An Integrative Look at the Psoas
There’s no doubt among researchers, movement experts, and healers in regard to the significance of the psoas muscle. While professionals across all fields and philosophies assert the importance of this muscle, their various backgrounds create a diversity of approaches to treating the psoas. The anatomical facts of the psoas alone are complex and fascinating. The psoas muscle, which is part of the larger iliopsoas complex, functions across the inseparable kinesthetic, physiological, energetic, spiritual, and social aspects of the human being and expresses our deepest desires- from the most basic desire to survive to the more complex desires for connection and fulfillment. An integrated approach to the psoas fosters respect for the wholeness of each individual and has implications for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.
An integrated approach to the psoas fosters respect for the wholeness of each individual and has implications for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.
As a yoga therapist, I subscribe to the yogic model of looking at the human being. Specifically, I’m talking about the Kosha model, which tells us that there are five “layers” or “bodies” to each person. All of these layers are intertwined in a way that can not be teased apart. An imbalance on one layer, such as an overly critical view of oneself on the mind level, can be expressed on any of the other layers. In this example, the result on the physical level could be chronic pain. The result on the spiritual level could be difficulty connecting to self or spirit, and feeling deeply unsatisfied with life overall. The very nature of the Kosha model gives yoga therapists an advantage in helping people overcome chronic symptoms such as pain and anxiety because we have so many doorways into healing. When you effect change on one level, it will be reflected in the others. Often my clients who’ve found other modalities ineffective find yoga therapy to be very helpful indeed.
While the different aspects of the human are indivisible, it’s useful for our analytical minds to be able to break things down into their component parts, look at the fine details, and then put the parts back together into a larger whole. This helps us to have a comprehensive understanding of the bigger picture. In regard to the psoas muscle, this means breaking it down into its component anatomical, kinesiological, psychological, energetic, and spiritual aspects. But please remember that body is spirit. Mind is body. And everything is energy.
Body is spirit. Mind is body. And everything is energy.
The psoas muscle fibers originate from your lowest 6 vertebrae- T12-L5. These fibers come together to form one muscle that crosses seven (seven!) joints, flows over the front of your pelvis, and inserts into the very top of your inner thigh. It’s the only muscle that connects your spine to your leg. I could have used a lot more impressive anatomical terminology here, but trust me, it’s better that I didn’t. What a lot of people don’t know is that this muscle shares attachments with the respiratory diaphragm- a very important breathing muscle. This means that when you breathe deeply you can massage your psoas, along with many other benefits. It also means that if your psoas is tight, there’s a direct correlation with your breath. This is just one example of how anxiety and the psoas have a reciprocal relationship. A tight psoas can hinder the smooth rhythmic breath; shallow, irregular breath (a symptom of anxiety/stress) can make your psoas tight. Another interesting fact is that your psoas is wrapped in a fascia chain that connects it through your legs into your feet, and through your diaphragm into your lungs, throat, and tongue. This structure truly is an influence on your entire body in an actual, measurable way that’s not woo-woo at all.
As you have probably gathered based on the high level of sophistication embodied in the psoas muscle, it has more than one very important function. First of all, the psoas is a major stabilizer of the spine, helping hold your body in the upright, bipedal position. It also stabilizes and coordinates the relationship of movement between your spine, pelvis, and hip. This means the psoas helps these parts move and work as a cooperative unit-when it’s working well. As a hip flexor, the psoas helps bring the leg towards the body and therefore is instrumental in tasks like walking, squatting, and lunging. This also makes the psoas a prime forward mover, supporting you in moving toward completion of your work in life (dharma) and away from threats and danger.
The energetic anatomy of the psoas is not too far removed from its more obvious physical anatomy. It’s best understood in the context of the energy system of the entire body, beginning with the spinal cord. Your spinal cord is an information superhighway through which electrical signals (energy) move constantly up and down your body. In the Eastern sciences, the spinal cord corresponds to the shushumna (yoga/ayurveda) or hara line (Japanese medicine). Downward energy (God energy, cosmic energy, etc.) moves from the crown of your head, down your spine, through your legs, and into the Earth. Earth energy rebounds through your feet and legs and follows the same path upward. The result is a balanced movement of energy, and when all your body’s energy flows unobstructed you’re thought to be in good health. Cosmic (downward flowing) energy brings spiritual connectedness, intuition, and creativity while Earth (upward flowing) energy provides grounding, healing, and support for the many physical needs of your body. This is a very simplified representation of the ways that energy flows into and through your body.
