Genesis Fitness Training - Level III PT

The science of sport A guide to the science behind common sports like tennis, soccer, and baseball.

🔈 DEEP PELVIC PAIN? IT CAN BE PSOAS MUSCLE TENSION

The psoas muscle may be the most important muscle in your body. Without this essential muscle group you wouldn’t even be able to get out of the bed in the morning!

In fact, whether you run, bike, dance, practice yoga, or just hang out on your couch, your psoas muscles are involved. That’s because your psoas muscles are the primary connectors between your torso and your legs. They affect your posture and help to stabilize your spine.

The psoas muscles are made of both slow and fast twitching muscles. Because they are major flexors, weak psoas muscles can cause many of the surrounding muscles to compensate and become overused. That is why a tight or overstretched psoas muscle could be the cause of many or your aches and pains, including low back and pelvic pain.

Structurally, your psoas muscles are the deepest muscles in your core. They attach from your 12th thoracic vertebrae to your 5 lumbar vertebrae, through your pelvis and then finally attach to your femurs. In fact, they are the only muscles that connect your spine to your legs.

Your psoas muscles allow you to bend your hips and legs towards your chest, for example when you are going up stairs. They also help to move your leg forward when you walk or run.
Your psoas muscles are the muscles that flex your trunk forward when bend over to pick up something from the floor. They also stabilize your trunk and spine during movement and sitting.
The psoas muscles support your internal organs and work like hydraulic pumps allowing blood and lymph to be pushed in and out of your cells.

During prolonged periods of stress, your psoas is constantly contracted.
The same contraction occurs when you:

▶️ Sit for long periods of time
▶️ Engage in excessive running or walking
▶️ Sleep in the fetal position
▶️ Do a lot of sit-ups

Are the neck and hips related? Does dysfunction in one area affect the other? Here's an article that speaks to just that.
https://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=15192

Spine Anatomy Overview Video Illustrations of all components of spine anatomy to help patients better understand the source of their back pain and back problems.

🔈 ABDOMINAL MUSCLES AS PROXIMAL STABILIZERS FOR THE HIP FLEXORS

The hip flexor muscles are used for a variety of everyday functional activities such as advancing the lower extremity during gait, running, or lifting the leg when going up steps. Efficient ex*****on of these hip flexion activities is highly dependent on the stabilizing forces provided by the abdominal muscles.

This important point is nicely illustrated by analyzing the role of the re**us abdominis muscle while performing a straight leg raise. Fig A shows two primary hip flexor muscles generating a force to lift a fully extended lower extremity. The relatively long extended leg places very large force demands on the hip flexor muscles. To successfully perform this action, the hip flexors must produce a force that likely exceeds 10 times the weight of the leg. With weakened abdominal muscles, attempts at flexing the leg often result in an unwanted anterior pelvic tilt and associated excessive lumbar lordosis (Fig. B). The unstable pelvis and lumbar spine are pulled toward the anterior femur—into an anterior pelvic tilt—because the pelvis and the lumbar spine are more free to move than the leg. To prevent this, the abdominal muscles produce a posterior tilting force that stabilizes the pelvis (Fig. A). As is shown in Fig. B, the unwanted anterior tilt of the pelvis simultaneously increases the lordosis in the lumbar spine. For this reason, excessive lumbar lordosis is often a clinical sign of weak abdominal muscles.

The iliopsoas (and all other hip flexors) and the abdominal muscles share the responsibility of performing a basic sit-up. Although the sit-up is often discussed within the context of abdominal strengthening programs, this basic action is essential for the performance of many routine movements such as rising out of bed in the morning.

A person with weak abdominal muscles usually demonstrates a characteristic strategy when attempting to perform a sit-up, one that is dominated by strong contraction of the hip flexor muscles. Consequently, the hip flexors immediately take over the action—most notably by the exaggerated anterior pelvic tilt and increased lumbar lordosis—as the pelvis and trunk are rotated forward and upward.

Reference: Science Direct

Functional Anatomy: Planes of Motion 🔴 Content, CEs & Certification, on desktop or mobile, for 1 low monthly price! No additional fees, 30-day money back guarantee, cancel anytime!

🔈 SHAPES OF SKELETAL MUSCLES


1. Parallel or fusiform: as their name implies their fibers run parallel to each other. These muscles contract over a great distance and usually have good endurance but are not very strong. Examples: Sartorius muscle and re**us abdominus muscle.

2. Convergent: the muscle fibers converge on the insertion to maximize the force of muscle contraction. Examples: Deltoideus muscle and Pectoralis Major muscle.

3. pennate: many fibers per unit area. These types of muscles are strong but they tie or quickly. There are three types of pennate muscle.

unipennate

bipennate

multipennete

4. Circular: the muscle fibers surrounded opening to act as a sphincter. Examples: Orbicularis oris and Orbicularis oculi muscles.

5. fusiform: some texts classify parallel muscles that are slightly wider in their middle (spindle shaped) as fusiform. This term will not be used in this course.

Extensor tendons of the hand.