The Benefits Of Psoas Muscle Release, By Using Percussive therapy.

What is the psoas muscle?

In your body, there are three significant muscles that connect your spine to your legs. These include the gluteus maximus, piriformis, and psoas muscles.

The psoas muscle is attached to the vertebrae on your lumbar spine, and then crosses the outer edge of each pubis (near your pelvis). It then joins with the iliacus muscle at your inguinal ligament (in your groin region), and finally to the femur. Your iliacus and psoas muscles, together are known as the iliopsoas.

You are able to stand and walk upright in part because the curve of your lower spine both bears and transfers the weight above it. The psoas muscle helps to create this curve, as it pulls your lumbar vertebrae both forward and down.

The psoas muscle also plays another essential role in helping you walk. When you are walking, your brain triggers your psoas muscle to move your back leg forward initiating the alternation between the front and back leg. So each successful step you take is thanks in part to your psoas muscle.

Muscles like the psoas are essential to helping us maintain a healthy spine position and healthy posture.

I've always been an advocate of both psoas releases and percussive therapy. ( vibrational massage gun)I just never thought of using percussive therapy to release my psoas. until I had major postural discomfort and knew I needed some pain relief straight away .

Research has shown according to, Dr. Christiane Northrup(2020) a health expert and New York Times best-selling author says “that the psoas may just be the most important muscle in your entire body, because no matter what you do, your psoas is involved.”

Because they are major flexors, weak psoas muscles can cause many of the surrounding muscles to compensate and become overused. That is why a tight or overstretched psoas muscle could be the cause of many of your aches and pains, including low back and pelvic pain. Through extensive research on the anatomy of the body, I have had the opportunity to explore and to study the psoas, and learned the psoas muscles are the deepest muscles in the core. Our psoas muscles allow us to bend your hips and legs toward your chest, for example, when you are going up stairs. They also help to move your leg forward when you walk or run. These same muscles flex your trunk forward when you bend over to pick up an object off the floor. They also stabilize your trunk and spine during movement and while sitting.

The psoas muscles also support your internal organs. They are vital not only to your structural well-being but also to your physiological well-being because of their connection to your breath, as they are an integral connection to your diaphragm. The diaphragm and the psoas muscles are connected through fascia that also connect the other hip muscles. These connections between the psoas muscle and the diaphragm literally connect your ability to walk and breathe and also how you respond to fear and excitement. When you are startled or under stress, your psoas contracts. In other words, your psoas has a direct influence on your fight-or-flight response.

During prolonged periods of stress, your psoas is constantly contracted. The same contraction occurs when you sit for long periods of time, engage in excessive running or walking, sleep in the fetal position, or do a lot of sit-ups. All of these activities compress the front of your hip and shorten your psoas muscle.

The tension in your psoas muscle can be released by a visit to a qualified massage/sports therapist who will apply slow effularge strokes around the abdomen, below the belly button, between the hip bones, then use a percussion massager to apply deep vibrational pressure to the lumber region of the gluteus maximus.For aftercare advice, a list of recommended exercises will be given, such as the pigeon and child's pose, formilia to those who practice yoga and pilates. For further information to alleviate your lower back pain, free to contact us, at surrealholistictherapy.com

References

Lumbar Spine Anatomy and Pain. Beasley,K(2020) cited in https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/spine-anatomy/lumbar-spine-anatomy-and-pain accessed (19.04.2021)

Why Your Psoas Muscle Is The Most Vital Muscle in Your Body. Northrup,C. M.D(2020) cited in https://www.drnorthrup.com/psoas-muscle-vital-muscle-body/ accessed (19.04.2021)The Essential

Role of the Psoas Muscle. Falatyne, S, M.D(2018) cited in https://www.spine-health.com/blog/essential-role-psoas-muscle accessed(20.04.2021)

How to do Child’s pose. Medibank (2016) cited in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMp3MlTz9fA accessed (22.04.2021)

How To Do Pigeon Pose. Carva,A(2015) cited in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsnR0YpTSL8 accessed(22.04.2021)

Cerebrospinal fluid. Britannia Medical Research(2021) cited in

https://www.britannica.com/science/cerebrospinal-fluid accessed (23.04.2021)

Sensing Your Psoas. Liz Koch (2019) cited in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDVNGiUT280 accessed (20.04.2021)