Psoas and the Pelvic Floor
this is a post I've been looking forward to posting for
some time now , and its all about the relation of a tight tense psoas muscle to
pelvic floor dysfunction and pain.
The reason why having a happy and healthy (flexible and
strong) psoas muscle is so important for people suffering pelvic floor
dysfunction are
- A tense psoas muscle doesn't allow deep breathing (diaphragmatic
breathing) and can encourage shallow breathing or the sucking in of your
stomach muscles. Which put more pressure on our pelvic floor muscle as they
remain constantly subtly contracted.
- The Psoas is often referred to the fight or flight
muscle and is responsible for holding much of our emotional stress and pain.
When you are scared , angry or sad without knowing you may be unconsciously
contracting your psoas muscle in a protective manner. Overtime the psoas
becomes chronically tight and pulls on the muscles of the pelvic floor.
- The psoas muscle is the only muscle to connect our
spine to our leg. The muscle is made up of two muscles the Psoas Major and the
Iliacus. The psoas attaches from the lower back down to the upper thighbone.
Common signs of a tight psoas muscle include donald duck posture (bum sticking
out and pot belly), lower back pain and of course pelvic floor dysfunction as
the tight psoas muscles pulls the psoas out of alignment.
There are many ways to go about fixing Donald duck
posterior or what is referred to as anterior pelvic tilt or hyper lordosis but
I will cover them in a future post for now lets release that Psoas Muscle.
Release the Psoas and health pelvic floor
Not only will releasing the psoas ease tension in your
body and pelvic floor it will also bring some peace to a restless anxious mind.
You may think this is a bit far fetched but please give it a try and find some
relief as I have.
The Psoas trigger points are shown on the diagram
below
and I've also added a useful image on locating
the psoas
Technique
The psoas is quite a deep muscle and it may take a bit of
digging around to find it but when you do you may feel a slight pull running
down your leg. Remember if you experience that throbbing feeling you most
likely on the artery and you should move away from the midline as described in
the above image.
The best way to hit the psoas I have found is by using
the theracane , and lying with knee's to one side as in the picture above and
really putting pressure on the psoas muscle and work my way up and down until
that area is no longer painful to manipulate. I use my right hand on the curve
of the theracane to rock from side to side and hit the muscle from different
angles while the left hand pushed down and provides varying levels of pressure.
Its also worth noting that trigger points can develop on
the lower back and they are also worth kneading out with your theracane or
massage ball against a wall. In my experience my left psoas was a lot tighter
than the right throwing my pelvic floor out of alignment , it also translated
to very tight muscles on the left side of my back near the spine.
Very Important to remember, be conscious that you are not
contracting your pelvic floor during the psoas release as I found myself doing
this quite often and had to keep reminding myself. It can be quite painful
releasing the psoas so its very common to brace your pelvic floor muscles but
we are going for release here so consciously relax and unclench.
There you have it , I can't express how much of a
revelation this has been for me. The Holy Grail some call it but once you find
your psoas and release it you can finally start healing inside and out.
Some Benefits I have noticed which I hope you do too
- Happier Mood, Less Stressed ( Yes Honestly :P)
- More Relaxed Pelvic Floor
- Lower back feels happier
- I can finally take some deep belly breaths , something
I am very happy about as it helps with my meditation and relaxation exercises.
Goodluck everyone
I hope you found this post useful and all the best until next time :).
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