This video, I'm going to show you how to fix a tight psoas
muscle in 30 seconds. Stay tuned!
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I want to go over a big
overlooked cause of lower back pain which are tight hip
flexors, notably that psoas muscle. A tight psoas tends to
cause pain in the front part of the leg, towards the groin and
lower back. It's a very deep muscle, so you can't really
massage it out. So, to get quick pain relief, you have to
focus on two separate things: mobility exercises to loosen
and activate those muscle, and then building strength to
hopefully get rid of that tightness for good. I'm going
to break this video up into two separate parts to address that.
Go through both parts if you're looking to get the best results
and take what works best for you. As a bonus, all of these
exercises, they're very easy to do. You can do them at home and
you may find they'll help release a tight psoas even in
as little as 30 seconds. So, let's get started and fix that
tight psoas right now. In this part, let's focus on fixing a
tight psoas muscle by activating it with some great
mobility exercises. This first exercise is known as a psoas
cobra. What I'm going to do is lie on my stomach right next to
a door or a wall. What you want to do is bend your knees at 90
degrees and put your feet and legs flat against that wall.
When you do this, I'm also going to prop myself up on my
elbows, kind of like in a triangular position, with my
forearms and tuck my chin towards my chest. This is known
as a press up stretch and you should feel a deep stretch into
the front part of the legs, those hip flexors engaging, and
also into the lower back. You want to try to hold this one
comfortably for about 20 to 30 seconds. When you need a
breather, you can just lower your chest down like this but I
try to do it for about three to five repetitions and if this
becomes too easy, what you can do is then go into a full
cobra. So, put your hands off to your side and you're going
to keep your hips flat during this. So, you don't want to
lift them up like this. So, you're going to keep the hips
flat and then press up with your arms as much as you can.
This becomes a deep stretch. I pretty much feel it from my
lower back into my pelvis hips into those hip flexors. Again,
20 to 30 second holds. You can relax, take a breather, and
then try to repeat this one up to five times and with each
repetition, try to stretch into it just a little bit more. This
is how we're going to take it to the next level and really
hit that psoas muscle. So, let's go back into our press-up
stretch position but I'm going to take one leg off like
this and put it flat on the floor. You want your ankle,
knee flat, and you're going to do is take this knee and drive
it upwards as much as you can whatever side is bent you're
going to feel a deep stretch into the psoas muscle on the
other side it's really targeting that left side right
now again 20 to 30 second hold. When you need a breather, just
slide your leg back down like this, but on the next repetition
try to bring that knee up even further. Do this one for about
three to five repetitions and when you're done on one side
switch to the other to keep them both in balance. So here's
one of my favorite psoas exercises. It's known as the
couch stretch because we're going to be using a couch. So,
let's start in this position. I'm going to go into a lunge
stance where one knee is in front of me bend at 90 degrees.
The other knee is going to be bent. Let's put a pillow or
towel underneath it for extra comfort. The back of the foot
is going to go right up here on the couch. In this stance, you
should already feel a deep stretch in the front part of
the leg going into the hip flexors, into that psoas muscle.
This is how we're going to really target it. Have very
good upright posture your hands, put them on your hips,
and what you're going to do is lunge forward with your body
weight. The more that you lunge forward, the more that you're
going to feel a deep stretch off to that side. Really focus
on feeling it into the hip flexors. Once we hit that
point, let's hold this for about 20 to 30 seconds. Just do
nice, slow, controlled breathing also. Let that
tension out. From there, I just relax and then I'm going to
repeat this three to five times. With each repetition,
try to stretch into it just a little bit more. This is how
we're going to take it to the next level and really target
that psoas and a couple more muscles in the lower back.
Let's go back into that lunge position but I'm going to put
my arms in front of me this time kind of like a genie. What
I'm going to do is turn my whole back and just twist it
off to the side of the back knee. In this position, you're
going to feel a deep stretch. It hits the muscles just a
little bit differently. Again, you want to hold this one for
20 to 30 seconds. You're just going to relax from there. Take
a breather and then repeat this one up to to five times. From
there, I experiment by going on the other side too. It'll just
hit it a little bit differently. So, go towards the
side, go away from the side. If one feels like it targets the
psoas just a little bit better, throw some more repetitions in
at that point. You can also do this one. So, let's get back
into that original stance of leaning forward but this time
around, I'm going to have very good upright posture and I'm
going to place one hand above my head like this, the side of
the bent knee and then, I'm going to bend away from that
bent knee. So, so this really opens up off to the side it
targets a muscle called the QL, or quadratus lumborum, a big
instigator of back pain and you're going to feel a deep
stretch into those hip flexors again try to hold this one for
20 to 30 seconds, you can relax take a breather and give this
one a try for three to five repetitions but go through all
of those motions if one targets it a little bit better throw
more repetitions in at that point in this part we're going
to focus on the best ways to get rid of iliopsoas muscle
tightness and pain which is by strengthening the hip flexors.
