My self help guide for looking after your psoas

Given all my clients sit for prolonged periods of time as part of their job which can cause contraction of your psoas muscle.  It goes without saying that if you are having problems with your psoas muscle a massage can help, so please feel free to book.  Here is what you can do …

Strengthen Your Psoas Muscle

  1. Straight leg sit-up.
  2. Lying leg raise – lie on the back and raise your straight legs together into the air.

Stretch Your Psoas Muscle

  1. While kneeling extended hip & title pelvis posteriorly.
  2. While lying down (face up) on a bed extend your hip off the side of the bed and pull your other knee into your chest.

The Constructive Rest Position

The Constructive Rest Position (CRP) can relieve low back, pelvic and hip tension while it allows your entire body to come into neutral. Lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor hip-width apart and parallel to each other.   Place your heels a comfortable distance from your buttocks – or about 16 inches away. Do not push your low back into the floor or tuck your pelvis. Rest your arms over your belly. Let gravity do the work. Doing this for 10 to 20 minutes every day will release tension in your psoas muscles and help to reestablish the neuro-biological rhythms that calm and refresh.

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  • Do you have tight hips? – Part 2

    I know many of my clients sit at a desk for very long hours which can lead to tight hips.  So in this post I want to show you how to stretch them.

    How to stretch your hips

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  • How to combat sitting all day

    Sitting all day is a current health concern.   While I know that sitting all day has been described as "the new smoking" until now this made me uncomfortable - as its not the same.  You can get help to quit smoking.  If you work in an office you are expected to sit and standing desks are rare, so you have no choice but to sit down.  While I am aware that smoking is an addiction, I think it is still more within the individual's control than sitting if you work in an office. I am an optimistic person by nature, so I don't want to be the voice of doom for my readers about sitting.  So I was very interested in some recent research which demonstrates how to limit the impact of sitting. Spending much of the day sitting around increases the risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and ultimately, death - with 50,000 people anually in the UK dying as a result, say researches from Queen's University in Belfast.    Around 30% of adults spend at least six hours a day during the week sitting and this rises to 37% at weekends.  Roughly one-thrid of people who are sedentary will have at least two major health conditions, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  Researchers from the American Cancer Society estimate that just 30 minutes of some physical activity would halve the death rates from chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. So 30 minutes of physical activity per day (like walking) is what researchers currently think is required to combat sitting all day. References Journal Epidemiol Community Health. 2019 Jul;73(7):625-629. doi:10.1136/jech-2018-211758 Americal Journal of Preventive Medicine, Mortality Risk Reductions for Replacing Sedentary Time with Physical Activities, Rees-Punia, Erika et al.  Volume 56, Issue 5, 736-741  

  • Is the way you breathing causing your neck pain? – Part 1

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