It takes practice to UNDO tensions.  Our tension patterns are so hard-wired.  Healing DR, UI and POP requires integration of the core system: head and neck, ribcage, diaphragm, abdominals, pelvic floor AND re-establishing new connection to our nervous system.
Try this right now:
Sit for a moment and notice your breathing. 
Now start to nod your head up and down as if you are saying yes, or lift your arm up and down. 
Did you hold your breath?   
It is a simple move, and yet more than likely, you held your breath. We should be able to move and breathe at the same time. 
​When we hold our breath we are tensing muscles and increasing pressure into our body wall.  This load to the tissue adds up over time.   Doesn't this make you curious how often you might be holding your breath all day long? One of the keystones to healing the pelvic floor and the abdominal wall is to connect to our breath, allow the abdominals and pelvic floor to move, decrease the tensions in the neck, shoulder girdle, ribcage and lower back.  

As I mentioned above, the joint is simple, but the function is complex because the hip joint, like any other joint in the body, does not work/move in isolation.  Lack of hip range of motion can effect the health of the shoulders, spine, pelvis, knees and feet.  Improving hip joint motion is one of the key steps to ensure proper mechanics of the extremities and the spine.  How are your hips?  Try these moves for better movement.

3.  Hip Release and Hip Glides:  this is a video demonstrating how to do the self mobilizations to regain normal motion.

Recently I had a conversation with a doula about fetal positioning.  She and many of her doula colleagues have noticed an increase in clients that struggle during labor due to posterior positioning of the fetus.  Posterior occiput position is when the baby's head is down and facing mom's belly.  A normal presentation is when the head is down and the baby's head is facing the mom's sacrum as in the picture to the left.   I would like to share some information from the workshop I presented to our Salt Lake Birth Circle group.
Incidence and consequences of Occiput Posterior (OP):

• 15-30% present posterior at onset of labor  
• 5% presentation at delivery
• 5.5% of OP accounts for 12% of all cesarean deliveries for lack of progress or dystocia
• 7 fold increase in the incidence of 3-4th degree perineal tears (into anal sphincter) 

Penny Simkin, PT and author of  The Labor Progress Handbook attributes fetal malposition to cultural habits and trauma.
Cultural Habits:

• Slouching
• Crossing legs
• Sitting too much, driving
• Standing with pelvis imbalanced
• Too little or too much exercise

Traumas:

• Sport injuries/falls
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Assault
• Fears                                                                           

If you are in the Salt Lake area you can learn about the topics introduced in this blog and more, in my prenatal workshop, Birth Mechanics: Get Your Body Tuned up for Delivery.  

We have two psoas muscles on each side of our body: psoas major and psoas minor.  This blog is specific to our psoas major.  
This summer I took a very cool tele-class from Liz Koch, of Core Awareness.  In this 5 week series we explored the location and function of the psoas and its relationship to the nervous system and our "fight/flight/freeze" response,  to our emotional well-being and to our skeletal support.
The psoas is centrally located: emerging from the midline at thoracic level 12, attaching to every lumbar vertebra and inserting into the inner thigh at the lesser trochanter.  
The psoas allows the lower limb to move and swing a as a pendulum: multidirectional/orbital.  
As a physical therapist I see many people with SI dysfunction, hip and back pain.  In almost all cases, the psoas is the top priority to rehabilitate.   On muscle testing the psoas is usually weak, and the flexibility test is usually tight.  What I have come to understand through this tele-class, through my training as a Restorative Exercise Specialist™ and as an NKT™ practitioner, is that rather than manipulate the psoas through deep tissue work and stretching, the psoas needs to rehydrate and recover from over-exhaustion.
I have compiled my favorite top 10 ways to release, rehydrate and restore the psoas.  It is helpful to perform a release before going onto the movement sequences.  Some of these are from Liz Koch's book, "The Psoas Book" and some are from the Whole Body Alignment Program.

Trigger points in a muscle can be the culprit in many pain disorders.  In this post, I provide a self care technique to assist with these potentially troublesome trigger points. The muscles that can refer pain into the hip area are the tensor fascia lata, iliacus, psoas and sartorious.  If you are interested in learning more about what causes trigger points and how to treat them, I have listed some websites dedicated to trigger points and myofascial pain syndromes at the end of the blog.   Click on the pictures below to enlarge the picture and to link you to triggerpoints.net, an amazing resource for trigger points and referred pain.

Release tension in the psoas,  and the surrounding hip musculature by performing a constructive rest position with a bolster.  Allow yourself to breathe and relax for 5 minutes.  For instructions on how to do this click here.

Perform a release technique utilizing myofascial release balls such as Yoga Tune Up Therapy Balls for Self Massage (that's what I have and I love them),  Melt Method Products, or good old tennis balls.  There are a lot of different ways to get into the muscles.  For this technique you will take two balls held together in a sock or bag.  My finger is pointing to my ASIS on the iliac crest.  Place the balls horizontally just below the ASIS.

You will be working near a tender area due to the superficial exposure of the femoral vein, artery and nerve at the femoral triangle.  If you start to feel tingling and nerve sensations, move to a different area.  Just underneath the vessels and nerve lies the iliopsoas.  The next muscle laterally (to the right in this pic) is the sartorious, and the muscle in red is the tensor fascia lata.  Sandwiched in between the two is one of the quadricep muscles, the rectus femoris.  This will get released as well.

The balls are placed as above on the left side here.  With the right leg you can adjust how much body weight you put down into the balls.  If it is more comfortable, you can prop up onto your elbows.  If you are not able to get down onto the floor, you can place the balls at your hip, and lean into the wall or a door jam. Try to allow your muscles to relax and mold over the balls.  If you find that the balls are too intense to start with, place a folded hand towel over them to disperse the pressure.  If you are holding your breath and tensing your muscles to deal with the pain, this defeats the purpose.  You should be able to feel the sensation and breathe into the area as the muscles release.   Once you feel that the muscle has let go, move the balls into a new area.  Spend 5 minutes on each side.  Enjoy how you feel when you get up to walk.  Feel the freedom in your hips!

Resources:
 http://www.triggerpoints.net/, http://saveyourself.ca/tutorials/trigger-points.php, http://www.myofascialtherapy.org/