Martha, thank you so much for this. I've had psoas issues for years which, as well as what seemed like hip problems, has created digestive issues as well. This particular movement has helped me to be able to walk more confidently, feel much better, and I feel like I'm coming out of a dark painful place. Can't thank you enough.

I love the fact that you take the time to answer every single question in full from the viewers. Thank you.

I have hyperlordosis. I slept for 12 hours about 5 days ago and when I woke up my pelvis was so weak I've been immobile since. This enabled me to stand without pain. THANK YOU

Marha thank you so much and my gratitude to my daughter too who shared this clip . It’s helping my husband with his hip issues .

I'm so happy I discovered your videos, it has helped my chronic pain and anxiety a lot. Thank you for sharing these!💓

It works! Amazing! Been having pelvic and back pain for years now. It immediately relaxed my pelvic area.

Your voice is so soothing. I literally closed my eyes and listened and it felt like i was in a therapy session. Thank you.

That is amazing! I could hardly walk, my hip flexors were so tight & weak feeling. Now I’m 75% improved. Thank you!

TKS A lot. Amazing somatic motion for Psoas. Wonderful HIGHLIGHTS

Gracias por tus vídeos, saludos desde Argentina!

I’m so thankful, I’ve been incorporating this with a few other movements and with constructive rest and meditation. It has literally saved me. I was in a very dark place before due to not being able to do the things I love. ❤️

Thank you for an excellent presentation.

Thank you very much

Thank you thank you thank you! This helped my intense hip pain so so much!!!

Thank you so much I’m going to replay it over and over and do it with you lololo thanks so much for posting I really need this badly.

I have multiple sclerosis and both my weak leg and functional leg need to have my psoas muscle released. I get horrible pain in my right hip after walking too long because it's doing the majority of the work. I can barely lift my left leg, maybe 5 inches from the ground. I have foot drop and every physical therapist I've gone to focuses on my flexibility in my ankle and totally ignoring my hip flexor. This has made me realize that both my hip pain, pain in my right side torso are all probably related to this muscle. Thank you and your video is hugely beneficial because you are on the ground and for me with balance issues that's very important. So thank you, I'm starting this today.

This is great. I’ve been teaching martial arts movement and I’ve kind of stumbled on working like this intuitively. Then I found you and you have refined much that I was doing in my explorations of ROM. This is a fabulous modality. Thanks.

Just recently had a psoas spasm. This worked!! ❤❤❤ thank you

Its amazing How simple movements helps to release psoas, thanks for sharing

Hip flexor stretches have always been the ones I gravitate towards and love the most. I file that under body wisdom. :)

That's really effective! Thank you very much

This REALLY helped with my lower back and hip pain. Halfway through the process I actually felt something release in my hip area. THANK YOU for posting such a great video.

Thank you🙏🏻! It took me a minute to realize that it was my Psoas origin giving me back pain (a little shout from around my femur let me know). This is reassuring and helpful material!

Thank you.

Amazing video !!

Man, you weren’t kidding!! Thank you!! ❤

nice relaxing sequence, really makes a difference (at least it did for me) 👍

Thanks for the helpful video. Also, you look amazing and fit. Very inspirational.

