om body 46 om body THE MIGHTY PSOAS A detailed exploration of one of the body’s major muscles: the magical and mighty psoas. By Sandra Carson ome years ago, at the end of a regular vinyasa yoga day. Even your feelings and thoughts can be linked to it! The psoas class, something remarkable happened. As I prepared my attaches your upper body to your lower body: it is the only muscle students for relaxation, I moved them into softer reclined that connects your spine to your legs. When your psoas is ‘awake’, hip release poses after an intense yoga class. I dimmed it instills a feeling of stability. It is also deeply involved in freedom of the lights in the room, instructed some gentle releasing movement in walking (and practicing yoga). Your diaphragm is subtly poses, and guided my students back to their soft, natural breath. yet deeply linked to the psoas, and to a large extent the tone of the SAs the energy slowed down and became heavier, and they began psoas reflects your emotional state and the state of your mind. As letting go of their efforts, they sank deeper into their bodies. It was a muscle of conscious evolution, the psoas connects you to both then that I noticed something unusual. A few bodies starting to the earth and the sky, expressing and manifesting your growth and move, waving, trembling in their hips and legs. The students did not evolution as a human being. seem to be doing anything themselves, it was their bodies moving independently, on their own accord. Looking over to one student The anatomical psoas I saw she had become visibly emotional, tears rolling down her Depending on which muscles you include, the number of psoai cheeks. When I checked in with her, she shared that she felt sad, and (the plural of psoas), differs. The psoas complex consists of four assured me she was fine. muscles: a psoas major and a psoas minor on each side of the body. You may recognise yourself in this story, as a teacher or as a Because of our evolutionary development, growing from all fours student of yoga. The experience of independent movement in your into upright beings, the function of the psoai have changed as well. body can trigger emotions and memories from the past. This can The psoas minor muscle is slowly turning into a tendon and may be be experienced as a shaking or trembling, deep in your pelvis. If disappearing completely; many people only have one psoas minor or you have ever felt this, you may have just been in touch with your none at all. beautiful and mighty psoas. The insertion of the psoas major is on the vertebrae of the lumbar spine. It connects to all the vertebral bodies and intervertebral The significance of the psoas discs of the low back all the way up to T12, where your lower ribs The psoas muscle is one of the most fascinating muscles in the begin. Without attaching to it, the psoas runs through the pelvis and human body. It is a true connector in the whole sense of the word attaches to the inner upper thigh bone at the lesser trochanter. The and therefore a real ‘yogic’ muscle. The psoas is of paramount psoas complex is often mentioned as ‘the illiopsoas’ muscle because importance in the physical body, as well as in the emotional and the psoas shares the same attachment at the thighbone with the energetic body as well. In the physical body, it relates to healthy illiacus muscle. However, the function of psoas is different from the and balanced posture, stiffness in the hips and the spine. In the illiacus. The origin of the illiacus is on the inside of the pelvic rim emotional body, the psoas greatly determines the ability to relax and and it assists hip flexion at the pelvis. The illiacus is not involved in influences feelings of wellbeing. As an energetic body connector, movement that flexes or extends the spine (bending forward the psoas is the ally of a natural and healthy breath. An awakened, or backwards). relaxed and juicy psoas enables the free flow of subtle energy and Because the psoas runs through but is not attached to the aids in increased sensitivity in the whole body. pelvis, the influence of the psoas on pelvic alignment is not easy No matter what you do, you can bet that your psoas is involved to measure. And since there are two separate psoai, they can in almost every action and movement of the body throughout the be, and often are, of different lengths. They have the power to cause tilts, shifts and rotations in the pelvis, and can be involved in causing sacroilliac and other pelvic issues and back problems, “The psoas is of paramount importance ranging from the pelvis upward, sometimes even all the way up to in the physical body, as well as in the the neck. The effect on the low back is direct and immediate, either pulling the lower back into lordosis, a deeper inward curve, or doing emotional and energetic body as well. the opposite, pulling the low back flat. Either way, when the low In the physical body, it relates to healthy back is out of alignment, the rest of the spine will be indirectly but and balanced posture, stiffness in the profoundly affected by the psoas. The psoas is one of the strongest muscles in your body, and the effect and influence of the psoas on hips and the spine.” the internal structure of your body is significant. 47 om body om body Tightness or imbalance in the tone of the psoas can have physical The psoas is like a piece of strong elastic rope: when you stand up effects, but can also have many other often overlooked ways of straight, the rope is taut. When you bend from your hips, it slacks. So manifesting in your life. When your psoas is chronically cramped, it whenever the hips are in flexion, your psoas relaxes and shortens. can lead to a host of seemingly unrelated issues that are often the This happens every time you are sitting, driving a car and even effect of overstimulation or exhaustion. Tension in your psoas may sleeping on your side. When your body is habitually positioned in a show up in your body in one or more of the following ways: difficulty certain posture, often for hours on end, this posture becomes the focusing, sitting still or relaxing; irritability, sadness, anger, problems standard and the musculature and connective tissues will adapt to falling asleep or sleeping well; digestive issues; fatigue and more. this shape. So when you sit for such long periods of time, your psoas How toned, or how supple and strong your psoas is, greatly will shorten to adjust. This is important, given the fact that recent influences the shape of your pelvis and spine. And the tone of your studies show that people sit on average 12 hours a day! psoas can be related to a host of other issues that inhibit the quality of your life. At least two major factors have a determining influence Aligning and feeling the psoas on the tone or amount of tension in the psoas: your habitual posture Tightness in the body stems largely from tightness in the myofascia, and movement and tension or trauma in your body. the type of connective tissue which runs through the muscles. When your muscles feel tight, it is not really your muscles that become How does the psoas get cramped? ‘stiff’, but instead the connective tissue in the muscle that stiffens up. Tension in your psoas from a habitual source stems from the type With the psoas, it is a different story. When the psoas responds to of activity or inactivity that you engage in. In today’s world, we tend stress, it is the muscle itself that gets tight. And depending on how to engage in organised (sport) activities that are planned at certain you stretch your psoas, you relieve the tension or make it worse! times during the week instead of moving moderately throughout the Alignment of your psoas muscle in yoga poses can either serve day. Lack of diverse movement or overworking certain muscle groups your psoas or increase the cramped state of the muscle. It is can distort the balance in muscle tone in your body. vital that yoga students practice psoas stretches with an aligned This imbalance can be especially evident in people who isolate psoas while activating or releasing support muscles. Especially muscles during intense workouts or weight lifting. The focus on the transverse abdominus and the gluteus medius are key training specific muscles rather than the body as a whole stimulates players in successful stretching. If you don’t align and activate, muscle domination in certain muscles and muscle groups. This you inadvertently end up ‘hanging in your psoas’ or bypassing it muscle imbalance occurs with many sports, such as intensive cycling completely. This happens particularly in poses that create extension and mountain climbing, where the front body muscles are worked in the hip and extension of the spine. Lunges like anjaneyasana and out more dominantly than the back body muscles. In these cases, other back bending poses, especially the more complex hip opening the front body muscles and hip flexors, especially the psoas muscle, back bends like eka pada rajakapotasana, can have a negative effect develop and adapt to a permanent contracted state, and have the on the psoas (at best, it is not doing so much good for the body, at tendency to cause back problems as the shortened psoas pulls worst, students can damage the psoas by over stretching it).