10/10/2019
It is time for another muscle of the week!
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MUSCLE OF THE DAY: hip flexor
Psoas Major AKA “The Main Hip Flexor”
Our entire life we spend it in the Anterior Chain. What does that mean? Everything we do is in front of our body. We drive, we sit, we work, we take sh*ts, we walk, and everything else we do is spent in “flexion”. So throughout time what will happen is the Psoas will begin to shorten. When any muscle begins to shorten all hell could break lose. Look at all the old folks, they are all positioned in forward plane this is why. Muscles will begin to pull on their Origin (where the begin). The Psoas begins to pull the pelvis down taking the entire spine with it. ALL muscles are levers and pulleys for our construction guys.
With the Psoas Major originating on the L1-L5 lumbar spine it begins to cause a torsion/torque force on the spine when it is overused. Everybody put your hands out in front of you and form two letter “C”s with your thumbs position towards you: we are making a pelvis. Now “tip” your hands forward on the same axis. This is the pull of the Psoas Major. When tight the Psoas major will result in Anterior Pelvic Tilt. Doing so it will cause: Lumbar Lordosis, disc degeneration, anterior disc bulges, entrapment of the foramina (nerve canal), and eventually can lead to Spondylolithesis (vertebras collapsing on each other). Now are you guys starting to understand the importance of keeping this muscle in check? I hope so. You should NEVER EVER have to strength your hip flexor. They are overactive and are worked excessively. Only exceptions are people with pre-existing comorbidities such as Neurological conditions , nerve damage, and other issues.
Okay so it keeps the pelvis in alignment and deloads the lumbar spine when its tissues are normal lengths. You guys are probably sick of hearing “it keeps my back healthy, I want to look good”. That’s typical bodybuilder/powerlifter dialogue. Well here is the good news for you guys. When the Psoas Major is neutral it will pull your entire spine into neutral and give you much better dimensions with all of your angles during poses.
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