Wow, this is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this. I have to share my story with you because I've been through years of PT and massage and medication and this psoas issue never recovered following two hip, knee and lumbar spine injuries 6 months apart. I was told I'd just have to live with the pain, which I've been doing 10 years. After another serious injury to my spine, head, shoulder and neck last year, the pain was overwhelming but I didn't want to just take useless pain meds. When I finally had strength enough to go to PT, my whole side of my body was just clenched and unreleasing, shoulder to trunk, with my leg weakened. Massage and PT even with muscle relaxers was hardly helping, it seemed focusing on one area would cause another tight pain. Studying hip anatomy, intuitively last week I started working in slow hip rotating movements to 'retrain' my hip to rotate instead of the stiff clicking and clenching it had for years. I started doing hip releasing stretches where I would relax into it as much and as long as I could and started seeing some progress in about a week. But the psoas seemed it was hurting more than ever which is excruciating and disrupts everything from waking to sleeping! A friend mentioned TRE to me, so today I tried that full sequence and it was great. That led me to a psoas releasing TRE video which I did, and afterwards I just fell asleep for 7 hours! It was an improvement on waking, where normally my psoas is so painful it wakes me or immediately hurts and is stiff from sleep. I felt I was on the right track targeting psoas release, scrolled down and found your video here. Doing your releasing set was profound, and your explanation tied together everything I'd been suspecting. I could feel the whole side of my body's part in the SMA, and so I just made the movements as slow as possible to work out the clicking, a constant problem in my hip on clockwise rotation. Afterwards, laying and just resting, I could feel my psoas actually feeling very warm and gently contracting and releasing on its own!! It felt like bloodflow was going back there after a decade and it was actually MOVING and not stuck in tension! Even my shoulder (which at one point was frozen) was fluttering and releasing. This was such a profound simple movement that helped me immediately. I cannot thank you enough. I know this is long but I had to share how helpful this is! I'll be doing this daily now. Hopefully I'll be able to get my leg back flat onto the floor in cross legged sitting soon, something i haven't felt in ten years! Thank you so much! EDIT: OKAY, this is REMARKABLE. Right after writing this comment I went to eat. I sat on my couch cross legged as I usually do, and right away noticed how much more relaxed my left leg (the left side is the one with all the injuries/issues above), low back, and psoas already were. I thought, "Wow, I really AM going to be able to get this thigh flat on the floor in no time!" But as I sat there eating, I noticed that my leg WAS flat on the couch. Thinking this was probably because of the softness of the couch, I went and sat on the floor and to my great and dumbfounded surprise, MY LEFT LEG WAS COMPLETELY FLAT ON THE FLOOR. Both my thighs and knees were equally touching the floor. I was dumbstruck for a few minutes then burst out crying happy tears of joy and gratitude thanking God for this miracle! I have not felt this sitting position in over ten years, since December 2009 when my hip first got injured and changed my whole life. I was so active before then - running, biking for commute daily, bodysurfing, hiking, swimming, yoga, weight training. All of that stopped and I've never quite gotten it back. Ever since, my left leg has been tilted upwards in this sitting position, so that my left thigh and knee are hovering inches over the floor. I've been in constant pain in every single position no matter what I did, walking, standing, laying, sitting, anything. I just taught myself to ignore it because there was no other usable option. Even more amazing, I stood up and noticed that the constant pain in my low back and psoas is no longer there. There was this intense painful tension continuously for ten years that is GONE. It's just gone. It was a deep, hard pulling and tightness that no matter how I massaged, foam rolled, stretched, soaked in hot epsom salt bath, heat pad, so much PT.... none of it got it to release. This whole area was incredibly sensitive to even light touch, especially over the iliac and SI areas. Even just last night, I was massaging it and feeling how painful it was, 8/10 nearly bringing tears, thinking how can I get this to release? So many diagnoses (IT band syndrome, SI joint syndrome, piriformis syndrome, psoas syndrome, patellofemoral syndrome) and NO ONE has been able to get this resolved. I've lived with this pain for 10.5 years, and thanks to this incredible combination of following my body's intuition, retraining it to do its natural hip movement, but most importantly, trying these TRE sets targeting my psoas release... a decade of pain is GONE. If it wasn't happening right now to me I would have a hard time believing it, just because of how much pain I've been in with NO options other than horrible medication or painful injections, which never truly helped and knocked more things off balance in my body. THANK YOU SO MUCH. That's not even sufficient of thanks, but thank you thank you thank you!!! I know it's a combination of the things I've done over the last week, but I truly know I would not have experienced this without your profound psoas release set pulling it all together and making sense of all the parts. It was the final turn of the key that unlocked - literally - my psoas. You have changed my life. This set is now my permanent daily maintenance and thanks for my body's innate wonder!! Thank you!!!!! Update 14 Sep 2020: I thought I'd share another update. I'm still so thankful I found these exercises, because they have helped keep me going this year when I was unable to leave my house or even schedule PT because of illness. I do these nearly daily, if I don't, my body will remind me with tightness returning slowly. I have found over the past few months increased flexibility in the hip and now have a longer length of time before it starts feeling locked up (few days instead of less than a day or just constant). That pain that was relenting and just released is still completely gone though, like this huge knot from inside. That is a HUGE quality of life improvement for me over the past 10 years just from adding these into my routine. I have been adding trigger point release in surrounding muscles to try to help get the connected areas loosened and get my "uptime" even longer. Still able to sit cross legged without issues! And it has progressively gotten more even in my hips, also been focusing a lot on consciously correcting the tilt in my hips while standing, which doing these exercises has REALLY helped me reconnect with the conscious awareness of those muscles. That's really major for me right now because I'm recovering from an accident that really messed that up in my whole body. Looking forward to PT again soon, I am having some kind of issue with my left leg strength that needs someone to look at it.