This first exercise is known as a knee raiser. Really easy to
do. You can pretty much do it anywhere at home, at work. We
just need a flat elevated surface. I'm going to be using
the WWE wrestler special, a folding chair, but you can also
do this one on a staircase. I would recommend doing it next
to a wall too. That way you can grab on to it for balance
issues. So, let's start by bringing one leg up and place
our foot on that elevated surface. We want our hip and
knee pretty much in a nice straight line, knee bent at 90
degrees. From here, I'm going to take my hands, place them on
my hips just like this. We want very good upright posture,
engage the core muscles too for a little bit more support and
stability. So, the movement is very easy. What I'm going to
try to do is drive my knee right here above hip level. The
more that we take the knee up, the more it's going to engage
the hip flexors including that psoas muscle. So, really focus
on feeling it into those hip flexors. Hold this position
comfortably for about 5 seconds. From there, you're
just going to relax, take a breather. On the next
repetition, try to drive that knee up even more. Really
challenge those muscles. You want to do this one nice and
slowly for about 10 to 15 repetitions. From there, take a
breather. If you feel like you have more energy, do another
set or two but whatever you do on one side, make sure that you
do it on the other to keep them both in balance. This exercise
is called the hip lunge slider. It's really going to help build
strength and stability in and across the hips and really
focus on that psoas muscle. We just need something that is
going to slide on the floor. So, if you have carpeted
floors, you can use something like a paper plate, a piece of
cardboard or a furniture mover like I'm using. If you have
hardwood floors, you can use a towel or just thick socks. So,
let's place one foot over that slider. What I'm going to do is
have very good upright posture, I'm going to take my hands, put
them in a prayer position, and press into each other to engage
the core. It's really important to engage the core during this
exercise because it will help build a little bit more support
and stability. From there, I'm just going to go into a lunge
position. So, one knee is going to be bent in front of me while
the other one slowly gets bent behind me. The key is we're
going to try to bring this leg back as much as possible to
feel a deep stretch into those hip flexors and also taking the
toes on the back leg and driving it down for support.
So, keep going back as far as you can until your knee is
hovering right above the ground. Hold this position for
about a second. Again, focusing on engaging those hip muscles
and those hip flexors and then slowly come back up just like
this. It should take you about five seconds to do a complete
repetition but I try to do this one nice and slowly for about
10 to 15 repetitions building into each repetition just a
little bit more to challenge those hip flexors and that
psoas muscle but afterward take a breather. If you feel like
you have a little bit more left in you, you can do another set
or two. Whatever whatever you do on one side, always switch
to the other to keep them both in balance. So, a big
overlooked cause of hip flexor and iliopsoas muscle tightness
and pain is because of a glute problem. The glute and the
buttocks are opposers of the hip flexors. So, as one
activates and strengthens, it allows the other to really
release and relax. So, I'm going to take one of my
favorite glute exercises, the glute bridge and modify it so
we can get our butt in shape. Lie flat on your back just like
this. I'm going to keep my knees bent, my feet flat. My
hands are going to go right on my hips. The first movement is
very easy. What we're doing is driving the butt up towards the
ceiling until we have a nice straight line from our knees to
our hips to our shoulders. If you're unable to get to that
point, do the best you can. Over time, you'll notice that
you have more strength and flexibility to get into this
position but in this position, you should feel the core
muscles activate, lower back, the glute buttocks, and the
legs. It's a wonderful exercise. I try to hold this
one for about 5 seconds. From there, I just relax, take a
breather, and then repeat this one slowly for about 10 to 15
repetitions. Let's take this one to the next level and focus
a little bit more on the hip flexors. So, let's keep one
knee bent and then I'm going to get the other leg straight at
knee just like this. We're going to put our hands on our
hips and then slowly raise that straight leg upwards towards
the ceiling as much as we can. You'll feel the back of the
leg, the hamstrings go into the glutes. Those will activate.
You'll also feel the hip flexors in the front of the leg
activate. Really focus on that. Hold this position for about 5
seconds. You're just going to come back down, relax, take a
breather. On the next repetition, try to go into it
just a little bit more. Do this one for 10 to 15 repetitions
and then just switch to the side and repeat. So, here's how
we're going to really take it to the next level by putting
both of those movements together and hitting both the
glutes and the hip flexors. Let's keep one knee bent. The
other one's going to go straight. We're going to bring
this one up again like this but this time around, we're going
to do that glute bridge. So, we're going to try to bring
that up. This causes a lot to activate. You'll feel it pretty
much from the legs all the way down into the lower back. Hold
this one comfortably for about three to five seconds. You're
just going to relax, take a breath and then repeat this
one. Again, try to stretch into it just a little bit more to
challenge those muscles but I try to do this one for about 10
to 15 repetitions on both sides and if you feel like you have
just a little bit more, you can do another set or two to
challenge those muscles even further. If the exercises
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