Photo by Natalie Grainger on Unsplash
Deep in your core, there is a muscle connecting your pelvis and torso that you have always had, but maybe never known about – your psoas (pronounced: so-as).
There are two positions a muscle can be in: contracted/ shortened or relaxed/lengthened. Since you cannot see your psoas, it can be difficult to understand how it works. The best way to visualize the action of a muscle that you can’t see is by bending and straightening your arm. When your bicep relaxes, your arm is long and stretched, but when it contracts, the angle of your elbow decreases, bringing your forearm closer to your upper arm. In the same way, when your psoas relaxes, it helps with back stabilization and good posture. When contracted, your psoas decreases the angle of your hip, bringing your knees closer to your chest.
Due to evolutionary factors of body language, our psoas is closely tied with our feelings. For example, when you are experiencing positive emotions like confidence, you stand tall and stretch out, lengthening your psoas. Alternatively, if you are experiencing negative emotions like sadness or shame, your psoas will shorten so you can slouch. Under conditions of anxiety, the psoas naturally contracts to allow for you to kick, run, or curl up in a ball to defend yourself from a threat. This gives the psoas the nickname of the “fight or flight muscle” (Staugaard-Jones, 2012, p. 55).
We might not be trying to fight off, run away from, or play dead to protect us from bears anymore, but our psoas still contracts under instances of stress. For each frustrating Zoom call, dramatic Netflix episode, and anxiety-producing news article, your body still wants to fight, run, or play dead to combat the stress.
Your psoas might be so tight that it will remain shortened when you stand up. Signs of this include tight hips, low back pain, and swayback (lordosis).
You don’t need to be frightened by this self-diagnosis, most people today are tight in their psoas. If it’s not because of anxiety, it’s from sitting all day in your car, at your desk, or on the couch. A tight psoas is an easy problem to fix through the yoga position of constructive rest. Developed by Mabel Todd, and popularized by Lulu Sweigard, constructive rest is one of the most practiced forms of psoas release by yoga instructors and dancers (Staugaard-Jones, 2012).
But constructive rest isn’t just good for your lower back, it’s also good for your mental health. Just like how smiling can slightly improve your mood because of its evolutionary relationship with happiness (Coles, Larsen, & Lench, 2019) relaxing a contracted psoas, a position evolutionarily associated with fear and anxiety, can help relieve some anxiety.
To perform constructive rest, lie on your back, with your hands at your side or on your stomach. Bend your knees at a ninety-degree angle with your feet flat on the floor. Place your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, and let your knees fall towards each other. Your knees may or may not touch each other when you do this. Then, close your eyes if you’re comfortable and take deep breaths. This is also a great time to practice mindfulness, meditation, or prayer. For a modification, rest your calves on a chair while lying on the floor (Lake, 2017).
Do not be alarmed if you feel emotional, “when the psoas is released, emotions such as fear, anxiety, and other disturbances housed in the body can surface” to find relief (Staugaard-Jones, 2012, p. 54). Hold this position for as long as you need, but I recommend staying in this position for at least a full minute.
To return to standing, roll on your side onto your knees, then slowly roll-up. This step is important so that the psoas remains relaxed, not startled by sudden activity or dizziness. Finally, do not forget to thank your body for everything it gets you through each day.
