Include the psoas for core strength
As a somatic educator, my job is to help people awaken inner awareness through developing their sensory perception. I accomplish this by connecting a person to their deepest core muscle, the one behind their flabby or fabulous abs called the iliopsoas muscle. The Psoas (so-as), as it is fondly called, is a little known, yet deeply moving expressive tissue, connecting spine to leg. Oriental Tao philosophy refers to the psoas as the muscle of the Soul. It is believed to form the inner tracks, which the unborn infant follows within his mother’s womb as he journeys down into the birth canal. Primitive like the tongue, the psoas is juicy, responsive and expressive of our most basic fear, survival, and dynamic and explosive in its full expression of orgasm.
The Psoas muscle (pronounced so-as) is the deepest core muscle of your body. Emerging from the 12th thoracic vertebrae and each of the lumbar vertebrae, the Psoas flows through the pelvic basin into the lesser trochanter of the femurs. Large, massive, and powerful, your Psoas is the only muscle to connect spine to legs. It is a pendulum that swings the leg in walking.
Located in the vortex of gravitational forces, the Psoas is a proprioceptive messenger, communicating orientation, location and gravity while helping co-ordinate structural balance, muscular integrity, joint mobility, nerve and organ functioning. Your healthy Psoas is key to integrating extensor/flexor, abductor/adductor, and rotational movement, allowing for muscular synchronicity and strength. Thus it is detrimental to use the Psoas as an anchor or muscular lock in an effort to achieve core strength because doing so prevents the Psoas from functioning as an integrative bridge between the skeletal, organ, and muscular systems.
Not only does the Psoas have an intimate relationship with the heart, kidneys and diaphragm, it is the key player in the primal response of fight, flight, and freeze. As core messenger, the Psoas signals fear or the sense of safety essential for both survival and the manifestation of inner power. When the Psoas is expressing trauma it is vital to first resolve the underlying expression to regain core integrity.
True core strength then, depends upon core integrity. Unlike other muscles, the Psoas does not need strengthening, but rather nourishing. The ‘weak’ Psoas muscle is really a dry, exhausted, Psoas; abused, over-used and too often misused.
Thus working with the Psoas challenges the standard precept of core strength as building ‘abs of steel’. To really achieve core strength you must first regain a supple, responsive and fluid core so that rich bio-intelligent messages from the central nervous system can foster healthy neuromuscular and skeletal relationships.
For the Pilates instructor this means recognizing Psoas dysfunction to help in developing a course of action for a client while simultaneously fostering awareness of how a healthy Psoas behaves. Begin with first developing sensory awareness of your own Psoas. When you begin to initiate your movement from within a supple, dynamic core, you will be the living expression of core strength.
Liz Koch is an international somatic educator, and creator of Core Awareness focusing on awareness for developing human potential. With 30 years experience working with and specializing in the iliopsoas, she is recognized in the somatic, bodywork and fitness professions as an authority on the core muscle. Liz is the author of The Psoas Book, Unrave ling Scoliosis CD, Core Awareness; Enhancing Yoga, Pilates, Exercise & Dance, and The Psoas & Back Pain CD. Please visit www.coreawareness.com for workshop information and to join her quarterly newsletter.
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