Illopsoas stretches

[seasonoftowers]

As I've mentioned in my journal, I've found that attempting pigeon pose helps with a hell of a lot of highly annoying physical issues I've had the past year. Note that I say attempting, and not succeeding - I can maybe get 8 inches above the floor on my bad side before my hips start turning. I wonder how best to proceed from here - do I keep doing as much of the stretch as I can do correctly, or are there other things I should try first?

Comments

[seasonoftowers]

I got the pigeon stretch suggestion from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320589.php, where they claim it's useful for prevention of illopsoas bursitis. And I may be doing a rather imperfect stretch, but I can definitely feel something loosening on something that starts in my lower back and goes through my pelvis before ending in my upper inner thigh. I walk a bit straighter afterwards, too.

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what it does, only that it works, and I know very little about stretching, so I'd welcome any suggestions!

[niqaeli]

As indywind noted, if you're getting benefit from the stretching and not experiencing harm, you're doing it right! And, yeah, on reflection I do see how it would be stretching iliopsoas. :) And feeling things loosening up and feeling better after stretching is a clear sign it's helpful, exactly as you're doing it.

Sadly the variations I was going to show you are of no use for this particular thing, since they target the rotators and actually remove the hip extension entirely. If you're looking for more variety than just pigeon, then you'd want to look for poses/shapes/stretches that put one of your hips into extension, as that's what's giving you the stretch in iliopsoas in pigeon. I don't remember anything particular off the top of my head, but anyway, yes.