After long hours of spent in a chair (where most us tend to stick for 8-10 hours each day), the psoas appreciates stretching, stimulation, proper alignment, massage and constructive rest.
Constructive Rest: (Also known as Ardha Savasana) offers a passive release of the psoas.
- Lie on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Your feet should align with the front of the hip sockets.
- Your trunk and head need to be parallel to the floor (if your head is tilting backwards,place a rolled up towel or small cushion under your head to keep your spine in optimum alignment).
- Feet are parallel to one another.
- Arms rest several inches away from the midline of the body (with palms faced upwards) or rest your palms on top of your abdomen.
- Close your eyes; breathe deeply and allow the force of gravity to release the psoas.
Stretching: releasing the entire psoas (especially the upper portion’s attachment near lungs) with a high lunge and sidebend.
- Step your right foot forward and left foot about 2,5 feet back, balancing on the ball of the foot.
- Align your 2 hips so they are square and are pointing straight forward.
- Keep both of your knees bent and stack your shoulders over your pelvis.
- As you inhale reach both of your arms over head, loop your left hand around your right wrist.
- As you exhale lean your torso over toward the right side.Allow your right hand traction the left wrist away from the left shoulder.
- Finally, begin to straighten the back knee. Breathe deeply and guide your breath into the deep stretch within the gut.
- Switch sides.
Alignment: the key to balanced, well-maintained psoas is a neutral pelvis. This is a position of the pelvis, which does not involve backward movement (also known as posterior tilt) or forward movement (also referred as anterior tilt).
Learn how to re-align your pelvis by clicking here.
Massage: Give your psoas deep self-induced massage by rolling your guts with a soft inflated ball.
I have heard so many different ways to release the psoas, but this is actually something I can do, thank you! I have heard of lacrosse balls used at the psoas while the body weight helps initiate the release (while in prone position and lifting opposing arms and legs to go deeper), but this is really painful and not for everyone. I have also heard of the psoas being released by a therapist, but that seems awfully intimate ; ). Thank you for posting, I will be sending to my students to complement what we learned yesterday in our Integrated Embodied Anatomy Yoga Tune Up, that there are organs we need to get through to release the psoas, so the direct ball manipulation may not be the best route. Thanks again!
Yes Lisa, releasing your psoas by a therapist can be extremely grueling, even painful experience-however sometimes it is the quickest way to get some results.
I remember years of my ‘’swayed back” (way before I became certified YTU teacher, and my incorrect posture has been pointed out to me by my teacher Jill Miller), have caused me enormous tightness in the upper fibers of psoas (around T12). I have gone to the manual therapist seeking for release in order tp access optimal alignment (which just did not feel comfortable) and her hands on way one of the most deep treatments I have ever experienced (and I love deep tissue and go for Thai massage for years),
However-it worked miracles, and I could start to ”comfortably” find my new normal.
Psoas intelligence rocks!
Great post. These are both great, simple poses that I’ve admittedly used as a break from sitting at my desk all day. Seriously, the coolest muscle.
Amazing how just a simple stretch,breath and pose and release, activate an area of our body that can hold so much tension- and can reeducate the body into a better place.
Dagmar, Thanks for sharing. Matt, I totally agree. It’s a magical muscle. When I found out it was attached to my diaphram and affected my capacity to breath it was like the finding the holy grail of body links.
It seems to me that any type of balanced exercise regime must incorporate some form of propioceptive learning for the body. In this case, the psoas which is buried so deeply within the core would benefit so much from the larger core ball by directly resting one’s body weight, core facing down to the floor to awaken the psoas and the soft tissue which surrounds it. In addition, the relationship of the YTU Breathing sequences would also stimulate and awaken the psoas – on or off of the ball, working towards more equilibrium with the psoas on both the right and left sides of the body. And most defitinetly some of the the stretches that were listed above coupled with the breathing and oppostion within the pose, would invorgate and invite a repsonse from the psoas!
I second all your opinions on the importance of maintaining healthy and fit psoas. The more I read about them, the more I care. One of the things I learned recently about the psoas was that a handful of other core muscles originate or attach to the psoas, thus making them such a key player of the human anatomy.
