In this instructional video, Akima Soh, a soma therapist and owner of SoulCore Fitness with three decades of experience, explains why the iliopsoas (commonly called the psoas) is far more complex than the simplistic “tight or weak” narrative found online. He details the muscle’s multiple attachments—including the lesser trochanter, three spinal insertion points (anterior‑medial, posterior, and lateral), the iliacus portion, and the psoas minor ligament—highlighting its role as a true tensegrity structure that links the leg, hip, and spine. Soh introduces Hill’s muscle model, emphasizing that effective treatment must address three components: the contractile muscle fibers, the surrounding fascia (epimysium, perimysium, endomysium), and the ligamentous/periosteal connections. He argues that conventional static stretches ignore the extensive fascial network, which behaves like a spider‑web, transmitting pressure omnidirectionally (Pascal’s Law). The solution, he proposes, is a holistic protocol: (1) myofascial normalization (untwisting the fascia iliaca), (2) multi‑directional strengthening of the psoas, and (3) comprehensive stretching that targets all attachment sites, including surrounding spinal muscles. He demonstrates a postural stretch performed on the edge of a bench, where the practitioner leans back, lets one knee drop, and hangs passively to lengthen the iliopsoas. Finally, Soh offers additional resources—a free “Get Mobile, Get Out of Pain” guide, a private Facebook community, and paid one‑on‑one consultations via Calendly—inviting viewers to deepen their understanding and receive personalized care.
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Is your iliopsoas, or some people just call it the psoas tight or weak and causing you issues, Chances are if it is what's traditionally given to people and what you find on the Internet, which is basically the same thing, is not the most effective, I want you to stay tuned because the psoas iliopsoas is much more complex than you think and so a lot more can be done to it than what's traditionally given to you. Greetings. I'm Akima Soh. I'm the owner of soulcore Fitness and I'm a soma therapist and soma trainer. And I've been in this field for about 30 years. Within that 30 years, like 17, 18 of them, I've been studying underneath the osteopathic model. Once I start to study under this model, I realize there's much more to the body than what's traditionally being shown to people. There's a lot more different directions of the muscles go, a lot more connections that we've ever seen, which means there's a lot more ways to work with the body. It's called holistic. Everything is interdependent and interconnected. We want to think about how the body functions so we can train it and treat it best. So that's what I talk about on this channel, holistic. So if you want to hear more about this, then subscribe to the channel. If you like the video, please give a thumbs up. It tells the algorithm that it's good so more people can get benefit to watch it. And don't forget to share this with your friends. So the psoas muscle is actually called the iliopsoas muscle. Iliac is a part of it. So there's a bunch of different attachments not just from your hip into your spine. There's a lot more. You have a. So as part of which has to three places, you have your lesser trochanter. You have. And then you have at the spine, you have at the middle of the spine at the body, we say anterior medial, Anterior meaning front. Medial means middle. And then you have a posterior meaning back and lateral to the side. That's three. Then you have an iliacus portion which is in the hip. You have a minor part toward the down low and a major part up high. And then you have a little tiny muscle or even there's a ligament called your psoas minor. So you can see there's a lot of different places that you can work with and that psoas has a lot of different jobs, those jobs that need to be performed properly. It can't be performed properly if it's tight or weak. So you may have things like an overarching of the back. You may have also your pelvis moving forward. You may have compression of your spine. You may have your hip moving in bad place, like external or internal rotation. It could throw off a lot of things. In the osteopathic model, we say the psoas is a true tensegrity muscle because it connects the leg, the hip, and the spine. It connects all three. That's why it's super important. Now when you search around for the psoas, you find more basic information anatomically. And you may find some interesting information about spirit and stuff. I can't. I can't talk about that. I've never studied about it. I guess it's true. But I'm here to talk about more the physiological components of the psoas. So it's really good to know the different places the psoas goes. Just like every muscle, they go a lot more places than people really think. Because if I know which way muscle goes, I know which way I can strengthen it or stretch it, because I want to see which fib where the fibers go. Okay, the fibers go here, where I can go this way to strengthen it. I can move away from it, to stretch it at a basic level. So if it has these different attachments, then you need to think about the different places it attaches to and in different ways that the muscle fibers go. But it's more important to think about the muscle in terms of Hill's muscle model. Hill's muscle model says you need three components. You need the muscle, you need the fascia, you need the ligament or joint. You need these three aspects to work properly so it functions properly. It's not just about working the muscle. So in all muscles, you have an epinesium, a paramesium, and an endomysium. Those are fancy names for fascia that goes between the muscle fibers and muscles. Those muscle fibers and muscle fascia go out toward the outside and connect to the muscle ligament. That ligament generally connects to a bone, but it's not the bone. It's. It's a periosteum. Again, another fancy name for the fascia that surrounds a bone. Which means if those layers of fascia go out to ligaments which connect to the fascia in a bone, that means it connects everywhere. And that's what your fascia does. It connects everywhere. Like you have one fascia that connects thousand different places. Like a spider web. So when you think about the psoas, you think, oh, well, if it connects in that chain, then that chain must be