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Just before Christmas, we were discussing your wonderful legs, and the subject of hips came up. We had a look around the bones, capsules and ligaments which hold your hip joint together, and made the acquaintance of those six important deep outward rotator muscles responsible for turnout from the hip joint (which, as you recall, is where practically all of your turnout really must start).
Today we’re exploring another, equally important complex of muscles, known collectively as the iliopsoas, the ones that let you bend your hip.
For much of your day you flex or extend your hip. Whether you bend down to tie your shoes, or walk, run, climb a hill or a flight of stairs, do a plié, battement tendu, glissé, jeté, fondu, frappé, développé, enveloppé, relevé lent, retiré, grand battement, layout, kick-ball-change or any of all that jazz, you’re relying on the contraction of many muscles, and the one playing a major rôle here is your iliopsoas. When it contracts, you bend (flex) at the hip, either forwards (as in port de bras) or straight down (plié) if you’ve got your foot on the floor, or, if your foot is free to move, by lifting your leg to the front or the side. It also figures largely among the muscles you use for sit-ups.
Iliopsoas consists of three muscles, Iliacus, Psoas major, and Psoas minor. (Psoas minor is gradually disappearing, and some people have it only on one side of the body, while others simply don’t possess one at all [1], so we won’t worry about it in this post).
Iliacus starts on both sides of you, all along the inner edge of the ilium, the basin-shaped curve of your pelvis [2]. At the top, it’s shaped like an open fan, but as it descends the slope of the ilium the muscle fibres gather closer together, so that by the time it crosses the front of your hip joint it has become considerably narrower. It continues narrowing diagonally downward underneath your inguinal ligament to insert via a tendon attached to the lesser trochanter on the inner side of your thighbone.
Iliacus is illustrated below in Fig. 1, seen from the front.
Fig. 1, R. Iliacus, anterior view, [Graphic copyright: Jeremy Leslie-Spinks]
Psoas major is the larger component, starting from the lowest vertebra in your thoracic spine (T 12), as shown in Figure 2, below.
It is also attached on both sides to each of your lumbar vertebra, L 1, L 2, L 3, L 4 and L 5. It crosses the front of your hip, on top of the iliacus, and joins the same tendon which fastens both muscles to the lesser trochanter.
You can see the way this works in the illustration below (Figure 3, also viewed from the front).
Fig. 3, R, Iliopsoas, anterior view [Graphic copyright: Jeremy Leslie-Spinks]
Looking at these muscles and the way they’re attached, you can understand how they would help in lifting your leg forwards or sideways. It gets more complicated when you start to work with the leg anywhere behind second position. At this point other muscles take over the job of lifting the leg (glutes, hamstrings and so on) and the iliopsoas, positioned on the front of the hip, has to relax and allow the hip joint to open up into what in biomechanics is called hyperextension (as in arabesque or attitude derrière, for example).
For the sake of brevity, the iliopsoas is often referred to under the categoric label of “psoas”. How it’s pronounced varies according to where you live and what you feel about the Greek language. Quite a lot of people call it the “soas”, which is fine as long as we all understand each other. In any case, it’s written “psoas”, however you want to pronounce it.
For dancers a strong psoas is useful, particularly in dynamic movement requiring a strong initial flex impulse. The trouble starts when your psoas is not merely strong, but also tight. This is where problems with attitude or arabesque height suddenly become serious.
As dancers, our natural reaction to restricted range of movement is to stretch the muscles which we see as holding us back, but in the case of this muscle complex, the business of stretching it is quite involved, particularly because of its multiple points of origin. It begins, remember, at T 12, which is actually quite a distance from your hip, some way up your spine. In fact it’s so far north that the T12 origin of iliopsoas is actually above the level of your diaphragm. The muscle has to pass behind the diaphragm on its way down to the hip and the thighbone. Heading downwards from there you have attachments all down both sides of the lumbar spine, and of course if the relative strengths of the two sides are not balanced, you get an uneven pull on these bones, leading to scoliosis (spinal curvature) which brings its own set of problems.
As it passes from your thoracic spine down through the back of your abdomen and forwards to the hip-joint, the psoas muscle interacts with a great many important structures and functions. On the way through behind the diaphragm it impacts layers of fascia, and influences both breathing patterns and the sealed-unit dynamics of the diaphragm-pelvic-floor partnership. On both sides of the body it passes close to major circulatory and intestinal structures, but also to your kidneys and a great many nerves. It links with the pelvic floor as well as the transversus abdominis and the internal oblique muscles, which are major contributors to trunk stability, posture and movement.
What this means for dancers is that problems with the iliopsoas complex can easily translate into trouble with breathing patterns, digestive activity, excretory processes and referred pain, as well as postural anomalies like scoliosis, hip pain, and even states of mind.
A lot of research has been done on stretching the psoas, and opinions seem to vary about the best line of approach. Some coaches and therapists recommend a static stretch, kneeling on one knee with the other foot on the floor, pushing forwards into the hip joint to lengthen the muscle where it passes over the hip joint. The exercise can be done in a half-kneel (i.e. with the back foot on demi-pointe), and some people also like to turn or cambré the upper body towards the front foot side, away from the stretching hip. This approach has met with some controversy, however, and if you’re going to do it at all, do it carefully, when you’re warm, and please don’t overstrain your back.
In the 1980s, Liz Koch [1], summarised her findings in The Psoas Book, pointing out that before anything can be done to stretch or strengthen this muscle, it must first be released through the process of “Constructive Rest”, a concept introduced even earlier by Sweigard [3] and Todd [4]. These principles are incorporated in Alexander Technique, and you can access them by putting “Principles of Constructive Rest” into your search engine. If you have a sore back (barring clinical contraindications), you might benefit from doing Constructive Rest a couple of times a day (in the morning, say, and again before your evening meal). Do remember, though, to read through these principles carefully before you begin any stretching work.
The best time for a psoas stretch is probably at the end of your last dance session for the day. Make sure you’re properly warmed up first, do Koch’s psoas release routine (which can take 10 to 20 minutes, so allow enough time) and be absolutely certain to balance both sides — muscle imbalance is a reliable short-cut to serious discomfort or injury, and we don’t want that to spoil your enjoyment or limit your choices in your dancing life.
© Jeremy Leslie-Spinks
Disclaimer: I want to make it quite clear, as I have done before, that the material I publish in this blog provides useful tips from my experience. It is not, and can never take the place of, qualified medical advice. If you are injured or ill, please don’t try to treat or medicate yourself. Get proper treatment from an appropriate qualified therapist / practitioner.
References
1. Koch L. (1981) The Psoas Book (2nd ed.). Felton CA, Guinea Pig Publications
2. Calais-Germain B. (1993, 2007). Anatomy of Movement (Revised ed.) Seattle WA, Eastland Press Inc.
3. Sweigard L. (1974). Human Movement Potential; Its Ideokinetic Facilitation, Harper & Row, NY.
4. Todd M. (1978). The Thinking Body; A study of the Balancing forces of Dynamic Man, Dance Horizons, Inc., NY (first published 1937).
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