The 2 Best Psoas Stretches You Will Ever Need To Know

When it comes to finding the best psoas stretches for lower back pain relief you can find a ton all over the internet.

The problem with most of “best psoas stretches” you’re seeing coached is they don’t have the context for chronic low back pain.

There are small subtle changes, tweaks, and concerns (in my opinion) that need to be considered when you are working with someone with a sensitive low back, and if you don’t have these in mind then you’re not getting the “best psoas stretches” you’re just getting someone’s rendition of something they saw online or give to their patients.

In today’s video, I want to break down two Psoas Stretches that as an X-back pain suffer I think are the easiest to modify and break down for those with a history of spinal surgery or persistent low back pain.

How Do You Release The Psoas Muscle?

Probably one of the most asked questions of them all! Which is probably what brought you to this page.

Does your Psoas seem tight or your lower back feels like both ends of a rubber band are being stretched as far apart as possible?

Well, we have to first look at why your psoas could be tight in the first place. Just because your psoas feels tight doesn’t mean that the muscle is actually shortened or tight.

The sensation of tightness can be very misleading and I would say more often than not it’s the sensation of tightness that you’re experiencing not actual tight muscles.

So releasing the psoas may not involve stretching the psoas too much but looking at potential weakness in the opposing muscles.

To create balance in the body your muscles need other muscles to work properly.

For example: For you to flex your biceps during a beach selfie you need to be able to relax the tricep.

Or if you’re trying to flex the triceps at the gym after a solid arm workout your biceps have to relax in order for you to do that.

Well, what happens when your tricep tries to contract when you flex your bicep?

Is that even possible?

Well considering muscle contraction is ran by the brain it is 100% possible. Luckily God made some pretty amazing machines (the human body) and they run pretty smooth on their own.

In some situations, you can develop overactive muscles that are compensating for a lack of strength somewhere else.

So the question is if you have been dealing with tight psoas muscles and even the best psoas stretches have not worked it’s not that you need something else to release the muscle or heaven forbid MORE stretches.

What you need is to attack the muscle weakness that you have. I recently dove deep into this topic and it applies to the tight psoas you are experiencing right now.

Check it out below:

Why Is My Psoas So Tight

Without a professional being able to put their hands on you with tests and other ways of narrowing down a cause, it’s really a mystery why muscles get tight and why yours may be tight.

As much as people don’t like hearing this, ALL of the functions in our body are run by our brain which is influenced by a host of different variables, circumstances, and emotions.

This of course is normally interpreted as the pain or tightness just being “in your head”.

Which is totally not accurate.

Instead, we have to take more of a whole-body approach to why we may be experience pain and tightness.

The major ones would be:

Eating healthy
Exercising or being more active
Mindfulness/Mental Health
Smart Strength Training
Stress Management

If you have these dialed in then stretching your psoas and a smarter strength training program may be all you need.

If you don’t have a grip on the items listed then it’s probably why your constant stretching hasn’t been working.

If you want to feel good you have to take care of your body.

You can’t put crap in and expect to get good out. There are consequences for our actions and decisions and until we come to terms with that, drugs and surgeries will be our future.

I would say one of the biggest tools I have used more over the years when dealing with tension and tightness (especially with muscles like the QL and tight Psoas) would be mindfulness.

Trust me when I say I am the last person to sit in a room and just listen to myself breathe for 10 minutes.

As much as I never thought I would say it…Mindfulness practices have really been powerful and I shared a bit more strategy behind what I do in this video below.