At the bottom of your spine, your energy needs to split so it can travel to the two legs. The psoas, with origins in the spine and insertions in the legs, is an ideal pathway to facilitate this flow. The legs are significant in the bipedal energetic system because they support the body's connection to the planet through the feet as the spine extends upward like a spirit antenna. Think about prongs going into a plug. Through our connection to the planet, we keep our energy system grounded, literally. Of course, the concept of grounding carries a psychological meaning as well. A well-grounded person is able to keep their attention (energy) in the present moment with focus and calm. Their nervous system is effective at ignoring unimportant stimuli, and they experience all the sensations in their bodies as information guiding them through emotions, situations, and interpersonal connections. In this state, we humans experience intuition through a combination of spiritual connectedness and present moment awareness. Both of these things originate from complete presence in the body, which functions as a vehicle for perception and expression.
We humans experience intuition through a combination of spiritual connectedness and present moment awareness. Both of these things originate from complete presence in the body, which functions as a vehicle for perception and expression.
Long ago, when our earliest ancestors walked the Earth, they had very simple nervous systems. Their brains, referred to by scientists as “lizard brains” were only concerned with life’s most basic directives, such as “survive,” and “procreate.” Today the lizard brain is still present in modern humans, serves much the same purpose, and is also known as the hindbrain. As a prime mover, the psoas has a strong partnership with the survival responses originating from the hindbrain. When the psoas perceives danger, it can tighten, curling the entire body into a protective ball, propelling the body away from the threat, or helping you kick and fight back. Whatever effective action you take to protect yourself, your psoas is always there supporting your most basic desire to survive. Inversely, when the psoas perceives safety, it is soft and supple, referred to as “filet mignon” by Liz Koch, a somatic practitioner and psoas expert from the UK. Through its perception of danger and safety, the psoas influences the rest of the body. When it’s tight, the entirety of your being will be in a state of alert protection with tightness in the rest of the muscles and edginess in the nervous system and mood. When the psoas is relaxed and peaceful, the rest of your being will mirror that peace. From this relaxed and content space, the psoas shows us its full potential for higher expression.
As an organ of expression, the psoas evolved with the brain and expanded its repertoire to include the full range of human possibilities. As mammals we began to express emotional desires for nurturance and community, and the psoas held us soft and snuggly as we nuzzled into a caregiver or loved one. As self-aware and creative beings, we moved beyond survival and began to express our desires for spiritual connection through curiosity, self exploration, language, music, dance and art. The psoas articulates our bodies into and through the nervous system states and physical movements that bring forth our highest possibilities. The more complex our minds become, the subtler and subtler our body’s ability to perceive and express. This is how the body awakened to spirit.
With the level of consciousness humans possess, we’re naturally able to sense and feel very subtle levels of sensation through our bodies. This sensitivity is a gift that facilitates our inborn intuitive abilities. Unfortunately, the values of our modern culture discourage this level of sensitivity, dismiss it as imagined, or even punish it. We are taught that emotions, which are always accompanied by a sensation in the body, are inconvenient at best if not completely unacceptable. Only a narrow range of human emotion is welcome in society. The emotions that are labeled as appropriate can vary depending on your assigned gender. As we as a species have systematically repressed most of our range of feelings, we’ve also divorced ourselves from subtle body awareness, our unique intuitive abilities, and our felt connection to each other and a higher power.
Another unforeseen disadvantage of our modern policy of denial of emotions is that we’ve lost touch with our true purpose on this planet, which is to heal ourselves and others. The word “emotion” comes from the Greek language and means “to move out or agitate.” This moving out or agitating is the key component of healing trauma and past life karma. The experiences we live are all written on our tissues and in our minds. When we have the same experience enough times to form a judgment or thought form around it, it becomes integrated into our personalities and our view of the world and other people. This is called samskara. Samskara can also happen in one very intense experience (traumatic event). The impressions we carry with us influence our behavior and have a tendency to reinforce themselves. On the human journey, which is a spiritual journey, resolving our samskara is the road to healing and peace. This can only be done through the process of “moving out or agitating.” In this way, our emotions, though inconvenient, are avenues for our healing if we can allow them to do what they are meant to do.
Because of the intertwining relationship between body and emotions, and the indivisible relationship between all the many layers of the human being, the entire body is a memory storage device which records every experience. Your samskara live in your body tissues through a complex interplay of sensory integration, emotion, neurochemicals, and hormones. This is very easily observed in the psoas, which is sensitive and responsive to all your states of consciousness and unconsciousness. Among other things, the psoas carries the imprints of ancestry, environment, and current family systems. It remembers when you’ve had your power taken away and you’ve been unable to take effective action to protect yourself. It holds space for the trapped energy of chronic stress and repressed emotions, growing tighter and tighter, until that energy is finally encouraged to move through and out. And then, the psoas helps you remember who you really are.
