Have you ever noticed how gyms name fitness workouts based on outward appearance ex: Lift and Tone your Booty, Shred Your Abs, Beach Body Workout? Or fitness magazines that offer “5 Tips to lose belly fat”. What about all those deep muscles and their importance to your physical health and fitness? If your local gym offered a class named “Stretch and strengthen your Psoas” it probably would have very low attendance. Your Psoas muscle deserves a lot more respect. The Psoas is a deep muscle connecting the lower spine to the hips and legs and it is the center of most of your everyday movements such as walking, climbing stairs and rotation of the trunk. But as with most muscles in the body, muscles work synergistically to produce movement. The quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, abdominal muscles, spine and Psoas work as a team. For optimal functioning of the Psoas, all of these muscles must be strong, flexible and balanced. A tight or weak Psoas creates an unbalanced muscle group and can lead to poor posture, back pain, decreased mobility, hip and knee pain.
The image below shows how the psoas wraps around your pelvis from your lower spine to the inner thigh of your femur bone.
In Essentrics classes, we move all 650 muscles of the body including stretching and strengthening the psoas and the surrounding group of muscles that work as a team.
Other recreational activities that support a healthy psoas.
- Canoeing and stand up paddleboarding
- Cycling
- Dancing
- Golf
- Hiking
- Skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing
- Swimming and water aerobics
- Tennis
- Bowling
