As we all know regular practice of Yoga makes us healthy and fit but if you perform any pose in wrongly then it will be harmful as well. Psoas is an important muscle of the human body that affects the posture and helps to stabilize the spine. It can be a significant contributor in lower back pain as well as pelvic pain. Performing the right pose will provide you greater relief in the lower back pain.
Psoas muscles plays an important role in yoga exercise, it not only provide flexibility but also helps you to stabilize the spine. Psoas protect your body from the harmful imbalance and rejuvenate your complete body, but it must be done in correct posture. As it is the primary connector between torso and leg, it will cause serious postural problems like lower back pain and arthritis, on the other hand weak or overstretched Psoas will cause common postural problems like to weaken the lower back. In both the cases, you may face postural problems so it will be better if you perform Psoas pose under the guidance of experts. If you are performing this pose by yourself, then you should understand the complete know-how about the Psoas and Psoas muscle stretching.
Psoas muscle originates from the lumbar vertebrae and you can see this muscle in the back side of the abdomen and that proceeds down and cross the external rim of each pubis. It continues to attach the bony prominence of the inner upper posterior femur. During the move of Psoas muscle, it takes the synergy from the iliacus. Checkout given image to learn more about different muscle and its connection with Psoas.
While contracting Psoas muscle, the femur will be pulled and spine will come closer. When you are in the supta padangusthasana pose, then contracting the right psoas will help you in lifting the right leg off the ground. Try to bring your leg towards your torso, but psoas will stop contracting at about 90 degrees. At this position, gravity will not pull your leg towards the floor and you can feel the relaxation in your hip flexors.
In Navasana yoga pose you can strengthen the psoas isometrically by just sitting on a chair. Firstly, sit on the edge of the chair keep your arms stretched in the outward direction, parallel to the ground and then without touching the chair lean back by keeping your chest lifted. When your body inclines backward vertically, gravity will start to pull your torso down in the direction of ground and the psoas contracts to hold you cantilevered.
After warming psoas, through the contraction, it’s time to stretch the psoas. For stretching, you need to follow three simple steps:
- extend the hip,
- move the lumbar spine, and
- make your femur away from each other
Psoas is a big and strong muscle so you can lengthen it by stretching one side at a time in various yoga poses like Anjaneyasana (lunge pose) and Virabhadrasana I (warrior pose I).
In Virabhadrasana ,you just need to find an open doorway or any pillar and step up close to the right side of your body and behind the door. To perform this asana take your left leg to the door side and place your right foot at the distance of two to three feet behind you.Stretch your arm in the upward direction and place your hands to the wall of the door. Bend your knees slightly with aligning your pubic bones, breastbone and navel. Psoas will be stretched with tilting the pelvis, but remember one thing, a tight psoas tilt the pelvis anteriorly so it will be better if you tilt the pelvis posteriorly for stretching the hip flexors.
You can strengthen and lengthen the psoas muscles by practicing various other poses like setubandh sarvangasana, Pigeon Pose, supta padangusthasana, standing release and seated poses are also helpful in Psoas muscle release.
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
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It’s good piece of information and important to know
Many thanks
its good information about the psoas muscle . in this article you describe two conditions about the muscle problems the first one is psoas weakness while other problems may be the psoas stiffness. Would you like to explore in which yoga practices we should perform in two conditions viz is Weakness and stifnesss of psoas muscles
i personally think Navasana is better for the psoas weakness while Anjaneyasana (Lung pose), Virabhadrasana(Warrior pose) is better while we have suffer in stiffness of psoas muscle.
Would you like to explore more like how we can diagnosed as case of psoas stiffness or weakness??
Thank you very much Dr. Mrithunjay ji for sharing your knowledge with us. Do share more information about how one can diagnosed a case of psoas stiffness or weakness. That will be really helpful to YogaCurious readers.