Having Tight Hips is BAD for Your Back, Health & Sexual Performance

We’ve all experienced it before, that pain or achiness after sitting in a fixed position for a good portion of the day. Sitting in a stiff chair on a long distance flight, working on the computer all day or spending far too much time in the car.

When it comes to sitting there is one thing that is certain, there’s a strong chance you are placing your body in an unfavorable position and as a result of this, your body will get STIFF.

Unfortunately, sitting is part of our culture and mostly unavoidable.

By spending so much time in your chair in a flexed position coupled with a lack of movement throughout the day, you have successfully followed the formula for creating tight iliopsoas muscles.

Sitting might be comfortable for most of us but know that you have unfortunately been abusing your hips all day long without even thinking about it.

These damaged hips cause back pain, health problems and even disrupt sexual function which I’ll get to in a moment.

As far as anatomy goes, the psoas is part of the iliopsoas group. This two-part muscle group is comprised of the iliacus and psoas, hence the term iliopsoas.

To be clear, when referring to the psoas muscle, it is the psoas major that is being referenced.

There is a psoas major and psoas minor but the function of the psoas minor is minimal at best and it is considered to be a weak mover.

One of the most significant things about the psoas muscle is that it connects the legs to the spine, which means that what you do with your legs could possibly affect your spine without you thinking about it, or even feeling it.

With a tight psoas from sitting all day your hips will become fixed in a forward thrust position causing your pelvis and leg(s) to rotate.

This forward tilt will cause your hip socket to become compressed leading to pulling and shifting of joints, tendons, and muscles pulling on your lower back.

This pulling on the lower back WILL decrease blood flow and circulation as well as delayed nerve response to the hips.

If you can’t see how tight hips can affect your sex life, please read that paragraph again.

Decreased blood flow and circulation will happen with tight hips.

If you thought that was bad enough, let’s look at the emotional side of this issue, as this might be more important than our physical performance in the bedroom. Our emotions have a lot to say about the current state of our sex life.

Ask anyone if emotions and feelings have a role in their sexual desire.

If your psoas is constantly tight and overworked, the body is faced with permanent roadblocks of emotional and physical stress which forces the brain to continue to send warning signals to all of the systems of the body, including the reproductive system.

Again, by having a tight psoas muscle, signals are sent from the brain to the body that danger is imminent. These signals trigger responses within the body that will cause an overexertion of the adrenal glands and will weaken the body’s natural immune response to stress.

Stress and sex DO NOT go together.

Remember, the hips are the primary movers in sex and it’s somewhat common sense that we want our hips to be loose and flexible in order to achieve great dynamic sex.

This Fight or Flight response triggered by placing our hips into stressful positions time after time will not only cause damage to our hips but also to our sexual desires, physical performance and to our overall health and wellness.

The human body (mind included) has been set apart from other creatures of this earth by many characteristics and the ability to experience and express emotions is a main one. The psoas grounds us to our surroundings similar to that of a grounding wire in a circuit. Once the spine is open and grounded, the spine can become alive and then be able to perform the inherent functions it was originally designed to do.

What this means for you is that your emotions are connected in with the psoas through the fascia and nerves surrounding it. When your emotions are stressed and heightened, that fear, guilt, or anger travels through the nerves in the psoas to the spinal column and then to the brain, which is the headquarters for our emotions. Your psoas in this process is acting like a messenger from the midsection to the central nervous system sending the information to your brain.

Now if your psoas is healthy and free then the information transmitted to your brain will be accurate and have clarity. If however your psoas is unhealthy, tight and cramped then the information will be unclear and you will most likely feel emotional discomfort in the process of delivery of this information from spine to brain.

The benefit of having a released psoas is that you will feel more grounded and relaxed.

So what does this mean for your sex life?

If you sit all day and aren’t doing the appropriate work needed to fix your hips, you can be sure you are not tapping into your peak sexual health and that’s why you are reading this and in search of a solution.