PSOAS MUSCLE
The psoas is a deep-seated core muscle connecting the lumbar vertebrae to the femur. The psoas major is the biggest and strongest player in a group of muscles called the hip flexors: together they contract to pull the thigh and the torso toward each other.
Function of the Psoas:
Symptoms of a tight Psoas:
Causes of a tight Psoas:
It’s safe to say that most people, from office workers to professional athletes, have some chronic tightness in their psoas muscle. In addition to overuse (like athletic training) and limited movement (like sitting down all day), physical and emotional trauma have been linked to psoas tension. Due to its location deep within the core of the body, the psoas muscle instinctively tightens up when we feel stress or fear. For some people, learning to let go of the tension in their psoas is an intense emotional process.
Muscle of the Soul:
If a person has experienced trauma as a result of someone placing their hands on them without consent, this is the muscle memory area that will hold on for dear life. This is also why the illnesses that include the sexual reproductive organs will likely (but not always) be coupled with a trauma that has occurred in the person’s life in or around that area. Every single trauma that occurs in one’s life is locked and loaded into the cellular memory, the mental/cognitive memory, and the muscle memory. Too many people have stories to tell of a time that someone tried to exert power over their bodies and walked away guiltless.
Our bodies are the ones that try to hide the evidence, as if we talk about it too much, it might take us down a path that we fear we might not ever come back from. The pain, anguish, shame, and guilt, along with the wish that we had handled it more loudly, more effectively, sooner, better…it all lives in our muscles (especially the psoas muscle) as much as it lives in our (mental) memories. And if something is too traumatic and the mind chooses to file it away in a cabinet that is to never be opened again, it is only by way of the physical body and energy body that we can make it into that vault for release. It is either through cognitive therapy or through touch therapy that the body will be able to release the experience.
Click here to schedule a Psoas massage. Redeem coupon code: "Psoas" when scheduling 60 min!
The psoas is a deep-seated core muscle connecting the lumbar vertebrae to the femur. The psoas major is the biggest and strongest player in a group of muscles called the hip flexors: together they contract to pull the thigh and the torso toward each other.
Function of the Psoas:
- The psoas flexes the hip, so when it contracts it brings the knee in toward the stomach. If you spend a lot of time sitting, your psoas is likely tight as a result of spending so much time in a shortened state.
- The psoas laterally rotates the hip, allowing you to stand like a ballet dancer with your feet pointed outward. Dancers often have a great deal of tightness in their psoas muscle.
- The psoas adducts the hip, bringing the leg in toward the center of the body. If you squeeze your knees together, you’re engaging your adductors.
- Because of its attachments to the lumbar vertebrae, the psoas muscle contributes to lateral tilting of the pelvis (hiking the hips up one at a time) and lateral flexion of the spine (bending the spine to one side).
Symptoms of a tight Psoas:
- Tension and pain in the lower back, hips, buttocks, pelvis, or groin
- Lower back spasms
- Snapping hip syndrome
- Radiating pain down the leg
- Sciatica
- Lumbar disc problems
- Limping
- Functional leg length discrepancy
- Idiopathic scoliosis
- Hyperlordosis
- Instability in the core of the body
- Limited flexibility in the lower back
- Pain and tension in shoulder and neck can also be contributed by a tight psoas
Causes of a tight Psoas:
It’s safe to say that most people, from office workers to professional athletes, have some chronic tightness in their psoas muscle. In addition to overuse (like athletic training) and limited movement (like sitting down all day), physical and emotional trauma have been linked to psoas tension. Due to its location deep within the core of the body, the psoas muscle instinctively tightens up when we feel stress or fear. For some people, learning to let go of the tension in their psoas is an intense emotional process.
Muscle of the Soul:
If a person has experienced trauma as a result of someone placing their hands on them without consent, this is the muscle memory area that will hold on for dear life. This is also why the illnesses that include the sexual reproductive organs will likely (but not always) be coupled with a trauma that has occurred in the person’s life in or around that area. Every single trauma that occurs in one’s life is locked and loaded into the cellular memory, the mental/cognitive memory, and the muscle memory. Too many people have stories to tell of a time that someone tried to exert power over their bodies and walked away guiltless.
Our bodies are the ones that try to hide the evidence, as if we talk about it too much, it might take us down a path that we fear we might not ever come back from. The pain, anguish, shame, and guilt, along with the wish that we had handled it more loudly, more effectively, sooner, better…it all lives in our muscles (especially the psoas muscle) as much as it lives in our (mental) memories. And if something is too traumatic and the mind chooses to file it away in a cabinet that is to never be opened again, it is only by way of the physical body and energy body that we can make it into that vault for release. It is either through cognitive therapy or through touch therapy that the body will be able to release the experience.
Click here to schedule a Psoas massage. Redeem coupon code: "Psoas" when scheduling 60 min!
