Assessment and Treatment Techniques for the Psoas Major

This is a 4-hour hands-on workshop that explores palpation assessment and massage and stretching treatment techniques for the psoas major. The psoas major is a critically important muscle for both the lumbar spine and the hip joint, and being able to effectively assess and treat this muscle is essential for successful clinical orthopedic manual therapy.

We begin with palpation assessment of the abdominal and femoral bellies of the psoas major with the client supine. We then workshop manual therapy massage treatment with the client in supine, side-lying, ¾ side-lying, prone, and seated positions. Stretching the psoas major is next. We begin with simple mechanical stretching, transitioning to pin and stretch technique. We then explore neural inhibition proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching techniques, including contract relax (CR) and agonist contract (AC) stretching techniques. Our focus throughout this workshop is to critically think so that we can creatively apply our manual therapy hands-on techniques.