This worked pretty quickly. Wow, thank you.

Thank you

very good exercise that not only releases psoas but also trains muscles very functionally!

Thank it did really help me, after doing these exercises my pain is totally relieved

That´s great i thank you!

I have been on the floor stretching for about an hour. I have watched a good 20 minutes of videos trying to find relief for my back pain. I did this and it was INSTANT relief. Thank you! You are a life saver!

I have hip flexor tightness that inhibits my glute activation when doing glute bridges. This release method done before my glute workout does wonders to allow glutes to do all the work. Thanks for sharing!

Clever stuff. Matt the pilates teacher.

Thank you Martha I have for 30 yrs. Suffered with spinal and carpal tunnel syndrome issues. Numerous doctors who cared less about the agony. Drs. Always push yoga (destructive nearly out me in a wheel chair). Essential somatics is the only modality that has offered relief and physical balance into the body again.

I have had low back pain for ages and before that periformis syndrome Which came after sciatica. It’s been ongoing for about 8 years now. Recently however it’s progressed to the point that within 3-5 minutes of standing or walking I feel like the area on either side of my spine, about my pelvis, completely seizes up. It’s so bad I can barely walk and will trip because I can’t lift my feet probably. Sitting down gives instant relief but it starts up again as soon as I start walking. I’ve been sent for quite a few tests, and diagnostic exams with no results other than degenerative disc disease that’s normal for my age (53). I started googling tonight to see if I could figure out what is happening and came across the psoa muscle which seem to be exactly what my issue was and then I saw your video and gave it a try. I just did it briefly but I did feel some relief from it! I’m gonna do it again tomorrow to see if it will continue. At this point I’m desperate and I’m just so grateful to feel any relief at all. I do have a question though, when I move my legs up And down there is a clicking in my back near the pelvis area. It doesn’t hurt but I can feel it, should I be concerned about that? Thanks for your video!

This really works my right side was very tight and this loosened up the muscle. Thank u

There are 2 different versions of this exercise I do now … even just after a few days … I can feel the difference!

I agree with all, except for the cervical flexion forward or in rotation....especially with elbows aimed forward. If psoas and transverse abs are weak - then the cervical flexing even adds more strain to the next muscles. There are safer ways of approaching this with the muscles of the neck not employed in the movements.

Brilliant 🤍🙌🏻✨

Oh my! Did anyone seize up a little trying this the first time? I think I may have found my problem area. I’ve been getting debilitating spasms for 2 years. Sometime I couldn’t even walk. I’ll need to go super slow and easy with these.

It was the best ❤❤❤

Nice. i did something close to this. i came from TRE and it started me on the right path for me to heal my years long tightness/arththis in hip and the whole body really. What this helped me is also lifting my leg while making a "ab crunch" then my body shakes and then releases body tension. THANKS!

