- You can see from this picture that psoas has it’s origin in the lumbar spine – from each of the 5 lumbar vertebrae in fact … one each side of the spine then it passes towards the front of the body and inserts into the top of the thigh bone.
- It is a hip and lumbar spine stabilizer but it also flexes the hip on the body and also flexes the body to touch your toes.
- If it is weak you can lose stability in your hip and low back and can give rise to back or hip pain. Over time, the hip can move incorrectly in it’s ball and socket joint and therefore weakness in psoas can contribute to hip arthritis. You can also develop pain down the side of your leg to your knee (in the ITB muscle – see below) and in the outside of the knee if the muscle there is overloaded due to its compensation for the weak psoas.
- It works during a sit up when you lie on your back and your knees are bent; during a push up exercise and resisted hip flexion.
To strengthen this muscle, call us at the Avenue Clinic and we will show you the best exercises and make sure you are doing them correctly – remember quality not quantity is important when retraining weak muscles.