Protect and Strengthen Your Psoas Muscle

The psoas muscle is the largest and strongest muscle in your “hip flexor” group. Hip flexors pull your thigh and torso together and move them apart. They also faciliate lateral flexion of the lumbar spine—the ability for your body to bend to the right or left side.

“The psoas muscles originate at the sides of the lower vertebrae (in your spine) and run down through the pelvis, where it joins the iliacus (another hip flexor) and attaches to the femur or thigh bone,” explains Dana Aaron, an advanced clinician at the Weill Cornell-affiliated Hospital for Special Surgery’s Sports and Performance Center. “The iliopsoas (where the iliacus and psoas meet) works with other muscles to flex the hip joint, allowing us do things like walk, run, and climb stairs.”

Watch Out for Injuries

If you have sudden, sharp pain in your hip or pelvic area, cramping, muscle spasms, or tenderness in your upper leg muscles (femur or hamstring), or have lost strength in that area, you may have pulled a hip flexor muscle.

Psoas injuries commonly are a result of bursitis or tendinosis (pain, swelling, or inflammation). “Injuries also result from sports and activities that require forceful or repetitive hip flexion, such as walking long distances, cycling, or running uphill,” she notes.

The psoas also can shorten or tighten with prolonged contraction during excessive or long-duration sitting. This tightness can affect the stress and pressure on the lumbar vertebrae.

Protect Your Psoas

Avoid overexertion of your psoas muscle while exercising your abdominals. For example, while performing sit-ups or abdominal curl exercises, keep yourself in a neutral pelvic position and keep your hips flexed at 90 degrees, rather than extended in front of you.

If you sit for long hours, such as at a desk job or in front of the television, get up, stretch, and walk around for a few minutes once an hour or even more frequently. “Also, avoid low seats that position your knees above your hips,” Aaron advises.

Exercise Your Psoas

Balance the psoas’ strength with that of the other hip flexors and surrounding muscles—the abdominals, glutes, and hamstrings—and maintain its flexiblity with exercise, says Aaron.

She adds that you can improve the strength of your psoas with a half hip flexor (kneel, then lift one foot to the floor so that leg is at a 90-degree angle while the other knee is on the floor) or lie flat and pull one knee into your chest while the other leg remains straight and flat (referred to as the Thomas test).

Below are two additional exercises that stretch the psoas and other hip flexor muscles.

The orange-colored muscle in this diagram is your psoas muscle.

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