You may have never heard of the psoas muscle, but you'd be lost without it.
You may have never heard of the psoas muscle, but you’d be lost without it.
The psoas (pronounced “so-as”) is a long, thick muscle that runs from your spine to your thighbones, effectively uniting your upper torso to your legs. Certain flexing movements of the legs, pelvis and back are dependent on this muscle.
Unfortunately, an HSI member named Virginia is having a problem with her psoas. She writes: “I am experiencing hip pain which has been diagnosed as a psoas muscle that has gone out. I don’t know what that means or how to correct the problem. Hints?”
About the same time Virginia sent that e-mail, she also posted this longer comment on the Healthier Talk community forums: “Has anyone had experience with a problem psoas muscle? I was having such pain in my hip when I walked that I thought I was going to have to have a hip replacement. My yoga instructor said it was my psoas muscle, which is the largest structural muscle in the body. How do I correct it?”
A member named Ralph replied to Virginia’s posting with this good advice: “Find a Chiropractic Physician and / or massage therapist who knows how to do deep tissue work on the psoas and have them help you deal with it. I suggest asking if they have specifically done that type of work before, and how much of it. I have had a small number of patients in which the psoas was a MONSTER problem. But it can be dealt with.”
Virginia and others can find quite a bit of information about the psoas by entering “psoas muscle” in any Internet search engine. And coincidentally, there are quite a few sites that address the psoas in the context of yoga.
