#bowenwork

You’ve heard it before: Your leg bone is connected to the hip bone, and your body is a temple. Got it! So, how can we maintain the health of this temple and all of its parts? Our blog series explores the musculoskeletal system from the perspective of various health care and wellness practitioners and teachers. They offer insight into their wellness practice and explain the significance, function, and care of particular parts of our body’s structure, based on their field of expertise. Our hope is to educate and create awareness and appreciation for this complex and fascinating body we call home. In this article, we highlight the psoas, in all of its mysterious glory!

THE PSOAS (see illustration, below) oftentimes refers to the iliopsoas muscle group, which includes the psoas major and the iliacus. This muscle lies deep within the abdomen and pelvis, connecting the the spine to the trochanter of the femur, or thigh. Its action is complex, but primarily the psoas acts a as flexor of the hip joint. 

Lauren Levine, Pilates Instructor Studio27Method

In Pilates, we aim to work the body in a way that allows freedom to the spine, opening the central nervous system. The suppleness of the psoas, in particular, is essential in these goals. Almost every Pilates movement and exercise draws engagement from the psoas. The body is a living, breathing, emotional organism and the psoas mirrors those exact characteristics.

The psoas is the only muscle that literally grows out of the spine. It is also connected to the diaphragm, supporting the belief that a deep, pelvic floor inhale is essential in the release and awareness of the psoas. This breath is alive and flowing, leading to the release and reorganization of our body as we move. Weakness in the psoas is not usually the culprit of pain. Resting the psoas can release the pain associated with this emotional muscle. Placing the body first in an organic, stress free manner and working the body in an organized, breath induced way are essential to releasing the tightness of the psoas and making the body less reactive. As the body moves, the pelvis must remain a part of the center of the body, versus joining the movement of the leg. Our breathing must support and guide our movement.

The goal as Pilates instructors is to neutralize, then explore malleability. Our bodies are never stagnant or stuck in "good form”, but a continuous realization and application of every piece of ourselves, breathing and growing to draw inward and out in an ever flowing exchange of awareness.

Lauren Becker, Acupuncturist Blue Heron Acupuncture & Apothecary

In my practice, I often work with the psoas to treat both physical and mental-emotional issues. Low back pain, painful periods, inguinal strains, lower leg pain and numbness, hip pain, and genital-urinary disorders can all benefit from using acupuncture points that release and strengthen the psoas. Acupuncture is a “root and branch” medicine, meaning, it treats both the symptoms and underlying cause of disease or injury. Some common patterns of imbalance that I usually see as the cause of a tight or sensitive psoas is liver and gall bladder qi stagnation (a pattern that often relates to stress), and also, damp accumulation in the low abdomen (too much “holding on”, and not enough “letting go”!). Acupuncture supports the health and flexibility of the muscle by correcting imbalances and increasing the circulation of qi and blood in the area.

The classic texts of Chinese Medicine refer to the psoas as one of the “5 Ancestral Sinews”, along with the sternocleidomastoid (SCM), the abs, the glutes and paravertebrals, and diaphragm. These sinews work together to maintain the integrity of our “3 bony cavities”: the head, chest, and pelvis. This means that we can work with the psoas to affect those other sinews and structures. To protect the body, these sinews provide padded areas that absorb or “hold on” to physical and emotional trauma. Sensitivity or tightness in the psoas can sometimes indicate that there is an underlying emotional component to our physical symptoms. Gall Bladder 27, Wu Shu (GB-27 “5th Pivot”), located just off the hip bone over the region of the psoas, is one of my favorite acupuncture points to use both locally to release and resolve physical pain and to encourage the body to “let go” of psycho-emotional holding patterns.

Liz McNulty, Bowenwork Practitioner Bowenwork Heals

Oh, the psoas…that mysterious muscle, so difficult to visualize and relax, lying deep to the abdomen within the pelvic bowl. The psoas is an important muscle that works as a spine stabilizer. Also working as a hip flexor in the proper initiation of walking, it joins the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ of the body, and it’s where walking meets breathing. How can one muscle encompass all these actions? Because of its fascial connections!  

As a Bowenwork practitioner, I’m looking at the body as one unit, where everything is connected via myofascial meridians and delicately balanced via the many systems in our body (nervous system, digestive, lymphatic, musculoskeletal, etc). Bowenwork is a gentle, yet powerfully effective cross fiber, soft tissue mobilization technique.  A Bowenwork ‘move’ is slow and the pressure is gentle so it can stimulate stretch receptors on muscle fibers and mechanoreceptors on fascia, which relay information about the state of tension to the nervous system. In turn, the nervous system relaxes the muscle tension, shifting a client out of ‘fight, flight, freeze’ mode and into ‘rest, digest and repair’ mode.

