Your Psoas Muscle Is Key to Maintaining Good Alignment and Fighting Back Pain

The world may be reopening, but it turns out that post-lockdown life, for a lot of us, still involves plenty of sitting and scrolling and TikTok viewing. It can lead to feeling a little stiff and creaky. But it's not just a matter of simply feeling a little old—many of these achy feelings are worth looking into and working on, rather than ignoring or just complaining about. We’ve already talked about anterior pelvic tilt. Today, it’s onto the psoas muscle.

Whether you know it or not, you have a psoas. It's a muscle—or, more accurately, pair of muscles—that run from your lower back to your hip flexors, connecting into your femurs. And it's important. According to Cassandra Hill, a doctor of physical therapy at Fox Rehabilitation, it’s one of the most important muscles that “no one’s talking about.”

“It’s your deepest core muscle and the only muscle in your body that crosses the lumbar spine and the hip joint,” she says. “As more and more folks are sitting more and moving less during the day, issues with this primary hip flexor can cause a waterfall of problems from compensation concerns to knee pain to discomfort that radiates down the leg and more.” Going about your day-to-day with a wonky psoas muscle can lead to a higher risk for other problems, ranging from postural changes to shortened stride length—which can really mess with running and walking.

“If you have tight and weak hip flexors, these issues can become more exacerbated as your movements get more dynamic,” says Hill. “So think of going from standing to walking to running or cycling—once you get some distance under your belt, your hips are going to start talking to you and you won’t like what they have to say.”

But, especially lately, it’s not true that no one is talking about it: Living national treasure Adriene Mishler of Yoga With Adriene has a video dedicated to it; Joe Rogan swears by targeting it with a Pso-Rite massage tool. And Hill walked through the right plan of attack for someone who may be experiencing psoas discomfort, plus tips for getting more comfortable ASAP.

1. Talk to an Expert

Pay attention to any stiffness or pain. It can be easy to dismiss a little creakiness, and a tight or inflamed psoas may not be the worst pain in the world in your day-to-day, it does impact your movement patterns which can then really mess you up in the long run. If something feels off, Hill’s first recommendation is to seek out a professional opinion—a doctor or physical therapist.