When people hear the word Psoas, not a lot of people would know that we are actually talking about an important muscle in the body. This muscle is important in allowing your body to achieve a good range of motion and joint rotation, as well balancing your alignment. This is why this muscle can affect your posture, as well as cause certain physical ailments such as neck and back pains if it contracts.

The psoas muscle is actually situated in the area that connects your trunk to your legs, and if left untreated, could cause a number of physical problems. Aside from those mentioned above, psoas could also cause scoliosis, knee pain, infertility, menstrual pain, hip degeneration, digestive problems, and disc problems just to name a few.

The psoas muscle mainly works in flexing the spinal column and the hips. This means that it is used for major walking activities, for allowing the spine to bend and tilt forward, and for stabilizing and balancing your core and your trunk when you sit down. Dancers and athletes are actually able to show the full potential of psoas use as they are able to take full control of the movement of their bodies, allowing them to move elegantly and gracefully without sacrificing their bodies structural integrity.

Once the psoas muscle becomes dysfunctional, like when it becomes contracted, it can cause some problems and pain that could stretch from mid and lower spinal column down to the front area of the thigh, making it difficult for you to perform even the most basic of tasks.

Contracted psoas muscles is one example of a dysfunctional psoas muscle since this means that your body is used to maintaining a particular posture that is not normally how the psoas muscle should be. This is due to our postural habits which we use every day. The manner in which we sit, stand and walk are all factors that could lead to your psoas contracting. If you favor a particular way of sitting, standing and walking, it will translate to how your psoas muscle will function.

If untreated, the psoas muscle will continue to stay contracted, making it difficult to move and act right and quickly. Instead, you maintain a reactive and short psoas that will shorten further, and ultimately, could lead to muscle spasms more easily.

A good posture/asana for this is the pigeon pose and there are many variations of this pose from a simple beginner pose to a more advanced version.