Understanding Iliopsoas: Clinical Implications for the Massage Therapist‪.‬

One of the most enigmatic muscles in the human body is the ilipsoas (also known as the psoas). Travell and Simons name it the 'hidden prankster,' (1) and I suspect that a significant number of massage therapists are puzzled about how to manage this prankster in the clinical setting. In researching and reading the vast amount of literature written about this significant muscle, it appears that just like one of Pablo Picasso's cubist paintings, it possesses many angles and ambiguities that make it both fascinating and profoundly difficult to address and treat in practice. Some of the conditions involving the iliopsoas muscle include lower back pain, sacroiliac pain, sciatica, disc trauma, scoliosis, hip and knee pain, menstrual pain and digestive problems. We may also include biomechanical problems such as pelvic tilt, leg length discrepancies, kyphosis and lumbar lordosis.