I have been dealing with a minor, but nagging, neck thing for a while now.
Even though it is my neck that causes the trouble (ache and discomfort in the scalene muscles) if you are a reader of this blog you won’t be surprised to hear that I feel that my psoas is the culprit.
This has been going on since last winter when my neck got tweaked when a car I was in hit a massive pothole and I literally hit the roof.
It isn’t all that bad but when my neck gets particularly tweaked I go to see my chiropractor who sets me straight.
Aside from that fact that I think every body issue concerns the psoas, I feel the psoas is particularly involved in this case for a number of reasons.
When I go to the chiropractor and she tests my psoas it is usually out of whack.
Her ministrations fix me immediately.
On other occasions, if I wake up in the morning feeling the ache that has become all too familiar, I’ll take my dog out for his morning walk and make a beeline for my favorite high curb upon which I perch and do Foot On A Block— one of my favorite psoas releases—and I am usually good to go for the rest of the day.
But the most interesting way I have been diagnosing the issue is in a favorite pose of mine— tarasana.
This is a variation on baddha konasana or bound angle. In tarasana, a sitting pose, the legs are in a diamond shape with the feet together about two feet away from the pelvis.
When all is well in my psoas I drop into this shape effortlessly.
My too-open hips love this pose and I can usually do great work
in my legs and trunk.
When all is not well in psoasland there is a pull in the inner arch of my foot like a gentle cramp.
This speaks to one of the main things I am teaching people about walking.
There is an essential connection between the big toe, the inner thigh and the psoas.
It took me a while to make the connection but I have tested it out several times.
When my neck is free and clear there is no cramp-like feeling in the foot and vice versa.
The psoas is a wondrous and magical muscle.