This week I felt real dumb when my supervising PT gave instructions in an evaluation of my patient to stretch the patient's iliopsosas muscle. It's been so long since studying anatomy in school and working in home health with little (here's a potential Raising Hope moment and I'm not about to use a word that sounds close to the word I'm looking for) .....interaction (yeah, that's the word I'm looking for!!) with therapists that I'd clean forgotten where it is!
Let alone how to stretch it.
So, last night I set about sussing the information on the www and came across some interesting finds. First, I found a couple of websites that were a plethora of information: Dynamic Chiropractic had an article with in-depth information, that when I read it I realized I really need to stretch mine (sitting for long periods, scoliosis, spondylolisthesis). You can find the article, The Psoas Syndrome, there along with some diagrams on performing the stretch. The other website is Floota Fighting Chronic Pain where I read articles on performing a test to determine if the psoas muscle is tight (after determining the relationship between the two muscles - psoas and iliopsoas - from the first article) and another way to stretch the muscle as well as a great anatomical drawing of the muscles on the skeleton.
Not only did I find information on how to help my patient, I discovered the exercise that completely obliterates the pain in my right low back, albeit for a short period. But, with continued practice, my posture should improve and the muscle will lengthen, which will be a blessing.
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