The Hidden Back Pain Muscle

Over 80% of adults will experience low back pain in their lifetime. One of the most difficult problems with low back pain is that it is hard to determine the cause. Some healthcare providers treat all low back pain as if it is a disc injury, and this is not always the case. When common treatments do not resolve your low back pain, you may need to ask your chiropractor about the psoas muscle, if they have not mentioned it or addressed it in the past.

The psoas muscle is attached to the sides of the lumbar vertebrae and travels downward in the front of the spine, through the pelvis and attaches to the front of the hips. You have one on the left and one on the right of the spine. This muscle can help you flex your hips, it helps flex at the trunk, and even rotates the hips outward.

Because this muscle attaches to the spine and the hip, it can be related to pain in both areas. When this muscle becomes shortened, it will pull on multiple locations in the spine and hips. People may notice that they have low back pain or hip pain, but have not done anything to cause this pain besides sit for long periods of time. When you are sitting with your hips at 90 degrees the psoas muscles become shortened and overtime pulls more and more on the spine and hips. Working from home, with little to no movement, throughout the day, has caused an increase in this type of pain across the community. This is especially true in places like Apex, NC where people frequently have sitting office jobs.

Ultimately, standing and walking more frequently than sitting will help relax this muscle and can reduce some of the pain. If you have a job that requires frequent sitting, or this issue has been present for a long time, it may be harder to treat this issue and reduce your pain. In those cases, stretching the psoas by doing a simple lunge stretch, opening up the front hip area of your trailing leg, may help. If this pain persists, it is highly recommended that you visit a chiropractor who is willing to address the psoas muscle, the lumbar vertebrae, and the hip that are all involved. At Performance Family Chiropractic, we have had great success treating people with this condition and we take a treatment approach that leaves no stone unturned.