The Psoas Book

by Liz Koch

The Psoas Book is a comprehensive guide to the Iliopsoas muscle and its profound influence on the body, mind, and emotions. Easy to read, The Psoas Book focuses on the psoas (so-as), the core muscle of the human body, and is an essential read for anyone interested in health, wellness, and movement.

The Psoas Book is a great resource for the layperson and offers simple self-help approaches for eliminating low back, knee, pelvic, and hip tension. For the professional, it is a one-of-a-kind educational resource, and is a required read at numerous university dance and movement education programmes, massage schools as well as yoga, Pilates, and fitness training programmes.

Purchased for over 30 years by laypersons and professionals alike, the new 30th anniversary revised edition of The Psoas Book is also a must read for anyone interested in sports, martial arts, somatic education, psychology, voice, nursing, birth, labour, and child development.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Bodies, Fitness

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liz Koch is considered the leading expert on the psoas muscle and her work is highly respected. I read favourable reviews on other websites regarding this text and since I am currently pursuing my yoga teacher training certification I felt it would be an excellent addition to my yoga collection. In addition, Liz Koch is a fellow scoliosis suffer and I was therefore hoping she shared some of her experiences with her condition. Unfortunately, I was left mostly disappointed.

This book is a good and quick read (I read it in one sitting), especially for anyone that has a very limited understanding of the iliopsoas however it reads like an academic paper. The writing style is basic but I was surprised at how basic the diagrams and illustrations were as well. She does cover off a section on emotional responses that impact the psoas and childhood development in respect to the development and use of the psoas muscle which was interesting. I also appreciated the section on reproductive health and how psoas issues can impact a woman's health, fertility etc.

The section on how to release the psoas maybe didn't impact me as much as other readers because I already study yoga asanas and was aware of different poses to release the psoas.

I would just encourage anyone that plans to purchase this text to remember that it is more like an academic paper and not so much a full blown, in depth text on the subject (ie. the font is very large so the 80+ pages could be misleading).

Another reviewer mentioned Clair Davies' book, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook and I would recommend this book as well. It is very in depth although I haven't reviewed it in a while and cannot remember how much detail it has on the psoas muscle specifically.

[Cintain 昆遊龍 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing! I love the coherent presentation of the information, the knowledgeable treatment of the subject, and the way the author weaves together the importance and implications of working with, and naturally releasing, the psoas muscles. Really curious to take her workshops now and learn firsthand about my own psoas, especially after experimenting with some of the exercises described.
My only quibble with this book is the appalling, nearly 100% consistent use of "it's" as a possessive. Aaaargh! Really? This, along with a bunch of other spelling mistakes, make the book a bit of a challenge at times. My advice: get an proofreader for the next edition, to avoid marring the presentation of such awesome, and important, material. Highly recommended to anyone who has a spine and legs.

[Foxthyme · Rating 2 out of 5]

After many years of wanting, I finally tracked this book down. I was disappointed. It reads like someone's thesis. The info is good, but there are far better books out there on the topic, such as Pete Egoscue's Pain Free books and Clair Davies Trigger Point Therapy Workbook.

My main gripe with the book is that Koch says massage is not effective for psoas release. In my direct experience this is not true. Psoas pain can be crippling. Trigger point release/massage is an excellent and quick way to save people from chronic and debilitating pain.

[Jordan Vezina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good primer on psoas anatomy and function. I don't agree with everything in here but I particularly like the attention paid to the emotional component.

[Maja Delak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather informative book that gives some insight on various approaches to body work and on some specificity of physical activity. And psoas.

[Roko K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative book on psoas and around it. The book has chapters dedicated to psoas function, effect on the rest of the body emotional muscle connection, to practical techniques on psoas, description on how activities and movement practices affect the psoas and general health. There are a lot of material in this quite short book. But the book is written quite difficult to understand and some part of it will be quite hard to digest for the laymen. Because of technical and anatomical terms.

[Alison Daly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was required for my 200YTT. I have never loved anatomy, but this book explains the significance of our psoas in a very straightforward way, and is incredibly simple to understand. A great read to understand how to control stress in our body, and ways to release tension and trauma from our body. I’ll benefit from reading this and not just regarding my yoga practice but my every day world.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting-ish. Pluses: a quick read by a fellow body nerd; respect for those willing to hang out feeling into the subtleties of deep places. Minuses: Except for the beautifully illustrated psoas anatomy on the cover and a cool mandala pelvis, the illustrations and typography are in serious lack. This subject deserves artistry.

