The psoas: the mystery muscle that owns the medial straights of your kidneys, iliac arteries/veins and femoral nerves. It is facially connected to the diaphragm, independently connected to each lumbar vertebral segment (except L5), smoothly attaches to medial kidneys and connects to the inner femur just below the hip joint. You may be asking yourself, why are there not PSOAS centers instead of Kidney centers, why there is not a PSOAS machine at your local gym or/and why doesn’t your kidney doctor have a " I love my PSOAS tee-shirt on". I don’t have a reason for these very reasonable questions, but these thoughts do keep me up at night. That said, I will discuss the psoas in the most available way possible.

Actions of the psoas

>They activate when you step forward

>They turn your hip slightly outward while keeping it snug in the hip joint.

>They do this by slightly causing your butt to stick out to the back as you step forward with outward hip rotation.

>They rotate each lower back segment sequentially as you step forward towards the advancing leg.

>They slightly extend your back as you extend your leg forward.

>They enhance the downward movement of the back of the diaphragm to aid the kidneys/liver/adrenal glands/gall bladder/spleen/upper colon/aorta and descending colon movement, essential for their function.

Psoas

The psoas connects to our lumbar vertebrae. It also connects directly to the discs and our articulating lower back facet joints. That means proper use of the psoas, can really be a mover and shaker of our disc health. The best and easiest way "to feel" the psoas, is to stick your leg out Infront of you with a slight external rotation without a slump in the pelvis (let the butt stick out a bit). Feel how the back rotates to the same side of the advancing leg. The psoas is the root of every step forward. The vertebra, hip joint and pelvis all rotate with the engagement of the psoas. Also, important is the location of the psoas hugging the inner kidneys. Remember the kidneys synthesize vitamin D and are important players in blood pressure besides detoxifying the bodies liquidy environment.