Trigger Points in the Iliopsoas

Video Transcript

"DR. CHRIS MANGO: Hi. This is Dr. Chris Mango, here in New York City. On behalf of Expert Village, we're going to be taking a look at trigger points today. Iliopsoas is located in the front part of the body, so it's a little difficult to get to. So if you can imagine that there's going to be organs, and your intestines are in front of this, so this is behind it. It attaches on the vertebral bodies, the front part of the pelvis, and goes into the femur. There are two trigger points: here and here. The iliopsoas is the major hip flexor in the body. Let me show you how it moves. So, as you can see, forward flexion is a major part of what we do every day with the hip. Now, when this gets irritated, it causes a major low back pain. Let me show you how to find the trigger point and treat the area. This is the midline of the patient. You want to just be off the midline to either one side or the other. You want to be careful because we're dealing with a lot of intestines and stuff through here. But what you're going to have to do is have the patient take a breath in and then out, and then follow in with the breath in until you can feel the muscle bellies; then just hold that for a couple of seconds then release. Now let's move into the next muscle that helps support the back."