- Greetings greetings, Bob and viewers.
- Hello.
- We're gonna show you a therapy trick
that's gonna help you relax
that deep and sometimes stubborn, psoas muscle.
- I actually agree with you, Brad.
- It is. Yeah. Wonderful.
We've got 9.3 seconds.
We'll get right back at it. And Sam's here to help.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- All right, Bob, before we get started a little precursor.
We need to talk about the pronunciation of
- Psoas. - of the psoas muscle.
Now, I have heard
a professional,
- Right. - Pronounce it as "so-ass."
And I'm not exaggerating.
We'll have none of that kind of pronunciation on the show.
- We're a family show.
- It is a family show.
Delete that. We will not say that.
Okay. Also, people say "pa-soas."
- Really?
- Because there's a "P" at the beginning. P-S.
- Oh my gosh.
- Yeah. We'll have none of that.
That's mostly on cartoons, but anyways.
So we'll just simply call it the psoas muscle.
- Psoas.
- And the psoas muscle as Sam is so
- Demonstrating here.
- Yeah. See, he volunteered today.
Watch out for the shoulder. He's got impingement up there.
- Yeah.
- So we've got the psoas muscle is actually a hip flexor.
It makes the hip, or the femur, bend up this direction.
And it's interesting 'cause it actually connects
- [Bob] To the back. Right. - to the lumbar spine.
Yep. The transverse processes and it goes down.
It connects to the lesser trochanter of the hip
and it allows this movement when it flexes.
It's not doing that all by itself.
There are some other muscles, the ilium.
And we won't get into the details,
but if this muscle gets tight
it can cause back problem and back pain. Okay.
Another thing that can happen when this muscle gets tight
there's something called reciprocal inhibition.
The opposite muscle, or the-
- [Bob] Gluteus Maximus. - Right.
The antagonist. - [Bob] Right.
- Which is a gluteus maximus.
That muscle can actually
- [Bob] Shut down. - Shut down.
- [Bob] Right.
- And it's called- What is it called again, Bob?
- [Bob] Um.
- (chuckles) Gluteal... - [Bob] Amnesia.
- Amnesia. I almost forgot myself.
So that actually, and that's just a term.
So what we're gonna do is
we're gonna use this whole concept
to make the psoas work for us and loosen up.
So hold on.
- [Bob] I find this funny.
We couldn't remember gluteal amnesia
- (chuckles) Amnesia. Yeah.
Yeah, it's all part of the deal.
All right. So what we want is reciprocal inhibition
to help relax the psoas muscle.
So we're gonna contract the gluteus maximus.
And the way to do that, Bob's already in position.
It's simply hook in like this.
He's gonna bridge,
and right now he's contracting his glute max.
- So stretching the hip flexor
- At the same time. Yeah. - Right?
- Exactly. So we're gonna work that 10 repetitions.
If you feel like that's getting too easy
and you wanna actually get more firing of the glute max
you can go on one leg.
So now he's gonna work the right side only.
And he's gonna work it like that.
You can take this hand and actually grab your glute maximus
- And feel it.
- Feel it contract. You get some biofeedback that way.
- A little strange.
- Yeah. Well, but just don't do it. People are in the gym.
You know what I'm saying?
But you can do it.
- Yeah, spank myself.
- (chuckles) Why, Bob? Why? It's a family show.
We're gonna get- - All right.
- FDC or or whatever is get after us.
- Right.
- All right. And we can add weight, right?
- Yes. Yep. So you can put anything you-
if you have a plate that you use for your dumbbells
or your barbell, or you can have some dumbbells here
like Bob's demonstrating.
You could have one of your children sit on your waist
if they're two or three years old,.
There you go.
- That little more difficult.
- Yep. It makes a difference. You bet.
Okay. Good.
Now we're gonna show you another option
that I actually think works better
for this when you get to the point of being active.
So hold on.
Okay, Bob.
Option number two to get that reciprocal inhibition
and to stretch that psoas is,
you're gonna need either a loop band, a large loop band,
or you can take a regular tubular band
and hook 'em together like this.
- Sure.
- So you essentially make a loop band.
You do need an anchor point.
You can use a staircase, a handrail, bed whatev-
- [Bob] Bed posts.
- Eight wall anchors,
which we use 'cause they work so handy.
- Someone you trust.
- Someone you trust, yeah.
Yeah, We used to do that years ago.
- Right.
- Yeah. That trust part was another big deal there.
So anchor it one way or another.
It's best if you're not to the floor,
but anywhere in this area.
You put it around your waist
and now we're gonna contract- oh, there we are.
We're gonna contract those glute muscles
as we do a hip thrust.
Squeeze those butt muscles together as tight as you can.
That's gonna make the psoas muscles relax.
And stretch back at the same time.
You can put your hands on those glutes and feel-
- They sure are firing.
- Yeah. That biofeedback is really important.
Now you can do that.
I would do 10 to 20 of those.
Relax. Maybe do another set.
Okay.
Now there's another, especially if you're a runner
or when you walk. - Right.
- You're having some hamstrings problems.
- This is really functional, Brad.
- It is.
So when you walk or when you run,
obviously one leg goes forward.
So this muscle, the right glute,
is gonna be working, hopefully.
- Right.
- And what we're gonna do is
with this leg non-weight bearing,
I'm using the stick to balance.
Grab whatever you need to balance, unless you don't-
unless you have really good balance.
Put your hand on your buttocks and go forward
and feel that glute tighten up.
We're stretching the psoas.
At this point, - Right
- while this is maximally contracting, and do 10 of those.
And we're gonna get that psoas to automatically release
because that's the way our body's wired.
- And how has this worked for your hamstring, Brad?
- Right. We're talking about psoas,
but the hamstrings is directly correlated
- Right.
- with this as well, so it's been wonderful.
- For some people they're overactive.
- Yeah.
- The hamstring. So this gets a glute in play.
- I got another video that actually refers
- You're gonna do that?
- Yeah, we're gonna do that next, actually.
- Oh, okay.
- All right.
Now after you've done either the bridging,
the double leg stance hip thrust or the single leg,
then we're gonna go directly after the psoas,
and really get after it now that it's relaxed ready to go.
Hold on.
All right. And now to finally get after that psoas
even more aggressively, we're gonna do it kneeling.
So we're working the left psoas only.
- Am I good posture?
- Yep.
- So I'm gonna go ahead bend forward
but why I do so I can actually fire the glute.
- Yes. So tighten it up.
- I feel it. Yeah.
- You feel that glute firing?
- Right.
- Maximal contraction. - Yep.
- And you're getting-
You can actually stretch the flexor
more aggressively this way.
- Right. Exactly.
- You may not wanna do this.
Maybe you had enough stretch the other way.
- Right.
- But it's-
this is definitely the one that's more aggressive.
Make sure you do both sides.
Even if one side's tight, I recommend doing the other side
just for maintenance. Maybe not as aggressive
- And you're gonna get buns of steel.
- Buns of- yeah. It's a win-win situation.
- All right.
- The psoas is loose, the buttocks is-
- Is tight. - Tight. The life-
- You can crack an egg it.
- (chuckles) Yeah, we digress.
Anyways. - All right.
- Good luck with your psoas. Not "so-ass."
- Psoas?
- Yeah, psoas. Very, very correct.
Thank you so much.