Fabulous! Thank you :o)

Martha, I really enjoy your instruction style and may purchase DVDs at your website,. But have a problem I want to ask about. Don't know if this can be addressed using somatics....get this tightening pressure at base of rib cage usually in center around base of sternum. Seems to be either or both the rectus abdominis or transverse abdominal. Maybe even some diaphragm involvement. It's very limiting and unpleasant to what I can do. Do you have videos posted for this kind of thing? Don't know if somatics can alleviate this. Thanks Sam

great video! i am on my way home to try it out. i have started running about 5 weeks ago. my left SI joint is intermittently painful. a PT friend of mine said that maybe my psoas is tight. Thoughts?

The first time I discovered my psoas pain I would joke that I have a "so' ass." Not so funny four years later when it's become worse. But this video... THIS video! Thank you thank you!!!

Nice..........

Thank you for the information. I will start incorporating this as my hip flexors, particularly psoas, are tight. I experience a cramp often when I do the inner part and my foot is pointed inward and my hip tends to cramp up when flexing at the top. Also how do you feel about the dead bug core exercise because I’ve been doing that recently for better core activation, but every time I do it my hips click on the way down.

I pray Essential Somn8cs will be my 3 rs extreme pain of psoas, Iliac psoas,, SIJ, hip pain. Been very active all my life at all sports high levels, Bradley, Spanish dancing. Yoga 6 yrs. Think 3 yrs so began moving from a single story to a double story..ie step climbing although thru out Covid did 40 steps at our local mall 4 times a week at least. Am an artist sat alot not them than I can now. Have been too physios, sports specialist, bio k, chiropractor. Had phototherapy x 6 x s injections. Minor relief only from injections for short periods of time. Won't have anymore. Still do only strength psoas hip l ower back yoga and your exercises. Hope they'll help. Thank you .

I feel like there is "action" going on in my hip flexors. Less pain, thank you

Ballet dancer with chronic pain for 5 years now. My shiatsu therapist in the very beginning said the psoas is my problem. Now ive wasted years on pointless imaging, surgeries and treatments. The psoas is where my pain roots from.. Time to fix this once and for all

Excellent, how many times a day should a person do this and are there any more exercises for the psoas or is this the only one(which would be perfect) and would this be considered one set out of the two or three that you recommend for each side.

Thank you for this video. Why does it feel so good when I try the typical more active psoas releases but it doesn’t quite “get there?”

Great exercise and well demonstrated, thank you! - When the leg does the vector (turned out or turned in), should the upper body/head also come up according to vector? Or should we try and come up with the upper body straight? - When lowering the foot back down, is it important to land it near the buttocks? Or can it land further away (maybe even straighten the entire leg in the air), to make it more challenging? Thank you!

Hi! The exercise led to relief of the psoas; great! I wonder whether it is only meant for relief, or if we can practice this every day with the hope to stop the chronic pain? Do we need to integrate this exercise to others? If so, which ones?

I really find this beneficial, thank you very much! I also have a question. Practicing yoga, I always thought that in order to release the psoas I should have stretch it (gradually). Is stretching wrong? What's the difference then between this release and the one I ve mentioned? Thank you again!!!

Having sciatica electrical zapping right leg thigh deep muscle spasms.

@Essential Somatics Hello Martha, will Pandiculation actually fix anterior pelvic tilt from tight psoas?

Are you talking about abdominal bracing at the beginning of the movement, thank you!

Hi, I have a question. Could a tense psoas muscle be the cause of a nagging pain in my thigh when I walk up the stairs. Walking down the stairs is not an issue. Thank you.

a good consciousness of the legs and working with my back, but I didnt feel any difference in my psoas.

I would love some advice - my right psoas muscle has suddenly become so tight and painful after exertion, that the leg extension you demonstrate is impossible - especially the inward turning one. I am very interested in the technique you show but am finding it very difficult even to weight bear just now. I have a history of a tight right psoas muscle but this sudden flare up after a long walk is very distressing. I would be very grateful for any advice.

