Best way to release and stretch the psoas?

Question

Jen Dieter · Answer

Okay, the question is, what's the best way to release and stretch the psoas? I'm going to show you my favorite way to get at it with a lacrosse ball. Lacrosse ball, split the difference between your belly button and your hip bone. Your psoas is right in the middle. So you're going to put the lacrosse ball right in the middle, roll back onto it, sink in until you start to feel a stretch. You can take your other leg up to the side to kind of lean into it more on the right. You can also bend your leg up and do a little bit of a side to side motion to further increase the stretch. You can also pull yourself forward to let your pelvis drop into the floor a little bit more.

Dr. Brian Cunningham · Answer

Hey Sam, best way to release and stretch the hip or the psoas muscle. So the psoas muscle attaches into your rib cage, deep into your lumbar spine and comes down here. So you want to kind of work that whole muscle. Currently I just have a foam roller so what I would do is with the foam roller, just kind of put it in the soft tissue of your belly and you're going to use your toes and your leg to allow you to drop onto this. And then the main thing that you want to do is you want to kind of relax. You're going to blow out and you're going to feel that kind of pull. I currently feel it in my rectus and my abdominal muscles. So I'm just going to and then I'm going to do an army crawl. Use my arms and my toes on the left side to be able to allow me to collapse onto it or take pressure off it. And I'm going to kind of roll all the way. I'm going to move up and move down towards the hip area and I'm going to find an area that's uncomfortable and try to just breathe into that. The next thing then to stretch your hip bone is you want to come into a tall kneeling position or half kneeling. I'm going to prop my foot in so that it engages this whole chain. And what you want to be careful of is you want to tuck your pelvis under. You can blow down. You don't want to just arch like this. Keep nice and tall. Squeeze. You can do a couple of things. So I've engaged the muscle in this direction. Now I can think about my pen and just circle from here. Nice and easy. Shouldn't feel it in my back. Or I can do some movements from my arms reaching up, over, and back. And see how that feels.

Cheryl Alden, PT · Answer

Best way to release and stretch the psoas. So I've got a way that I'm going to show you now. How to stretch the psoas. Well one way to do it is in a half kneel position. That psoas attaches to the spine and then also into the lesser trochanter of the femur so it helps to flex the hip but we want to make sure that the spine doesn't extend as we're trying to stretch the hip. So if I'm trying to stretch this psoas I'm going to try to keep my thigh perpendicular right now and I want to think about tucking my tuck my tush under. Think about posteriorly tilting your pelvis so that's going to open up through the front of the hip. From there you can then lunge forward a little bit getting that thigh bone into extension but making sure that the spine doesn't extend. So you really want to think about drawing up on the abdominals kind of engaging the glutes a little bit as you hinge forward as you move forward opening up through the hip. From there you can raise the arm up side bend away from that side but then you can also rotate towards it to really try to open up through here and if you can extend a little bit but again not getting the extension through that low back. Think about just rotating and reaching that rib cage away to really open up through the psoas. Hope it helped. Thanks!

Jamie Bomtempo,OT · Answer

What is the best way to stretch and release a psoas? I will show you two ways. First one is you're gonna make sure that your back is supported by a table or a bed, whatever you're laying on, and you're gonna let your leg dangle while also supporting your pelvis. So I don't like to just dangle my whole bottom half off. I still want to support my SI joint and let it dangle and just hold it there for about three minutes. And then if I don't have a myofascial release therapist around, I will use a four inch ball and place it directly on the skin. Very important. And you're going to lay directly on it and then just think about letting go and breathe. The longer the better.

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"Best way to release and stretch the psoas?"