down to leg, up to the pelvis, and up to the spine, because those are the three components of the psoas. But the fascia liaca, again, another fancy name for fascia that surrounds all that connects to a lot more. Herniation can go. Well, it normally goes for a lot of people, back and out posture, lateral. But because it's a ball, because I have pressure on a ball called Pascal's Law, that pressure can go omnidirectional, which means as I kneel and slide forward, that pressure could also go forward. It's a potential. So that's an issue I have with that. The main issue, though, is that it's not done fascially. Again, you just think about the muscle in a basic position, which means I want to make sure that I stretch fascially. To do so, I need to make sure that I have those opposite biomechanical actions. I talked about internal rotation of the hip, pelvis tucked nice and tall. But I also want to think about, oh, it's connecting the rest of my body. So you need to know about the biomechanics, fasciae of the body and do stuff to put tension throughout the chain, the body to stretch not only the psoas, but the iliopsoas. And then you think about what different directions do I need to move my trunk and pelvis and our leg or whatever to get those different attachments of the psoas. Because, again, if there's all those different attachments, you can stretch them differently, not just one way. So if I want to start working the psoas more holistically with all the different factors it needs, then first we do it. Just we talked about, we learn to stretch the iliopsoas in all different directions. Myofascially, that's the best way I found to normalizing the lengthening and the balance in the body. We also normalize the fascia by itself. So you can do that by getting treated. You find a therapist like myself, who knows how to work with the fascia and understands that that fascia iliaca has a normal amount of torsion twisting. But if it's twisted too much like a towel, then I can't pull it apart. So grab a towel and twist it as hard as you can and try and pull. It doesn't move. Untwist it, say, halfway and pull. You can see it moves a Little bit. That's the same idea because again, that fascia envelops the muscle and goes within the muscle. If it's too twisted, it won't work properly. So first I normalize the fascia. Then also I think about Hill's muscle model, and I think, oh, look, I need strength in the psoas, so I have a muscle, because you can only stretch a muscle if it's there. So I want to. I want to strengthen the psoas again, in different direction, not just one way. Now I'm working with the psoas in all these different directions now. Now you're working holistically. And now you think about the other areas the psoas attached to and stretch those. Not the areas, not the areas of. So as the end points, the psoas, but like, if it attaches the spine. Okay, if it attaches the spine, what else is there? My transversal spinalis, my longissimus, my iliocostalis, my. My lat. Stuff like that, you work out because muscles don't work alone. They work in conjunction with other muscles and other fascia. So you build out a program to not only work with what you need to work with, but everything around it that can help it work. So I want to leave you with something to help you out. So as we know, the sole has a bunch of different attachments, connects fascially a bunch of different ways. You need to strengthen it and stretch it. I'm going to give you one little nugget here. Myofascial stretching is fantastic for balancing your body. But the one thing that I like better, too lengthen the muscle is to do postural stretching. Postural stretching is to get into a posture and hang out to not be active. So with the psoas, you can do that again. You do this if you feel you're comfortable with it. I'm not prescribing it to you at all. But you're going to sit on something. As you can see in this little video, I'm going to show you on the edge of a bench or your bed or a treatment table, like I'm doing. And you would lean back. Now, when you lean back, you pick one side to work with, and so you hold the opposite knee and let that other knee drop down. Then you just hang out there. Because the postural stretch, there's no activity besides getting into a posture and hanging out. Allow that to hang as long as you want and then switch sides and do the other side. If you have a predominantly tight side, do that One first do that. One first allow yourself to sit in this position for as long as you can handle it. On that side, when you're done, you gently switch by bringing that leg up and switching a hold of the knee and then you do the other side. So do that and have luck. Good luck. So that's just a little bit of information on how to think about working with the psoas, but also the body differently. I could go on a lot longer about all this, about different biomechanics and ways of move and stuff like that, but this is not a lecture, this is to help you understand more about the work with it. So if you want to understand more, then I got some resources for you. You can join my private Facebook group. In the description below there's a link. Just click on the link, answer a few questions, agree to the terms and you're in. And now you can. It's a dynamic, interactive way to work with me. To find out more about how to work with you, buy holistically or if you want to find out more about all these different rules and ways to address the body that I've been talking about in this video, then I have a free resource. It's called to get mobile, get out of pain and live the life of your dreams. It's four steps, but it talks about these different rules and way things are connecting and how to think about the body so you get a better view of what I'm talking about. Not a total view, but a better view. And then you can reread it again so you can get more and more knowledge. If you like what you heard and you want to work with your body this way, then reach out for a consultation again in the consultation. In the consultation. In the description below, you'll find a link to the consultation. You click on it, you'll be taken to my calendly link. You find a time that's good for you, you pick it and we meet and talk. So I hope this is informational. If you like this information, I'll make more videos on the sow eyes about this. Please give a thumbs up if you like it, share with your friends and I'll see you next week.