The psoas muscle is a link in the chain… one muscle within the deep front line (Check out Anatomy Trains by Thomas Meyers, if you’re a body geek like me). The deep front line myofascial meridian connects the arches of our feet, inner thigh, pelvic floor, psoas, diaphragm, pericardium, and scalene muscles of our neck to the muscles of our jaw. Just like pulling a thread on a sleeve of a sweater, a tight psoas can cause a variety of symptoms such as neck pain, collapsed arches, difficulty breathing, TMJ/jaw pain, or pelvic floor issues like incontinence. It’s all connected via the fascial lines. Many times, I view my job as a Bowenwork practitioner as a fascia detective- you may be coming in with neck or foot pain, but those areas are often times the victim and the psoas could be the culprit.

Seeing the body as a whole with it’s many connections is beautiful and awe inspiring.  A Bowenwork mantra is Less is More- the body responds to this. In other words, I don’t need to spend 60 minutes on your neck pain or lower back pain if I did my detective work right and find that the most restricted part of the line is the psoas. We release it, give the body time to heal itself and unwind the whole meridian, and then comes the long term relief of that neck pain. Awww, the psoas.

Ashley Flaner, Pilates Instructor Exhale Pilates

My favorite muscle in the whole body is the psoas major!  As a Pilates teacher, I have the ability to educate clients about their anatomy while moving them through a mindful, alignment-based, core workout. The truth is, not a day goes by where I don’t mention the psoas. Since it’s one of only two muscles that connect the spine to the legs, the importance of a properly functioning psoas cannot be overstated.  Often, I can trace a client’s body pain or weakness back to the trauma being stored in their psoas. Their pelvis is tucked and its showing me the muscle is exhausted.  

But this is fixable!  

What I love about Pilates is that we use a variety of body positions that challenge the psoas’s relationship with gravity, which also helps alleviate stress in the surrounding joints. Every movement is coordinated with a deep, full breath, and since the psoas has a beautiful connection to the diaphragm, the hour spent exercising can be a very nurturing time. The spring-resistance of the Pilates Equipment also helps clients gain greater strength at a more rapid rate, depending on how often they practice. Muscles have memory! If a client is unable to stack the bones properly during the session due to an overworked psoas, I will recommend constructive rest for homework (google it!). This allows the psoas muscles to release/reset which makes the hour practicing Pilates even more effective.  

by Vicki Mechner, Bowenwork Academy USA Instructor

You can’t go far these days without hearing about sports-induced concussions. Frontline’s October 8 "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis" documented the long-term risk of often-fatal chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among NFL players suffering multiple concussions. The media continue to cover stories about concussions in many other sports, in athletes of both sexes and from elementary school through college as well as at the professional level. The emphasis so far has been on the need to prevent concussions, e.g., by designing better protective gear, changing the rules of the game, and changing the sports culture, which often leads players to hide injuries whenever possible.

  The recent report by the Institute for Medicine and National Research Council on sports-related concussions in youth called for the NIH and Department of Defense to “support research to establish objective, sensitive, and specific metrics and markers of concussion diagnosis, prognosis, and recovery in youth and to inform the creation of age-specific, evidence-based guidelines for the management of short- and long-term health consequences of concussion in youth.” According to the report, “there is little empirical evidence for the optimal degree and duration of physical rest needed to promote recovery or the best timing and approach for returning to full physical activity.”

  I italicized certain words in the two quotes above in order to emphasize the absence of awareness of any intervention that might resolve concussions more quickly than merely observing and “managing the consequences” until rest and inactivity would allow a natural recovery where possible.

  Long-time readers of Bowen Hands know that Bowenwork can lead to quick and lasting resolution, often in a single session! In the September 2005 issue of Bowen Hands, California practitioner Craig Mattimoe summarized the results of his Concussion Resolution Protocol in 33 consecutive cases of medically diagnosed sports-induced concussion over the previous nine years. (The males, aged 19 – 29, were concussed playing football, basketball or soccer; the females, aged 15 – 21, playing basketball or soccer.) 78% of the concussed athletes were independently medically cleared to play by their trainers or doctors within 72 hours of the single Bowen session they received.

  More recently, Bowen practitioner Marianne Beacon, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, was featured in a November 2011 article by Stephen Stamp about her use of the same Concussion Resolution Protocol to facilitate the recovery of a promising lacrosse player who had suffered three concussions within two years. Interestingly, Marianne learned the concussion protocol from Jenna Howe, one of the very few practitioners who contacted Mattimoe after his article appeared in Bowen Hands.

  It took almost two years for that article to come to the attention of BAUSA instructor Sandra Gustafson. In the next annual meeting of our instructors (November 12 – 14 in Las Vegas), among the ways to improve our trainings and materials to be more supportive of students and practitioners, we will be discussing a new program that will harness the skills and talents of our practitioners to generate research worthy of publication in peer-reviewed journals, and to make sure that the news gets to those with a need to know.

  Replicating Mattimoe’s research on concussion resolution will be an easy first step. Many other projects will follow. And best of all, you will find it easy to participate in these efforts because integrating the simple research practices into your ongoing practice will not require much additional effort on your part.

An Introduction to Bowenwork with Kelly Clancy, OTR/L, CHT, SMS, RBI.