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| Hi Everyone!
So I went to my wonderful chiropractor to figure out what might be causing this tension on the low back . . . . so after a series of flexibility tests, it turns out that my hamstrings and adductors are not the main problem (their tightness doesn't help) but that the primary issue is tight hip flexors.
can anyone recommend any postures to aid in lengthening these out??? |
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Location: London, England | Hi Erin,
I guess most backbends should serve to lenghthen these muscles-see the link below for a diagram, just in case you don't know where they are:
http://running.himatomo.com/iliopsoas.jpg
They only get a proper stretch, unfortunately, if you can slightly flex the low back, and also extend at the hip joints, as though drawing the pubic bone towards the sternum, or breast-bone.
In people with a tight iliopsoas, what can end up happening is that the backbend causes back pain-from compressing the joints, pinching nerves, and tightening low back muscles 'too much'-probably the same reasons you are already getting back pain at the moment.
So in order to stretch these muscles, you have to do the postures in such a way that the origin of the muscle (on the front of the lumbar spine) is pulled away from the insertion of the muscle (on the inside of the femur), or that the insertion is pulled away from the origin, or lastly, that the origin and insertion both act to move away from each other, causing the muscle to dmap down a bit and therefore become longer. Any back pain, and you've been doing it incorrectly. Done properly, you should notice a gradual resolution of your back pain.
Interestingly, and with regard to your hamstrings, I think that because yoga practicioners often over-stretch the hamstrings, the hips tip into flexion, causing the iliopsoas to tighten up-Idon't know if this is part of the problem for you?
Lastly, here's a picture of virabhadrasana 1:
http://www.asthangafriends.4t.com/photos1/494.jpg
She isn't stretching the psoas, the pelvis isn't square, and the lower back is being pulled around by the external rotation of her right leg-so the origin of the muscle is being pulled towards the insertion, with the result that her low back over-extended, and the hip flexors are not being stretched-this is a very difficult backbend to avoid making these mistakes in.
Take care
Nick
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| Om Shanti!
The iliopsoas is a deep rather than superficial muscle. It often requires deeper work to release, though you're only asking about lengthening. Obviously lengthening a muscle requires that the insertion and the origin move away from each other. Most work (outside of yoga) however is shortening and contracting which tends to add to rigidity and spasm. Yoga work is often about contracting while lengthening but I don't perceive such work as therapeutic. It can be but I think it muddies the waters.
Deeper muscles often reflect deeper emotions - ones that are held on to very tightly. Ones that go back some years. In the pelvis that can mean we are having issues with creative expression or creative force. It may not be so but it should be looked at by the committed yoga student/teacher. "Why" is often an important question in this sort of work and the answer must extend beyond physiology.
Since this muscle is deep and it often is cranky (I'm not surprised about your diagnosis one bit) care must be used in deeper work as you can send the muscle deeper into spasm or push it to spasm if you are careless or rushed in your work.
The work I would do for such a thing would be workshop or therapeutic one-on-one fodder. It would be very difficult, and perhaps improper to try and convey parts of it over the Internet.
Simple lengthening of the iliopsoas can be done in Setu Bandha and other backbends but that presumes proper action on the part of the student. Backbends have hip flexor length as a requisite but it may not, for some, be a remedy. Addition comes before algebra just as prep work to open the ilipsoas comes before Urdhva Dhanurasana.
Edited by purnayoga 2008-03-05 11:32 AM
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| i find a lot of opening and release in lunges--working anjenayasana series, warrior series, triangle, and so on--it gets to the area in a variety of different ways, particularly if you focus the attention on the alignment of the back leg in all of these postures.
the back bends work it too, of course, and hero pose (reclining) is beautiful for that deep release.
i love working that area.  |
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| Thanks so much for that, folks . . . and regarding the inner work that needs to be done, absolutely. I do energy healing and asked a practitioner acquaintance (we met over training and knew eachother for 4 days) to do a BodyTalk session on me . . . (if anyone has heard of this) and [this was literally THREE DAYS AGO], self-expression/creativity/sexuality came up . . . . ..
so, you hit the nail on the head.
now what?? How does one DO the inner work????? |
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| i think you just have to set-to. |
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| The inner work? Depends on who is answering and in what context they are speaking (or perceiving). And there may be numerous answers (or just one for you).
Asana has revealed. Now it's the work of working with breath, light, transformative meditation, self-study, concentration, cleanliness, and truth.
Should you opt also to pursue asana....
Several asanas would be beneficial but the bulk of the benefit will come from actions in the pose. In that statement I presuppose alignment is present.
Likewise if you are working Vira I or the like, the position of the legs will mandate some length however if there is no aspiration in T12-L5 (as the ilipsoas originates there) you would not get the juice as the action would be missing.
Edited by purnayoga 2008-03-05 4:49 PM
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| Gordon,
What did you do at lunch? You were perfectly coherent earlier today!
Namaste,
Jim |
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| Dear PurnaYoga
Where have you done your training? Anatomy? What is your background, if I may ask. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
 
| Eryn - I have had several Bodytalk sessions and they were interesting. A couple of things were absolutely right on (she felt the grief I was having when a young person we know died) and other things were less helpful. It is an interesting process and I may go back for more. |
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| shantiyogini Posted 2008-03-05 3:43 PM Dear PurnaYoga Where have you done your training? Anatomy? What is your background, if I may ask.
Of course you may ask. I've nothing to hide, which is why my avatar is now MY face:-)
I did a week long training in 2001 with Baron Baptiste.
In 2003 I began studying with Aadil Palkhivala (Mumbai via Bellevue, Washington). I graduated from the College of Purna Yoga (under Aadil's supervision) completing the 2-year, 2,000-hour certification in September 2007. My training is on-going and I've apprenticed with Aadil here at home, at the Yoga Journal Conference, the Omega Conference in Manhattan and in Tel Aviv. I am registered with Yoga Alliance (RYT-500) and the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).
My anatomy training comes in part from the applied anatomy from the college curriculum, in part from my M.S. in Kinesiology (Indiana University) and in part from 17 years as a basketball coach. In the latter, I coached prep programs on three different occasions, spent four years as a collegiate assistant, several seasons as a clinician for Converse, and a year with the NBA's Orlando Magic.
I believe this covers your three questions as briefly as possible.
Gordon,
What did you do at lunch? You were perfectly coherent earlier today!
Namaste,
Jim
All pragmatism and no ether make Jack a dull boy. I'm still perfectly coherent Jim, just not to your left brain. Merge those hemispheres brother!
Edited by purnayoga 2008-03-05 7:30 PM
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| Fascinating . . . I'm studying quite closely with someone to work as a yoga therapist, but her focus is primarily on the energetics of anatomy and yogatherapy . . . for me, Im really missing and yearning for that anatomical/practical type of training . . . so I'm looking around for a supplement to this.
Expert Yogi: thanks for the comments on body talk . . . it is really fascinating! I wasn't sold at first, but the more research, practise, and self-introspection I do . .. the more I realize how connected the system is (can be) |
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FLEXORS not ADDUCTORS
