benefit from soft tissue therapy. If you have been tight for a long time, your body will have created many different compensation patterns, all of which need to be addressed.

I am Sabrina, Movement Coach, Personal Trainer and Soft Tissue Therapist based in Worcester Park helping people overcome their aches, pains and recurring injuries through the use of soft tissue therapy and good healthy movement.

Afraid to bend to put your socks or shoes on?

Fear bending to put on shoes?

Constantly being fearful of bending is not a great way to live.  Did you know that soft tissue therapy can help ease the tension in the muscles so they are less likely to spasm? 

The unfortunate part of this is, for many it only provides a short term solution.

Why is it only short term?

If you've been living with back pain for a long time, your body will have changed to help you avoid the painful positions. Your body will have learnt new ways of moving resulting in muscular imbalances, so a simple soft tissue release will only provide you with short term relief. 

To avoid reoccurence of your spasms, you will need to restore the balance in your muscles and learn healthy movements. Resestablishing your core engagement and developing awareness of how you are moving and standing are key.  I've had clients who I've treated complain of continued back ache straight after their treatment, however as soon as they engage their core muscles, they say the pain goes.

Did you know that muscle groups can switch off when you have an injury?

Core engagement should come naturally, however, if you have had a sore back for a long time, your core muscles will likely have switched off. Did you know muscle groups switch off when you have an injury?  This happens to protect the injured area. It’s a good thing! It stops you from making movements that will cause further injury.  The problem is it doesn't always switch back on again once your injury has recovered and that's when long term problems arise. 

So how do you switch muscles back on?

For some, this will be like learning how to drive, You have to start at the beginning - thinking through every movement you make. Others may have good muscle memory, so it’s easier…like getting back on a bike after having not ridden one for years.

If I engage my core now, why does my back still spasm?

Because you have developed muscular imbalances. You will have tension in areas that shouldn’t be tight, so your muscles no longer work in the order they are designed. This could be because they don’t have the capacity or because they have become inhibited.

Soft Tissue Therapy helps create the balance meaning your muscles redevelop the capacity to stretch and contract as they are needed or become accessible because their partner muscle has relaxed. This makes going on to reengage your core muscles much easier.

What is Soft Tissue Therapy (STT)?

Is it massage? Yes and no. STT covers everything that involves manipulating your muscles, tendons and ligaments. Massage is just one of those techniques.

I use a number of different techniques, including massage, neuromuscular stretching, Soft tissue release, EMMETT Technique amongst others. Each play their own role.

If you have back pain and you’re fed up of not being able to put your shoes or socks on without spasm or pain, then it’s time we discussed how I can help you move forward.

Book your complimentary call to find out how you could soon be back to putting your socks on with ease.