Taming the MOST HATED Muscle in the Body: The Psoas

[Music] There may be no muscle more important 
to the biomechanical functioning of   the human body than the psoas. Yet it 
is also one of the least understood,   and poorly trained muscles in large part because 
it's located so deeply inside the core that it   cannot be observed from the outside. In fact, 
many people don't even know it exists. However,   understanding the psoas' function and training it 
properly will do more to keep you biomechanically   sound and injury-free than training any 
other single muscle in the human body. So,   over the next five minutes we will 
demystify what the psoas is, what it does,   and how you can alter your training 
to always maintain good psoas hygiene. The psoas is found deep within the core, starting 
near the top of the lumbar spine and moving down   over the pelvis attaching to the inner portion 
of the femur.

On a well- defined, muscular body,   you can find the location of the psoas origin 
by finding the very bottom of the lower traps.   This is the spot on the spine where the 
psoas begins. Its simplest function and   the one it's best known for is its ability to 
strongly flex the hip. You can understand how   it does this by imagining that the psoas 
is an arm of the spine which reaches out   over the pelvis to grab the inner thigh. When 
you flex the hip it's as if the arm is doing   a reverse curl with the leg bone pulling it up 
towards the spine and rotating it to the outside Other muscles also play a part in flexing the hips 
such as the rectus femoris, sartorius and others,   at least until about 90° of hip flexion. Past 
90° the only muscles that can continue to flex   the hip are the psoas and its sister muscle 
the iliacus. These two muscles share a tendon   on the thigh and together are often referred 
to as the iliopsoas muscle group.

The psoas   is something of a keystone muscle in the body 
and when dysfunctional it will cause systemic   compensations that spread that dysfunction 
to the core, legs and often the entire body.   Common symptoms of psoas problems 
are popping or painful hips,   lumbar pain, SI joint pain or general 
stiffness in the low back and hips. However, the question of how it alters the 
skeletal structure has been a subject of   confusion for many people. You see a tight psoas 
is often blamed or implicated in the common   anterior pelvic tilt, and yet also implicated 
in the posterior pelvic tilt, even though they   are opposite postural movements.

The confusion 
stems from the fact that most people believe the   psoas is only a hip flexor, and while it's true 
the psoas is a primary hip flexor, it's also   been discovered that the psoas actually has two 
distinct sets of fibers, the deep and superficial.   Each attaching to different structures on the 
vertebrae which ever so slightly changes their   angle of pull. The result is that the superficial 
fibers cause flexion of the lumbar spine and hips   while the Deep fibers are actually capable of 
extending the spine when they are contracted Adding to this complexity is the fact 
that while many people have tight,   chronically contracted psoas muscles, it's just as 
common to see a weak and overly elongated psoas,   or even a tight or weak iliacus muscle.

All 
of which can cause different variations of   the same common postural dysfunctions. And 
just to make your head spin a little more,   it's also fairly typical to have one psoas 
that is overly tight and another that is weak   and elongated, often leading to hip hike or 
even functional scoliosis, both of which can   wreak havoc on the low back and hips and make it 
seem impossible to train pain free. The takeaway   here is that psoas dysfunction is common and 
it can be a complicated issue. So let's dial   things back and take a look at what the psoas 
is supposed to do in a naturally healthy body. First it's important to realize that while hip 
flexion is one of the most powerful functions of   the psoas, it's not actually its primary function. 
You see while humans do spend some time in active   hip flexion on a regular basis, they spend much 
more time standing and walking.

And the psoas is   very active in both of these circumstances. During 
standing the psoas stabilizes the lower spine,   helping to maintain the natural curve of the 
lower back. And while walking, it's actually   the psoas that initiates each step and maintains 
the rhythm of walking, like a pendulum moving   back and forth. These small movements in the core 
become greater movements in the extremities as the   large muscles of the hips and legs coordinate with 
the action of the psoas. If the psoas is tight,   weak or out of sync, most people will initiate 
walking with the rectus femoris muscle of   the quads. This creates a stiffer and less 
graceful walking pattern that uses more energy,   shuts down the spinal engine mechanism of gate 
mechanics and causes more dysfunctional muscle   compensations throughout the body. So while you 
can analyze and discover the exact cause of your   unique psoas dysfunction, for most people it's 
overly complicated and unnecessary. Simply being   aware of the psoas and adding functional 
training for it into your routine is often   enough to bring the muscle back into health 
and greatly improve overall body biomechanics.

So here are three ways true to the actual 
functioning of the psoas that you can   add into your training. First is to learn 
some form of psoas release. This will help   immediately address excess tension and allow 
for better movement. Though this is usually   just a temporary measure it will provide a 
lot of relief for many people with SI pain,   hip popping or lumbar pain and it will 
buy you some time to implement other   corrective measures to make the changes 
more permanent.

One of the simplest ways   to relax and potentially release the psoas is 
to focus on deep diaphragmatic breathing. As   the psoas is actually fascially connected 
directly to the diaphragm. This direct   connection allows the rhythmic movement of deep 
breathing to internally massage and bring blood   flow to the psoas. You can also seek out a 
knowledgeable manual or massage therapist   and have them manually release the psoas for you, 
or you can manually release it yourself. However,   there are large arteries and nerves running 
through and around the psoas and it's important   not to damage them. So it's best to be safe and 
use a blunt object to help you release the psoas   such as a lacrosse ball or a release tool designed 
specifically for the psoas such as the pso-rite.

Next is to strengthen and stretch the psoas, 
this is a pretty simple task you simply need   a go-to hip flexor stretch that you like, 
such as any kind of kneeling lunge stretch.   And a hip flexor strengthening exercise in 
your routine, ideally one that brings you   to or past 90° of hip flexion. You can also 
accomplish both tasks at the same time with   certain isometric stances such as the warrior 
poses of yoga or the bow stance of kung fu. And finally, it's important to learn how to 
use the psoas correctly.

Muscles don't move   on their own, it is your voluntary actions that 
cause them to move. Many people will technically   correct every muscle issue that is causing pelvic 
tilt and yet still stand in a pelvic tilt because   they have never learned how not to. In this 
case the problem will just redevelop unless   new habits are learned. There are many physical 
traditions and ancient systems which place great   importance on learning to relax the psoas by 
standing, moving, and breathing into a neutral   pelvic and spinal posture. The mountain pose 
of yoga and the wuji (wu chi) stance in Tai Chi   are standing poses which reinforce this habit. 
Tai Chi also does a great job of teaching you   to walk by initiating with the psoas, though 
you can learn this by simply taking a quiet,   mindful walk and making sure you are beginning 
each step with the waist and not the legs,   right in the center of gravity area also 
known as the dan tian in Chinese martial arts.

Incorporating these methods into your warmups, 
training routines, or daily habits will help   you keep your psoas healthy and your posture 
and your biomechanics problem free. If you   enjoy the video be sure to like and subscribe 
and hit the notification bell to be notified   of future videos. Good luck with your training 
and until next time… keep moving my friends..

As found on YouTube

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