The Psoas Edition

On anatomy, stretching, and release

People seemed to like my Levels edition yesterday. Re-running another health/wellness edition today! -CJN

Colin here. I recently bought an odd-shaped contraption called a Pso-rite. Though it feels and looks a bit like a torture device, it is a tool that releases one of the largest, most important, and misunderstood muscles: the psoas. As we get into this stuff, I’ll also caveat that I am not a medical doctor and am merely an interested party in figuring out how to fix parts of my body that cause me pain! 

According to the Cleveland clinic: 

The psoas muscle is located in the lower lumbar region of the spine and extends through the pelvis to the femur. This muscle works by flexing the hip joint and lifting the upper leg towards the body. A common example of the movement created from this muscle is walking. 

As I’ve done more digging into the role of this muscle, it is very common for it to be too tight in many people: this stems from sitting too much all day thanks to activities like computer work or long drives. 

Why is this interesting? 

A tight psoas also echoes outward and causes all sorts of other complications. Part of this stems from its structural role in the body: it attaches vertebrae on your lumbar spine, and then crosses the outer edge of each pubis (near your pelvis). It next joins with the iliacus muscle in your groin region, and finally attaches at the femur. A tight psoas can cause lower back spasms, lumbar disc problems, as well as general instability in your core. Because of the lack of core mobility, a lot of balancing work gets redistributed to your shoulders and knees, causing a stiff neck, tight shoulders, and wear and tear on the knees. 

The aforementioned torture device: the Pso-rite, allows a person to lay down on it and use the device to directly release the hard-to-reach muscle. You need to sink into the two pointed parts of the device and let your muscles completely loosen. It takes a bit of practice and isn’t particularly comfortable at first, but it was a revelation for me when I started to loosen up the muscle. I also just gifted one to my dad, as he has lower back pain, cycles a lot, and needs to work on mobility. After using it, he said he felt two inches taller and a lot of pain and tightness had been alleviated. The work managed to mitigate a lot of the aforementioned knock-on effects by just releasing it. Also, serious yoga practitioners tout the benefits of specific stretches to release the psoas, and that release and flexibility of the muscle lead to overall mental wellbeing. (CJN)

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All of that gets me to the ask: if you’re a fan of the project (or are just up for a favor), check us out and upvote on Product Hunt. Thanks so much.

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN)

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