Muscles that Perpetuate Back Pain: The Iliopsoas

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Many cases of back pain are caused by an uneven pelvis which is the result of dysfunction in the iliopsoas and quadratus lumborum muscles. These two muscles literally oppose each other and when one ‘wins’ over the other that can tilt the pelvis too far forward or too far back and result in lower back pain.

Medical massage therapy is particularly adept at treating these muscles, but self care is also important for relieving lower back pain. Learn to treat these two muscles and you hold the key to relieving lower back pain.

However you have to know what you are doing because you can do more harm than good. Here are some links to videos that will give you tips and techniques on how to relieve lower back pain by treating the iliopsoas muscle. (We’ll deal with the quadratus lumborum in another post.)

The first is an explanation of the iliopsoas muscle. It is intended for dancers, but gives a great (and brief) overview of the iliopsoas.

The second discusses how to assess whether or not your iliopsoas muscle is tight.

From there watch how a massage therapist would go about releasing the iliopsoas. (Read more about massage therapy and back pain here.)

Lastly, here’s how to stretch the iliopsoas muscle. Stretching is an important component of preventing lower back pain from reoccuring.

Tags: iliopsoas, medical massage therapy, prevent low back pain, quadratus lumborum, relieve lower back pain, self care for low back pain, stretches for low back pain, uneven pelvis
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