[Allana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a great little book.
I keep returning to it because it’s helpful, I love the illustrations, and I find the actual experience of reading it very relaxing.
It’s simple, straightforward and beginner friendly while also worth revisiting for the already initiated. It’s a lovely text on somatic health.

[Levi Claes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uiteenzetting over Psoas vanuit ervaringsdeskundige Liz Koch. Eerste deel leest moeizaam door zijn theoretische manier van schrijven, tweede deel dan weer vlotter, omdat de auteur hier vertelt vanuit voorbeelden in haar praktijkervaring.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book.

Deep dive into the our emotional body whose headquarters are in the psoas muscles.

Good set of exercises as well to support healthy psoas.

[Allen Herring · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is amazing that one can still learn about the body and how it operates.

[Marcee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Fabulous info on the psoas!

[Christine Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Information about the psoas

I loved the detail, the diagrams and the comparison of different modalities. Easy to read and full of references to enable further reading.

[Luke Dailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m very interested to try the exercises and look further into this.

[Patricia Heard]

Excellent!

[Lizzy Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book absolutely changed my life and my approach to healing from sexual assault as a child

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the intracasies of one of the most influential muscles in the human body. Clear descriptions of its location, function, and issues that cause it, and thus us, to be out of balance. Good illustrations of how to best release, lengthen, and then strengthen the iliopsoas. Highly recommended for yoga teachers, yoga therapists, and yoga educators.

Full disclosure, I studied a weekend with Liz Koch and practiced not only the exercises in her book, but more techniques on how to relesase the psoas. For a society that sits way too much, the main thing we all need to learn to do is allow the psoas release. That means less doing and more being with. This book will help you learn how to do that.

[Margarete Maneker · Rating 5 out of 5]

“whether it is movement within the body or the body moving through space, movement occurs in spirals. all living forms respond to invisible forces such as gravity, creating very specific patterns. one such patter is the spiral. look at the whorls of your fingertips, the shells found on the beach, the pine cones, plants and ferns of the forest and you will see the spiral pattern. water flows down the drain in a spiral and the hair on our heads grow in swirls. if we use a microscope we see spirals in the helical structure of DNA. a telescope reveals the galaxies flowing in spirals.”

i’ve been looking for a book like this for MONTHS

such a wonderful introduction to somatics and so helpful for visualizing and conceptualizing the spine and iliopsoas musculature. definitely dated and there’s a fair amount of typos, but i found a legible pdf for free online so that didn’t really bother me (if you want the link, lmk!) i appreciated that this provides so many resources and expands on the lineage of bodywork that i’m interested in. excited to keep exploring!!

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book gave me some insight into the psoas and I greatly appreciated the "constructive rest positions" that it teaches to release tight psoas muscles. The grammatical errors distracted me to the point where I didn't read the entire book. I found the diagrams confusing and not clear, which was frustrating when using the book to learn about anatomy. I had to go to other resources for that. It was difficult to locate a library copy (I got the one I read through inter-library loan).

[Karla Kettler · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is poorly written. This may be more the editors fault than the writers. I ready the 30th anniversary revised edition and there are a few factual mistakes, and many sentencing structure mistakes. Someone should have found and fixed these issues in a revision.
That being said, the sections on releasing the psoas and application are very informative and useful.
I am taking a workshop with the author and I am excited to see if she comes across better in person than in text.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

2nd read - June 2010 - It is very distracting that the book is so poorly written, but it does have some good information.

1st read - March 2008 - This book is very poorly written, but I did learn a lot from it and I am definitely going to try out her exercises. I also got some great tips on sitting at a desk and in a car to help avoid problems.

[Ploetzly · Rating 3 out of 5]

realyl great information about the psoas a very important muscle (the only way your legs are attached to your torso! the muscle where movement of your leg orginates from!)...but i WANT MORE!!! her website is very imformative and has almost the same information. i want to read her other book more

[Kimberly Hallahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written, but I hope it has the information I need to heal. I get the idea I need to use this book in conjunction with a licensed health care provider who understands it, which may end up being an impediment to me.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has interesting information. It started out good helping me to understand where the psoas is in the body and how it works. I really enjoyed the chapter on Releasing the Psoas. But I wanted more exercises, pictures, and movement examples.

[Mills College Library]

611.736 K764 1997

[Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This concise guide reads gently & doesn’t waste words. I read it in my mid 20s, mid 30s and mid 40s. It was invaluable upon first read and improves with each decade.

[John Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the excercise images are stick figures Liz Koch is into some important work. Happy to have it.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy to read

[Chris Romer]

helpful.