The hidden cause of lower back pain
The psoas muscle is a very deep muscle that connects your torso to your legs. It affects your posture and helps you to stabilise your spine. In fact, whether you run, bike, dance, practice yoga, or just hang out on your couch, your psoas muscles are involved.
A person suffering from IlioPsoas syndrome may have pain in the hip and thigh region, as well as hip stiffness and in some cases a clicking or snapping hip.
Other signs which may indicate an unhappy psoas muscle are:
- Knee pain – if there is no obvious source then it may be your psoas muscle.
- Constipation – a tight psoas muscle can cause or contribute to constipation.
- Menstrual cramps – a tight psoas muscle can put pressure on reproductive organs contributing to menstrual cramps.
The reason thatthe psoas is often the hidden cause of lower back pain in our clients is that prolonged periods of sitting cause the psoas muscle to contract. A deep tissue or sports massage is the perfect way to release a tight psoas.
Related Posts
More oops I did it again ….
We all wonder why after an injury or issue has healed and after several weeks of feeling pretty good, bang it flares up again, why? Last week I explained so factors influencing why this happens, now I want to explore the physiological aspects. The Physiological Law of Facilitation (the path of least resistance) The law explains why old injuries flare up under stress.
When an impulse has passed once through a certain set of neurons in your brain to the exclusion of others, it will tend to take the same course on a future occasion, and each time it does, the resistance will become less.
An analogy of this would be the image of rain on a dirt hill each time it rains the pathway becomes more entrenched, larger, and more intricate spreading out to nearby pathways. So once a nerve learns a pain pattern it tends to repeat it even in the absence of the injury. So the effects of stress to your mind and body can be a trigger for this response to kick in.
But wait, there is good news!
The Law of Facilitation can be maneuvered to help a massage therapist make the benefits of their treatment last longer. You may be wandering how can this be? In massage, patterns of imbalance which result from trauma, or from habitually stressful patterns like poor posture can be addressed. So your body should adapt to changes taking place in the musculoskeletal system and create new pathways.
The body likes sameness, which produces habitual patterns. When a pattern is established, it does not take as much stimulation to activate the response.Hypertension – Introduction
Every year May 17th is dedicated to World Hypertension Day (WHD). The purpose of WHD is to promote public awareness of hypertension. In keeping with the spirit of the day, I am going to blog about Hypertension throughout May.
So what is Hypertension?
It is a stage of great psychological stress which causes abnormally high blood pressure. The graphic to the left, indicates what is considered, low, normal, pre-high blood pressure and high blood pressure.
We all know that if we go to the GP they check our blood pressure, but why is it so important?
Firstly high blood pressure or hypertension is very common, according to the NHS it affects 1 in 4 adults in the UK. Secondly it has no symptoms hence it is often referred to as the silent killer. Thirdly it is the simply most significant risk factor for a range of diseases including:
- heart disease
- congestive heart failure
- stroke
- kidney disease
- dementia
