An imbalance and dysfunction in number of muscles can cause back pain. Presence of Trigger Points in the muscles listed below have been mostly linked to pain in the lower back.  The muscles are organized in the descending order from the most frequently involved, to the least frequently involved. Clicking on the link for the individual muscles will open a separate page. Information about the symptoms associated with those trigger points, as well as the most common reasons why they develop and how to deactivate these trigger points is detailed on those pages. Write down the names of the first three muscles on the list below and proceed to the next section "Activities causing pain." The section “activities causing pain” allows for more specific personalization of treatment for back pain.  The three most significant activities triggering your lower back pain should be selected from the list. For each activity, the top three listed muscles should be written down. The list of muscles from this section should be then compared with the list of muscles from the section “activities causing pain.” Identify the most frequently involved muscles in your particular case of back pain to design an individualized treatment protocol addressing primarily those muscles. Each individual muscle lists specific stretching exercises for that muscle along with techniques to release myofascial trigger points. For the best results, however, it is highly recommended to add several stretching exercises from the section "Lengthening Lower Back Muscles & Yoga". The section "Lengthening Lower Back Muscles" contains detailed videos of exercises that help to lengthen lower back muscles in general. The section on Yoga provides detailed video demonstrations of the most common Yoga poses and muscles that are involved in that yoga pose.