From Liz Koch, author of Core Awareness & Stalking Wild Psoas:
Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk Psoas with an orthopedic surgeon in Europe who reached out to me about this mysterious tissue. When I told him I thought psoas was a messenger he said “of course psoas is a messenger from guts… ovaries.. kidney… brain circulation.. because of connections with the parasympathetic.. it also receives messages..when its degenerative or atrophied it consequently distends nerves that pass through the psoas… n. iliohipogastricus.. ilioinguinalis… genitofemoralic.. cutaneus fem lat.. n.femoralis..n.obduratorius
.. it has an influence on the circulation of gut and enlargement of its wall – what directly involves neuroendocrine cells for the production serotonin in the gut…”
This surgeon confirms what I have spoken about for 43 years…that psoas can become “dry” (exhausted) and shrink (atrophy) when it has substituted or been used to over-stabilize the core. Stretching does not create healthy psoas whereas hydrating through micro-movements and increasing the bio-intelligence of the proprioceptive system, especially found within the bones…does allow psoas to flourish. He sent me…a little gift in appreciation…not what I find exciting but thought you might…
Some of my additional notes for anatomy nerds on hydrating the psoas
Gentle rocking and rolling through spiralling movements across the 3 planes of the body embodying the psoas as a core initiator, organised around the midline or notochord from an embryological perspective, in which the psoas is a bio-morphical development from the midline, out of the mesochyme material from the mesodermal (middle) layer of the embryonic tri-laminar disc.
Movements include those that involve –
- the saggital plane integrating the axial to appendicular, i.e L & R sides of body in which each psoas is an extension out of the midline rather than just attachments to the spine and femur;
- the coronal plane integrating the front and back (spine on the back body to front of groin – lesser trochanter); and
- the transverse plane – trunk and lower limbs) in which full body locomotion is driven through the spinal engine
This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on July 1st 2019
