How to Permanently Loosen a Tight Psoas (Updated)

The psoas muscle attaches from the front of the thigh and anchors into the lower back, so restrictions and dysfunctions in the lower back are often the hidden cause of psoas tightness

“that soas muscle attaches from the front of your thigh and it anchors into the lower back so if you're not taking the time to also go looking for any restrictions and dysfunctions in your lower back then you could be missing the single most important piece of information that's prompting that muscle to tighten to help out”

The amount of time spent sitting, especially in a hip flexed position (around 90 degrees), is one of the primary environmental factors that perpetuates psoas tightness because the muscle is not given the opportunity to elongate in extended positions

“if on balance you spend more time in a sitting position where your hips Flex to about 90 OD de and not enough time in an extended position where your knee is traveling behind your hip then that so as muscle won't have the need to be elongated and loose because the environment that it's in is consistently asking it to be a lesser version of itself”

Stretching a tight psoas muscle alone, without understanding what prompts the tightness in the first place, provides zero guarantee of permanently resolving psoas tightness

“the secret behind trying to permanently resolve soas tightness counterintuitively does not lie with soas stretches what we need to understand is that there are definitely some fantastic stretches that we can get you to do and we'll go through a couple of good variations in this video but if we're not taking a step back and trying to understand understand what's prompting your so as muscle or muscles to be tight in the first place then there's absolutely zero guarantee that just your stretching alone will cure you of your soas tightness forever”

While it is unrealistic to expect people not to sit in the modern world, optimization of sitting habits (such as using standing desks or taking standing breaks) is a worthwhile strategy to reduce unnecessary sitting and improve hip flexor tightness outcomes

“while it's unrealistic to expect people not to sit down in this modern world it is something that's worthwh paying attention to to see if you can optimize that more than what you currently might be whether that's trying to invest in a standing desk to stand up a little bit more to take away some of that unnecessary sitting or if you're someone who has to sit a lot maybe you can find times to stand up and get out of that position maybe to take a break or to eat some food but anything you can do to analyze the shapes and positions you get into the most how much sittings involved in that and how much of that you can control versus how much you can't control we really want to optimize the positions you put your hip into”

The positions and shapes people place their bodies into most frequently throughout the day have the most potential to influence how tissues feel and function, because frequent repetition is more influential than occasional intervention

“the reason for this this is because the things that we do most throughout our day logically can have the biggest influence on how a tissue feels and for most people one of the main things that we do each day is sit”

With foam roller mobilization of the lower back, placing hands behind the head and gently reclining back allows the roller to press into stiff restricted tissue and promote joint loosening and muscular release

“you can place your hands behind your head and gently recline back as far as you feel comfortable allowing the roller to press into that stiff restricted tissue now obviously if you aren't flexible enough to get your head back onto the ground please have a couple of cushions there we don't want you to feel like you're overly stressing yourself to do this we need you to put a little bit of pressure through that area to allow that tissue to give we want the joints underneath to loosen we want any typ muscular to feel like it can release as well”

Using a rolled towel or cushion placed in the spinal hinge area while sitting can prevent the spine from naturally reverting to a slouched position and stop tissue from becoming stiff and tight that otherwise would be the first step in a chain leading to persistent psoas tightness

“if you can roll up a tail if you can grab a cushion stick it into that part of your back so that it's filling the Gap that your spine might have naturally filled for so long and by keeping you in that position we're not prompting that tissue to become stiff and tight which could be the first step in a number of steps that lead to this Seas muscle being tight and staying tight long term”

The near kneeling hip flexor stretch with active contraction (PNF/contract-relax technique) where you squeeze the glute muscles for 5-10 seconds, relax, and then go deeper, creates a neurological reflex that releases the psoas muscle more effectively than static stretching alone

“if you can find a really juicy amount of tightness in the front of that se as muscle then if you can squeeze your butt cheek tense up that tissue actively make it work hold this for 5 to 10 seconds what this does is this gets your brain involved so that when you stop tensing it creates this reflex that physically releases that muscle and what you should instantly feel if you've done it correctly is you should then feel that you can go instantly further into the stretch than what you could before”

When assessing lower back restrictions, comparing right to left side sensation is more informative than pain alone; stiffness represents mechanical restriction while tenderness may be a consequence of that dysfunction

“it's important to understand that you may have absolutely no pain or tenderness associated with your lower back generally but we're looking for mechanical restrictions they can be tender to push into but if the opposite side feels tender to the side that feels stiff we actually want to care more about the stiffness than we do the tenderness because the stiffness is that mechanical handbrake and that tenderness or pain is potentially a consequence of that mechanical dysfunction”