Man flexing back muscles in dark gym.

Muscle Minute TUESDAY – Latissimus Dorsi

Abstract swimmer in vibrant water splash art.

I did a big write up on the latissimus dorsi awhile back, but I am a firm believer that repetition breeds impression. It is how we learn. We start to see things over and over again and recognize patterns of injury. So, I decided to circle back and highlight a few muscles again, focusing on major clinical patterns. And the first one is latissimus dorsi, one of the major “jammers” of lumbar extension and often a culprit in lower back pain.

What does that mean? We are all designed to have a slight thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis in standing. This makes our spine act like a spring. Absent of these curves, the ground reaction forces when we walk and run would not be dissipated as readily.

Human spine model on white background

Shock absorbing curves of the spine

The flexion curve, such as seen in the thoracic kyphosis, places the weight of the head, arms and trunk (HAT) on the vertebral body and discs. Extension curves, seen in the cervical and lumbar spine, place the weight of HAT on the boney aspects of the spine, or the facet joints. Neutral spinal extension would mean you would have room to move in both flexion and extension.

But for a lot of our lower back patients, their lumbar spine is already in end range extension. How do we know?

  1. Low back pain increases with standing or walking.
  2. Low back pain decreases with sitting or bending forward
  3. Low back pain with or inability to perform supine to long sit transfer
  4. When doing yoga postures like cobra, warrior I and upward facing dog, they feel it in their lower back and not a stretch in their abdominal muscles.

Why the picture of the swimmer?

Though this posture occurs in many non-swimmers, due to the pulling nature of swimming (most sports are pushing sports), swimmers display the posture of a tight latissimus dorsi, with increased thoracic kyphosis and increased lumbar lordosis. Plus, I thought that was a cool painting.

If you’ve ever heard of upper cross syndrome and lower cross syndrome, you will realize the latissimus dorsi is the perfect double crosser.

One quick test and fix is the wall angel exercise.

Woman demonstrating wall exercise steps for shoulder mobility.
  1. Stand with your head and back up against a wall
  2. Place the back of your hands and arms on the wall
  3. Raise your arms up overhead, keeping your back flat on the wall

Inability to reach fully overhead or maintain lower back contact with the wall indicates a tight latissimus dorsi. Watch this video on the best ways I know to release and unlock the latissimus dorsi. So, when your patient complains of pain with standing or walking, think of this muscle.

Because nobody has time to be in pain.

Until next time…

Kind Regards,
MoveWell Academy
[email protected]

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