The Psoas: Muscle of
The Soul
I was
delighted when I first came across Liz Koch’s amazing work because it confirmed
much of what I’d been intuiting on my own. I had begun to open and close my
yoga practise with hip opening poses with the specific intention of releasing
tension in my psoas and hip flexors. I’d breathe and imagine tension flowing
out of constricted muscles to be released as energy into the torso.
It worked,
I’d feel my body soften yet somehow grow stronger.
Reading Liz
Koch I instantly realized what I was doing – by learning to relax my psoas I
was literally energizing my deepest core by reconnecting with the powerful
energy of the earth. According to Koch, the psoas is far more than a core
stabilizing muscle; it is an organ of perception composed of bio-intelligent
tissue and “literally embodies our deepest urge for survival, and more
profoundly, our elemental desire to flourish.”
Well, I just
had to learn more. Here is just a sprinkling of the research that Liz Koch and others have uncovered regarding the
importance of the psoas to our health, vitality and emotional well-being.
The Psoas
muscle (pronounced so-as) is the deepest muscle of the human body affecting our
structural balance, muscular integrity, flexibility, strength, range of motion,
joint mobility, and organ functioning.
Growing out
of both sides of the spine, the psoas spans laterally from the 12th thoracic vertebrae
(T12) to each of the 5 lumbar vertebrae. From there it flows down through the
abdominal core, the pelvis, to attach to the top of the femur (thigh) bone.
The Psoas is
the only ‘muscle’ to connect the spine to the legs. It is responsible for
holding us upright, and allows us to lift our legs in order to walk. A
healthily functioning psoas stabilizes the spine and provides support through
the trunk, forming a shelf for the vital organs of the abdominal core.
The psoas is
connected to the diaphragm through connective tissue or fascia which affects
both our breath and fear reflex. This is
because the
psoas is directly linked to the reptilian brain, the most ancient interior part
of the brain stem and spinal cord. As Koch writes “Long before the spoken
word or the organizing capacity of the cortex developed, the reptilian brain,
known for its survival instincts, maintained our essential core functioning.”
Koch
believes that our fast paced modern lifestyle (which runs on the adrenaline of
our sympathetic nervous system) chronically triggers and tightens the psoas –
making it literally ready to run or fight. The psoas helps you to spring into
action – or curl you up into a protective ball.
If we
constantly contract the psoas to due to stress or tension , the muscle
eventually begins to shorten leading to a host of painful conditions including
low back pain, sacroiliac pain, sciatica, disc problems, spondylolysis,
scoliosis, hip degeneration, knee pain, menstruation pain, infertility, and
digestive problems.
A tight psoas not only creates structural problems, it constricts the organs, puts pressure on nerves, interferes with the movement of fluids, and impairs diaphragmatic breathing.
In fact,
“The psoas is so intimately involved in such basic physical and emotional
reactions, that a chronically tightened psoas continually signals your body
that you’re in danger, eventually exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting
the immune system.”
And
according to Koch, this situation is exacerbated by many things in our modern
lifestyle, from car seats to constrictive clothing, from chairs to shoes that
distort our posture, curtail our natural movements and further constrict our
psoas.
Koch
believes the first step in cultivating a healthy psoas is to release unnecessary
tension. But “to work with the psoas is not to try to control the
muscle, but to cultivate the awareness necessary for
sensing its messages. This involves making a conscious
choice to become somatically aware.”
A relaxed psoas is the mark of play and creative expression. Instead of the contracted psoas, ready to run or fight, the relaxed and released psoas is ready instead to lengthen and open, to dance. In many yoga poses (like tree) the thighs can’t fully rotate outward unless the psoas releases. A released psoas allows the front of the thighs to lengthen and the leg to move independently from the pelvis, enhancing and deepening the lift of the entire torso and heart.
Koch
believes that by cultivating a healthy psoas, we can rekindle our body’s vital
energies by learning to reconnect with the life force of the universe. Within
the Taoist tradition the psoas is spoken of as the seat or muscle of the soul,
and surrounds the lower “Dan tien” a major energy center of body. A
flexible and strong psoas grounds us and allows subtle energies to flow through
the bones, muscles and joints.
Koch writes
“The psoas, by conducting energy, grounds us to the earth, just as a grounding
wire prevents shocks and eliminates static on a radio. Freed and grounded, the
spine can awaken”…“ As gravitational flows transfer weight through bones,
tissue, and muscle, into the earth, the earth rebounds, flowing back up the
legs and spine, energizing, coordinating and animating posture, movement and
expression. It is an uninterrupted conversation between self, earth, and
cosmos.”
So, it might
be worth it, next time you practice, to tune in and pay attention to what your
bio-intelligent psoas has to say.