The Psoas – It’s Not Important.

Disclaimer: This article contains a reference to unknowingly feeding children perscription sleed aids. Train Adapt Evolve in no way recommends this type of behavior and neither do we recommend perscription sleep aids to any of our clients children or otherwise.

CrossFit Invictus recently put out an article titled What is the Psoas and Why it is so Important. They then wrote a follow-up article on how to activate it. It read like a Wikipedia page and got all kinds of social media love.

The article said the Psoas is a hip flexor and it pulls the spine forward and down. Truth. It then vilified the Psoas for low back pain and killing babies and taught us how to activate and strengthen it?

Hold on. What?

Now things like this keep me up at night and thus I had to write about it.

If you look at any one muscle in one plane without addressing underlying position and then boldly activate the shit out of it in that plane you are gonna …F$CK people up. Activation is easy – ladies and gents, but inhibition is where the real money is. Imagine a room full of screaming kids and there are three Nobel laureates seated at the front of that same room. You can give the Nobel laureates a megaphone or you can order some ice-cream laced with Ambien. I’m taking Ambien – every. single. time .

We have evaled 100s of CrossFitters – you know how many have underactive Psoasi? Zero – Zilch – Nada.

This is because the majority (as in pretty much all) CrossFitters and probably modern humans have some kind of anterior pelvic tilt (forwardly rotated). This gives the Psoas leverage and muscles that have leverage pull and pull and pull some more. Is it the Psoas’ fault? Nope. It’s just over here like, hey bro you gonna’ keep giving me more and more room to tug on that spine. Yup. Ok cool, but don’t get mad when you blow a hammie or lumbar vertebrae.

And now you’re like – oh no you didddddn’t because you now know what the Psoas is and you can’t take it anymore. You want to choke that bastard and put him in his place - so you mash it and stretch it with bands pulling you every direction known to man. You feel better. You beat that child to a pulp and pile-drived his ice cream cone right into his face. Shut Up Psoas – It’s time to Squat.

But you wake up the next day and that little f$cker is back with two ice cream cones.

You need some Ambien and you know what it is?

Exhalation.

Yup. That’s it.

So you’re telling me that to break this vicious cycle all I have to do is breathe out?

Yup…while holding a posterior pelvic tilt to let your diaphragm relax, your TAs and IOs engage, and then your Psoas will have no choice but to shut up.

You see the thing CrossFit Invictus forgot to tell you is that you cannot separate a diaphragm from a psoas. Literally in a human cadaver you cannot dissect them apart – it’s impossible. So in order to turn one off you have to turn the other off. You have to let the diaphragm do it’s job by fully exhaling, getting out of extension, and allowing it to stop acting like a postural muscle and pulling the spine forward and up.

Wait the Psoas pulls the spine forward and down and an overactive postural diaphragm pulls the spine forward and up? Yup and doesn’t that sound like a party for your low back. So put your feet up and breathe …out homie.

The average American takes 20 breathes a minute. You know how many breathes we are supposed to take – 8.

So stop blaming your Psoas for ruining Christmas and start addressing your life, your position, and how you move in all three planes.

*There will be blood, so I must add a caveat here. Most lifters don’t have a problem with activation, they are toned up all over and sometimes all over in the wrong ways. Lifting and most sports are extension dominant, the problem comes when athletes and humans can’t get out of said extension. Most lifters need to learn inhibition at the right times. We all make fun of guys who flex their chest and biceps when they walk in the club, it’s the same thing with postural muscles and once you are in tune with this concept and know how to pick it out of a crowd you may find this unbelievably more widespread and even more dangerous.

By: Ben House