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Guts are not for standing

 •  • by Paul Ingraham
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Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

I don’t care for this article — “SERIOUS WARNING – If you do any releases to your Psoas or Abs, you MUST READ THIS” — but I sure do agree with its main point. Standing on guts to release the psoas muscle is a Very Bad Idea.

The article is mainly a cautionary tale of an appendix rupture, which may well have been caused by amateurish, aggressive “release” of the psoas muscle, deep in the belly. It’s poorly written and full of sloppy clinical reasoning, and all the vague talk about releasing muscles — as if that’s actually a meaningful clinical concept — grated on my nerves so badly it was hard to get through the piece.

But these are quibbles. The main point is sound. It is indeed a “disturbing trend” that coaches and trainers are “helping people release by stepping on them,” including stepping on abdomens to target the iliopsoas muscle. I wasn’t aware that this was happening. If it actually is, it’s insane. Sadly, I don’t have much trouble believing it.

PainSci Member Login » Submit your email to unlock member content. If you can’t remember/access your registration email, please contact me. ~ Paul Ingraham, PainSci Publisher