My dad how numbness and tingling below butock and feet ,hamstring. Is walking pattern is too much external rotation.. is activating Internal rotator is a solution?

Hi @EssentialSomatics I don't really understand how the breathing syncs with the movement you demonstrate. Could you clarify? 1) Arch - inhale, 2) release - exhale, 3) then it seems the entire movement of bringing the knee to the core AND back again is on an exhale only? Do you not take an inhale between 2 and 3? I don't think I can exhale for that long a time in proportion to the minimal inhale time? Thanks.

Hello Martha, I bought your (very good!) book recently and just learned to do all the mat/floor exercises. Will this exercise in the video replace any exercises in the book, for example "Nr12: Inversion and Eversion of the feet"? - Thank you!

I’m going to keep trying. Perhaps I can put the video on a Slower playback speed. I am trying to do this but I can’t follow along around 4:20 ish I can’t keep up. I’ll keep trying though. I have faith I was brought to this video for a reason. Thank you.

if someone is recovering from a psoas/iliopsoas strain, would you recommend they wait until movement is completely pain free to do this technique?

Hello. This exercices will strengthen AND relax my psoas ? Or just relax ? What mean "release" in the other case please ?

My right calf muscle goes into spasm while doing outward movement..This has happened for the first time in my life and pain was bad .Am i doing something wrong

Hi Martha.I am physical therapist.Does this method of Psoas releasing work for Canal Stenosis?

Just tried it, feels great. Seems so simple tho.

Hello, great video. Is it common to get a popping in the hips when lowering the legs as the psoas releases?

I’m having a difficult time with the arch of my pelvis. Any videos to help with this? I do have a spinal fusion L5s1-L4. Thank you

Good morning, I did your exercise not long ago, which helped me on one side, but caused another problem. Already, when I do your exercise, when I get to the top, my upper body starts to shake. I must say that I went a little hard, it's true. But even slowly I have this shake. The following days I had a inhabitual little pain in my arm, in my leg, as if something had moved. When I was walking two weeks ago, I felt like the left part of my body was a little loose, like my left leg was a little longer than my right leg, and held my spine badly. Since then I no longer have any problem except when I play the organ with my feet to reach the keys of the pedalboard, especially those which are on the far left, it requires a particular posture that is not very natural. Doing this hurts my left neck and if I stay too long playing like this, I even hurt part of my brain, or the back of my left jaw, although slightly. I feel that something is not in place. Do you have an idea of ​​the problem? What to do? Thanks

Hello! I’ve been struggling to get my hip flexor and lower back pain diagnosed for sometime. I finally self diagnosed psoas syndrome. Your video explains why all the stretching and exercising has not been helping me but I do wonder how long does it usually take for these exercises to help? I’ve been doing them for a couple weeks and my psoas is even more sore in the lower belly. So I know they are affecting it but when should I see some relief?

Hello Martha, I just got back from my back appointment and unfortunately, it is 10 degrees more than what it was. Not because of your exercises, just because of the way that I am growing.

There is a video where you hold certain postures, which stress the posas and then lay down, the body shakes uncontrollably and the posas resets, I’m looking for that video if anyone knows how to find it? Thanks

Hi Martha - folding my arms behind my head as in this video, I can't get them to relax so that they go flat against the floor. Any thoughts as to how to resolve this?

Hello I was just diagnosed with this today. Sometimes it causes a Inner leg cramp that runs to my hip. Do you have any advice for me when I am stuck in a cramp? When I have a cramp I'm at a level 8-10 with pain

Is the pelvis rolled anteriorly or posteriorly for inhale and arch?

are you pushing your lower back into the floor as you move your leg out or just letting it be free. cuz when i move my leg out my back arches up and pelvis tips forward when the leg goes full straight