Also, I have had a psoas release a couple of times, and find that to be extremely painful. I am not sure however, that it helped me. Or perhaps I have to find a better therapist.
My day job has me sitting all day in front of the computer and oftentimes, I find release of the stress on my back and hips by playing around with the tilt of my pelvis while lunging. After reading this article i will be looking out for the psoas and its upper attachement near the lungs during propriception.
I can’t tell you how much I have to work the iliopsoas after sitting in my office all day and then biking home. I find the side bend to be too deep immediately following work and prefer something like bridge lifts minivini or anjaneyasana as easier poses to create space leading up to the side bend.
Dagmar, thank you for your two Psoas articles – understanding your Psoas, where it attaches, and its role is very important in regards to understanding your lower back pain and what a complex problem it can be or become.
Thank you also for pointing out the supportive role to the lumbar plexus, and therefore its impact on the digestion and elimination systems in the body. I never knew about this correlation, and it makes so much more sense now that my back pain issues sometimes interfere with my digestion.
This is so doable – just a few inches away from the chair, I tired it out today (as I spend a lot of time sitting and writing) and it felt good. I will keep doing it. Thanks for the clear directions.
I will definitely be trying these two moves. I have spent the last few years sitting at a desk and have developed a slight backward tilt to my pelvis, something I’ve never had before. I never thought about it being caused by a tightening of the psoas. It will be interesting to see what happens if I do these on a regular basis.
Good information and informative. Very interesting from the commentor who referred to digestion and elimanation. I never really included that in the realm of complications it can effect. thank you!
Thank you for describing the lunge with sidebend – it is clear and accessible for readers. I’ll surely try it out. The psoas is a challenging muscle to understand but an easy one to have trouble with in the body. Students of their body, like me, welcome concrete ways to connect with this elusive muscle. Thank you!
The psoas attaches to the diaphragm and affects breathing. Sound like there is more to learn on this blog than i imagined
What a great tool for all of us..Also very informative ways to give the psoas a rest and a stretch.
Hi Dagmar! It is amazing how valuable these tools could be to just about everyone! I especially appreciate the fact that you included “Constructive Rest” as one of the categories in your plan to help reset the psoas to it’s best state. I find that I can tend to “bully” my psoas via stretching more than adopting a more passive approach and this is a great reminder that bringing passive peace to the area is also powerful in its own way! Thank you!
Hello Dagmar. I took a course a few years ago with Liz Koch where I first came upon the term and the idea of contructive rest for the psoas. It was one of the earliest times I learned about “self care” for myself and my students. What I found is that it was harder to get my students to rest in this pose for 20 min on their own than it was to get them to do a 90 min vinyasa or power yoga class, where they willingly would hang in lunges putting an enorous amount of strain and pressure on an alreaady overworked muscles. Difficult to convey the imprtance of sthira sukha…yin and yang…approaches to their practice. But, gotta keep sharing the knowledge!!! Thanks for the reminders on how to care for the psoas.
Thank you for this nice post! I like the term constructive rest and the idea that the psoas can be released in this pose. We pay little attention to this important muscles that we overuse during our dayly activities, and most importantly the relation between the psoas and breathing. Being in constructive rest will help to feel that conexion.
Nice and simple,and when done provides great results.Slowing down and relaxing enough to do the simple things might be a challenge for some type A personalities or anyone who feels really busy. Some times people might play a trick on themselves
and think because it is simple it will not work or their time is too valuable to be bothered by such simple things.
But it is the simple fundamental things that are what work.
I reallly apprecate the constructive rest informataion. It makes so much sense yet is a neglected portion of working our muscles. i frequently say that we sometimes forget to include the obvious and most helpful we work to heal ourselves. Thank for clear directtions to all of the stages.
I like Amanda’s point – I almost overlooked that vital part. Yes it is so important to allow the psoas a passive release in Ardha Savasana. I do find it is a very hard muscle to stretch though. I find that rounding my back and posteriorly tilting the pelvis while I reach the arms forward also helps.