STOP Stretching Your Psoas Like This! (Do This Instead)

a while back I was wondering why after stretching my soas muscle for weeks I still had pain in my lower back and hips it was a really frustrating feeling that constant tension almost like a stubborn rubber band that refused to loosen up well the soas muscle acts much like this tight rubber band and it turns out that stretching it the wrong way like I was is one of the main reasons why pain and tension can persist or even show up in the first place I'm not only going to show you the right way to stretch your soas but I'll also show you how to finally get the relief you've been looking for in just three simple steps the secret to stretching the soas correctly lies in its Anatomy this muscle is basically like a bridge in your body it not only connects the upper body to the lower body but it also connects the front and back of the body running from the spine at the base of the rib cage and eventually attaching onto the front of the thigh bone it's a crucial muscle that affects not not just different kinds of pain but also how good your posture is how flexible you're able to become and even whether you're walking correctly the problem however is that the soas tends to shorten becoming not only tight but weak when we spend a lot of time sitting which pretty much all of us do nowadays so if you're stretching your soas the wrong way it's very likely that at some point you'll experience some pain and discomfort in your hips lower back and pelvic area in fact stretching it wrong might even make things worse now we often resort to traditional stretches like long lunges to combat tightness in the soas but these stretches rarely Target the soas effectively because they completely ignore how weak this muscle actually is so here's the GameChanger we need to combine the right stretching techniques with movement to also help strengthen the soas which is exactly what this muscle truly needs but how do we actually do that well first up it's important to warm up the whole area around the soas the best way to do so is with simple hip circles which you can do either lying on your back or standing make these circles as slow and deliberate as you can don't rush it and make sure you're isolating the movement to just the hip joint nothing else should move I recommend three to five slow circles in each direction for both hips and now here comes our movement or strengthening piece standing up tall pull one knee towards your chest as high as you can hold it there for a moment and then slowly lower the foot back down to start over as you're doing this squeeze the glute on your supporting leg to help keep yourself stable and if you need a little extra help balancing feel free to hold on to a chair or a wall this might already feel plenty challenging if your Seas is weak but over time will want to make this movement more difficult to keep building more strength to do so you can either th add in extra resistance like by using an elastic band or by attaching a weight to the ankle or you can also take this movement seated ensuring that you keep good posture and a tall spine throughout the exercise whichever variation you choose try to do a set of 10 on one side and on the last rep hold the knee up and count to 10 as slowly as you can before changing to the other side for extra credit you could repeat a second set of 10 either right after your first set or at some other point during your day now that we've dynamically strengthened the soas we're ready for a more traditional stretch to bring it some length and relief you've probably seen people trying to stretch their soas in a fancy long lunge but this can be a mistake primarily because other parts of the body are being stretched here as well which distracts from the targeted soas stretch that we're trying to achieve this longer position also tends to tilt the pelvis forwards which can strain the lower back not what we're going for so to isolate the soas instead of a long lunge take a short lunge as if you were about to propose marriage with your shoulders and hips lined up right on top of your back knee this position is much more stable and controlled which will help us to get a deeper stretch to bring the stretch into the soas at the front of the hip from here squeeze your glutes and try to tuck your tailbone under lengthening through the lower back for most of us this is already a lot more intensive stretch than it looks but if you want a little bit more you can either try twisting your upper body in the direction of your front knee or you can also try leaning your upper body back a little to find the intensity that you feel you need once you've chosen your position hold the stretch for about 30 seconds which is five or six deep slow breaths to help you put these steps into action and avoid common so as stretching mistakes I've linked some follow along Yoga practices in the description box of this video but even with these stretches if you still feel nagging pain or tension in your lower back you'll want to check out this short video next to discover the real reason your lower back hurts and how to fix it in just a few simple steps

Channel: Yoga with Joelle

Views: 13,360

Keywords: yoga with joelle, yogawithjoelle, yoga for beginners, yoga for pain, yoga with joel, psoas, psoas muscle, psoas stretch, psoas stretch yoga, psoas release, psoas release technique, psoas exercises, how to stretch the psoas, how to stretch the psoas muscle, yoga with joelle psoas, how to stretch a tight psoas muscle

Id: gQJSX0ABGAo

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 06 2023