Lower Back Pain Trigger points from the QL

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Now Lower Back Pain is quite a big subject, (minor understatement), and for the sake of not sitting here and writing an entire book, I'm going to limit this to a client I was treating last night.

Whilst driving, he was getting significant pain in the far lower back, right down where the back meets the bum- the lower lumbar area going into sacral area (L5-S1). He has had no history of spinal problems, no slipped discs, hernias or anything like that, and has to stretch the area out when driving because it hurts.

Now, originally you would assume that there is something wrong with the Glutes and surrounding muscles, for something to be hurting there, and you may well be correct. Weakness in the Glute area has been shown to be a major issue in terms of Lower Back Pain. As we walk around and sit at desks all day, the glutes barely get a look in and slowly waste away- getting overly tense when they are forced to be used.
In this case it is the case, however, it is not where the pain is originating from.

After palpation it was clear that there was pain in the glutes, and around the sacral area, but there was also referred pain into the glutes from the quadratus lumborum- and this was the main issue- I keep blabbing on about it, this is the fire and although there is pain in the glutes from lack of use and tension, this pain is the smoke.

So, in THIS particular case, it was a referring triggerpoint pain from the QL, (my model is unfortunately not available to draw on at the moment so you'll just have to google Quadratus Lumborum) which was antagonising the glutes, which was causing the pain. Had I treated JUST the pain in the butt (as it were), the client may have gone away happy that I had been treating the "right" area, but the pain would have come back quickly.
With a decent explanation of what I was doing and why, the client could understand- and indeed feel- why I was treating somewhere that wasn't initially painful- that is- didnt feel like the origination of the pain.

Lower Back Pain can be created from a variety of places- this time it happened to be in the QL, it could be coming from almost ANYWHERE in the body. Look at imbalances, look at other issues in the body, not just at the back.
Look for the FIRE not the SMOKE.