I finally found this video again!🎉 I spent the last few years in constant physical agony needing a mobility walker - the doctors prognosis was not good. Spine this and arthritis that. I am not even middle aged yet About 5 months ago now I did shrooms to help me come to terms with being crippled and in pain forever and the main theme of that healing trip was getting through to me that the doctors are wrong and my pain is not from my spine but my mind (I have complex cptsd from childhood trauma and beyond ) I started searching Google for release exercise and found this video Let me be clear There would be no way for me to get off of the floor at that time if I was wrong and if the video didn't work. I would literally have had to call 911 for help, but I was so certain, just so absolutely positive this was the secret to my pain relief and mobility that I got down there and followed along with the movements, it was like a warm bath of relief spreading through my pelvis and legs I lay there crying in relief And yes, I was able to get up again. I made this a regular movement in my life and was able to start rehabbing what i realized was hypertonic pelvic floor and whole body trauma induced misalignment with somatic movements Vagas nerve strengthening, emdr, meditation and light frequent walks with ny walker and Persian cat in tow (lol) around my kitchen once an hour .. which advanced to walking down my hallway and then downstairs too Fast forward to today I can walk without the walker for the first time In years I'm 70% less tight and have 70% less pain (still working on it but omg the relief!!!!) I was really close to giving up on life tbh This video truly saved me!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot even begin to fully express my gratitude 🙏 ✨️ ❤

Hello! When you say your working leg, this would be the side that is NOT experiencing pain, correct?

My psoas has been chronically constricted my entire life from chronic childhood abuse resulting in Complex-PTSD as well as a severely restricted posterior airway of 1-2mm instead of 10-15mm. I've been suffocating my entire life and my airway collapses when I lie down leaving me with debilitating insomnia. Instead of stopping breathing (apnea) my adrenals and nervous system kick in and flood my body with adrenaline. This keeps my nervous system in a heightened state as well, so it has really been a double whammy! I've been working on releasing my psoas for years (I've done a LOT of work!) and am having great difficulty. I'm having a double jaw surgery at the end of the year to expand my airway and releasing my psoas as much as possible will help with my surgery and recovery. My hips are so tight I could never (at this time) get my knees up like this. Any suggestions? Thank you!

These are some great excercizes, I wish your instructions were slower though.

Hi ive injured my psoas, and my upper psoas has been tight ever since. So tight that its pulling on my adrenal glands , and im getting nonstop adrenaline and stress. It bothers me so much because i cant sleep and relax. Any tips on how to release the upper psoas, ive replayed ur videos many times, i hope you can help me out

Great instructional video. I am having an issue being able to even find the contraction of the psoas. The only thing contracting seems to be my TFL & quad. Any suggestions?

Hi. I have a replaced hip since 26 years and I have managed to avoid replacing the other one but now feel it gets worse so I am searching for anything to avoid surgery

I did this today and got such a sharp pain in my left buttock. I have Sciatica. The movement where the foot slides on its outer edge. Hectic!!

I find this extremely helpful, but am confused about the breathing patterns. I wonder if Martha could add a layer of commentary in this respect, or clarify. For example, it seems to me that we do the arch & curl plus leg raise, as well as the 'return' to the floor, on one exhale. That's a long exhale. The inhales on the other hand seem to be short and quick (like the one prepreing for this sequence.) Martha's face does not really show signs of breathing at all; so in and out through the nose? Thanks.

i have L5S1 disc herniation. can this help my pain

Will this help with SI joint pain?

does this also release fascia and consequently trauma stored in ? thank you!

Thanks for this video. I have had a very tight left Psoas for decades. I can see the truth of the 'pattern of tightness' you mention - all down my left side I have very tight muscles around the Lumbar Vertebrae, an unbelievably tight Teres Major muscle behind my left shoulder, and the tightness runs right up the left side of my neck. Forceful stretching of the Psoas only seems to aggravate the problem. So, in principle, this Pandiculation approach sounds very appealing . But I'm sorry to have to report that it made no difference at all - my muscles have no intention of letting go so easily. What could I be doing wrong please?

Does this help if my psoas is making a popping/clicking sound overtime?

Can the pasos musle cause years of chronic pain? :(