Psoas Major, the Psilent Menace

Ah, Psoas Major... The muscle that looks a lot like a pork tenderloin, because it is. Psoas translates from Greek to mean "of the loins". It is responsible for various movements, stability, and unexplained pains. It joins forces with Iliacus to become the Ilio Psoas, our hardest working hip flexor.

When you raise your knee to 90 degrees, you can thank our friend Psoas. When you do a sit up and raise your spine up off of the mat, Psoas is helping to do most of the work. This is why the most effective sit ups for your abs don't have you flexing your trunk all the way up off of the floor, i.e. a crunch! If you are doing standard sit ups, you might be overworking the psoas.

This muscle can be one of the tightest in the body. It hardly ever gets touched. It's buried deep in your belly, past your small intestines, and attaches on the transverse processes of T12 to L5 vertebrae. From there, it goes does down into the deep depths of the pelvis, finally attaching to the lesser trochanter on the inside of the Femur. Whew. Not easy.

My hips are doing what?

I'm often told my right leg is shorter than my left. On paper, my skeleton checks out and I don't have any growth abnormalities on either side. But yet, the right leg comes up short. The answer could be hidden up in the hip! Psoas. Busted.

A tight Psoas can make it difficult to lift your leg into a car, or stand up from your seat. A constant ache in the back of your groin can keep you awake at night. I know from experience. It was the uncomfortable trigger point work on my Psoas that finally gave me relief.

Lucky day, there is hope for you yet!

Good news. It's possible to provide relief to this muscle. Make no mistake, this is not a comfortable move, so make sure you have a therapist you can trust and communicate honestly with. If you’re in LA, that’s me!

There are many benefit of abdominal massage. We hold so much tension in our bellies; the sit-ups and suck-ins of our magazine perfect lives create tension and, every once in a while, it needs to be worked on.

I won't spoil the fun and tell you how we work on our friend Psoas, but if you need it done let's talk. With some daily stretching on your part in between our sessions, you should feel some relief from the tension you never realized you held. Some clients even have what is called an emotional release. Laughter, tears, anger or fear are normal to experience. Breathe and relax into it.

James Palmer is a Licensed Mobile Massage Therapist at the Jersey Shore, serving Sea Girt, Spring Lake, Asbury Park, Long Branch, Red Bank, Eatontown, Monmouth Beach, Deal, Rumson, and Little Silver.