If your back's been the problem for years, but nothing you do to it actually fixes it: stretching, foam rolling, resting it, there's a reason for that.
Your back probably isn't where this actually starts.
Here's the chain that keeps showing up, over and over, once you start looking for it: you sit for long periods, your hip flexors shorten, your pelvis gets pulled forward, and your glutes end up in a position where they just can't fire the way they're supposed to. When your glutes go quiet, your body doesn't stop moving, it just finds muscles that will do the job. Usually that's your lower back and your hamstrings.
So your back ends up carrying load it was never built to carry, session after session. It's not the cause of the problem. It's the one covering for it.
This isn't just a feeling I had. There's research backing this pattern up. A 2015 study on college-aged soccer players compared those with tight hip flexors to those with normal flexibility, and found the tight group had significantly less glute activation during a basic bodyweight squat. A more recent 2024 study looking at the front squat specifically found the same thing, tighter hip flexors, less glute involvement, more compensation picked up elsewhere.
Different populations, different exercises, same story.
And the sequencing behind fixing it isn't something I made up either, I first came across through Dr. Aaron Horschig at Squat University, and it clicked immediately: you can't activate what you haven't released, and you can't strengthen what isn't repositioned first.
I felt this pattern in my own body before I had language for it. My SI joint, where my lower back meets my pelvis, would flare up after a day at my desk, or after a heavy squat session. I'd do everything "right" and still end up sore in places that weren't supposed to be working that hard. Once I understood the chain, it stopped feeling random.
There's a way to reverse this order: release what's overactive, reset your position, then wake the right muscles back up before you load anything. That's what the rest of this series is about.
For now, just sit with the chain itself: sitting → tight hip flexors → pelvis tilts → glutes go quiet → back and hamstrings pick up the slack. If that sounds familiar, your back was never really the problem.
Keep Reading
If this is the first time you're hearing about the chain, start with the story behind it — Why Your Back Pain Isn't a Back Problem, where I walk through how I found this in my own SI joint pain. If you want to know the second this fix drops, subscribe — I break down exactly how to reverse this chain, step by step, later in this series.
Drop a comment: does this pattern sound like you? Tell me where you feel it most, lower back, hips, or somewhere else.
Sources
Mills, M., et al. (2015). Effect of Restricted Hip Flexor Muscle Length on Hip Extensor Muscle Activity and Lower Extremity Biomechanics in College-Aged Female Soccer Players. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.
Martinez-Sepanski, Bowman & Mehls (2024). The Effect of Hip Flexor Tightness on Muscle Activity during the Front Squat. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning.
Horschig, A. — Squat University; The Squat Bible.
