What is iliopsoas muscle?

Ilipsoas is not a muscle. Ilipsoas is a muscle group composed of iliopsoas and psoas major. They play a key role in hip flexion and keeping the lower back stable. They are also one of the most powerful hip flexion muscles.

Psoas major: deep in rectus abdominis.

Function: make the lumbar spine bend forward and the hip adduction.

Iliac muscle: located in the inferior iliac fossa of rectus abdominis.

Function: psoas major.

Starting point: psoas major originates from the lateral surface and transverse process of the twelfth thoracic vertebra and the first to fifth lumbar vertebrae; Iliac muscle originates from iliac fossa.

Stop point: femoral rotor

Function: almost fixed, so that the thigh flexes at the hip joint and rotates outward. Far fixed, one side contracts, making the trunk bend sideways; Both sides contract at the same time, so that the trunk leans forward or the pelvis leans forward.

What is the function of iliopsoas muscle?

An excellent middle-distance and long-distance runner must have the ability of striding and running fast. To achieve this goal, besides having good cardiopulmonary function, training athletes' iliopsoas muscle strength is also one of the effective means to improve their running performance.

The main function of iliopsoas muscle is proximal support, and its tension is from bottom to top, which can bend the thigh when contracting. Whether the thigh can swing forward and lift quickly during running has a great relationship with the speed and strength of iliopsoas muscle contraction.

In the distal support, the iliopsoas muscles on both sides contract at the same time, so that the trunk bends forward and the pelvis leans forward, which creates good conditions for the center of gravity to move forward actively to lift the legs and press down during running, thus obtaining the forward speed.

Symptoms of iliopsoas muscle tension:

1. The front thigh is tight near the pubic bone (marked in red below).

The front thigh and groin are stiff and painful, and the tenderness is deep, which is not a feeling that you can touch with your bare hands. You can feel it with a foam shaft or a muscle relaxation ball. In addition, it will also show that when carrying a load during exercise or doing sports (such as running and cycling) that require hip adduction (leg lifting), you will feel tight or cramped on the front side of your thigh.

2, low back pain (as shown in the red mark below).

From lying down to sitting up, the pain will be particularly obvious.

Causes of iliopsoas muscle tension:

1, habitual action:

Sitting for a long time, cross-legged, curled up to sleep and other actions to keep the hip flexion will make our iliopsoas muscle in a shortened state for a long time, and the iliopsoas muscle will become more and more tight after a long time.

2. Incorrect sit-up exercises:

Especially the traditional version of school sit-ups (knee-bending sit-ups help to fix the feet), in order to make up the number and pursue speed, the upper body is often lifted instantly instead of abdominal contraction, so it is not an abdominal muscle, but an iliopsoas muscle, and the front side of the thigh will be very tight, and the feeling of the abdomen is not great.

Step 3 ride a bike:

Because riding a bicycle requires repeated bending of the hip joint, the iliopsoas muscle keeps a shortened posture for a long time. My personal suggestion is that if you are riding a flywheel, you should use your will to imagine the position of lifting your legs from behind your hips, instead of bending your hips to lift your legs, so as to relieve the pressure of iliopsoas muscle contraction and exercise the flat buttocks muscles caused by sitting for a long time.

4. Running posture:

Ilipsoas muscle is a very important muscle for lifting legs when running. Running fever has made the current competition more colorful. Sometimes the race may not be held on the flat ground, but it may be run on the mountain road. At this time, the legs should be lifted higher, and the iliopsoas muscles need to be used more. People who love running should know that the best way for long-distance running is not to run with high legs and big strides, but to run with small steps and high speed. Even this can reduce the pressure on the iliopsoas muscle, because it often takes several hours for a half horse or a whole horse to run down at a time, and it is inevitable that the iliopsoas muscle will contract repeatedly and become more and more tight during the process. At this time, it is necessary to relax and stretch more to solve this problem.

5, did not relax after exercise:

This is very important! It is almost impossible for ordinary people to exercise excessively frequently. Mostly because of the lack of exercise on weekdays, and then greedy for more and less when you can exercise, it is very easy to cause muscle pain. The reason has nothing to do with excessive exercise! However, whether it is a real regular athlete or a weekend athlete, in addition to gradual exercise, the most important thing is stretching and warming up before exercise. Relaxation and stretching after exercise can relieve many pain problems.

Stretching method and massage of iliopsoas muscle

Since what you want to do is stretching, you should pay attention to the two most important points!

1, extending to the extreme, staying in a state of continuous extension.

2. Put willpower on the part to be stretched.

First, the action essentials of lunge torsion stretching

1, chest out and abdomen in, knees of front legs should not exceed toes, and toes of rear legs should land in the same direction as toes of front legs.

2. The thighs are parallel to the ground, the calves are vertical to the ground, and the arms are fully extended.

Second, the action essentials of iliopsoas muscle stretching

1, chest out and abdomen in.

Step 2 Squat down slowly and vertically

3. Control the direction of front legs, knees and rear toes

Video: Active stretching of iliopsoas muscle

Third, the passive pulling spirit of iliopsoas muscle.

The stretched person lies on his back on the massage table with his ischium aligned with the bedside. The stretched person puts one hand on the upper end of the tibia of one leg of the stretched person, so that the thigh is close to the abdomen and the other leg is relaxed and stretched.

Video: Passive stretching of iliopsoas muscle

Fourth, relax the muscle fascia with a massage ball.

First, find the iliac crest, first expose the position of the lateral support, then lie on the ball, let the position of the ball be below the iliac crest, slowly roll back and forth to the side until you find a pain point, and keep moving there for at least 30 seconds.

Because this point is very sensitive to pressing, it will make you nervous at first, but remember to relax and then continue to press around slowly.