The psoas helps you remember who you really are.
A tight psoas has many causes, including but not limited to upper body weakness, suboptimal breath, chronic stress, post traumatic stress, ancestral/past life trauma, poor posture, and too much sitting. Some causes are related to physical factors, and some are related to energetic/spiritual factors (samskara). In my experience the origins of psoas tightness usually relate to more than one aspect of a person’s being. There are lots of ways to address a tight psoas, and there are just as many professionals out there arguing over which is the best. If you use an internet search, you’ll find advice on how to stretch your psoas, and reasons why you shouldn’t stretch your psoas. You’ll find massage techniques ranging from gentle to invasive, and arguments against psoas massage. You’ll find gentle movement and breathing techniques, as well as mobility drills. It can be very confusing.
In my estimation choosing the right technique to address psoas tightness comes down to just that…finding the right one for you. Even now as I consider what factors might determine the correct approach, I realize that this line of thinking is outdated and unhelpful. As much as I’d like to give you a recipe for working with your psoas, it’s just not possible. Going back to the trauma example, not all people with trauma are the same and we can’t let someone’s experience with traumatic stress determine how we look at them. One traumatized person may feel that psoas massage is too invasive and triggering. This person might be better served by a standing movement that involves gentle rocking and undulation. Others may find that they need intensity of sensation to be in touch with their body. These people may benefit from direct psoas massage at first, then gradually develop their ability to sense subtler and subtler sensations through self massage or movement. The most important thing is to do what feels right for you in the moment and observe what you can notice before, during, and after. You may notice the effects of a technique for days after you use it. Use this information to reflect and inform future choices. And in line with the principles of Ayurveda, please remember that you are constantly changing. Observe these changes and be open to adjusting your practice to meet those changes. For example, massage may be your method of choice for a few months, then you may find that your body stops responding to it in the same way and you’ll have to find something new. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what to try. If you’re not able to get a feeling of what your body is asking for, put on an attitude of exploration and curiosity as you try new things. Trust your intuition and you’ll find what’s right. For additional support, you can always ask a qualified yoga therapist, massage therapist, or other trusted professional for advice. In the “additional resources” section at the bottom of this page, I’ve included an entire playlist of videos with various approaches to relieving chronic psoas tension.
No matter what your body looks like, feels like, or how it moves, it’s a sacred manifestation of Divinity.
We’ve each been given a precious, miraculous body to live in. No matter what your body looks like, feels like, or how it moves, it’s a sacred manifestation of Divinity. So many complex systems function simultaneously and synchronously to produce the integrated experience of consciousness in physical form; the experience of you. The psoas muscle is an essential part of your anatomy providing movement, mobility, and stability. It’s always been there with us at every stage of evolution to guide and support us in living out our heart’s deepest desires, from surviving to thriving. As a point of convergence for all of our many layers of being, the psoas is the embodiment of our wholeness. Regardless of the experiences you’ve had, the many samskara you carry, or the tightness in your psoas, your wholeness is always there. It’s the truth that awaits beneath the layers of accumulation from this and other lifetimes. Working with your psoas is a process of coming home. It’s learning to listen and respond. It’s taking up the mantle of sovereign in your domain, saying “yes” to life and love and standing your ground against all that doesn’t serve your highest good. An effective approach to the psoas is an integrated one, which acknowledges and respects every part of the human as a physical, spiritual, social, emotional, energetic being. It takes into consideration the experiences of each individual, emphasizes their strengths, and is customized to fit their unique self. Professionals and laypeople alike have immense potential to facilitate awakening to the fullness of power present in each person through working with this truly magnificent structure in the human body.
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Additional Resources
I’ve created an entire playlist of videos exploring various approaches to resolving chronic psoas tension. My hope is that you’ll find just the right thing for you.
Somatic Yoga Therapy
Healing the body, mind, and spirit. In this 8-week course, you’ll learn skills to keep you grounded in your body, regulate your nervous system, and cultivate a sense of peace in difficult moments.
Pelvic Health Workshop
In this 2-hour workshop, you’ll learn the basics for using breath, movement, and mindfulness to improve your pelvic issues and more.
References
Koch, Liz. (March 2010). The Primordial Psoas and the Chakra System. Bodywork.
https://www.positivehealth.com/article/bodywork/the-primordial-psoas-and-the-chakra-system
