Hip Openers: The Psoas, Trauma Storage, and Somatic Release

The Hips as Emotional Storage

Every bodyworker knows it. Every yoga teacher has witnessed it. Someone holds Pigeon pose for three minutes and begins to cry. Not from pain — from release. Something stored in the hips — something wordless, visceral, and old — surfaces through the physical opening of the hip joint.

This phenomenon is so common that it has become a cliché in yoga culture: “the hips store emotions.” But clichés become clichés because they describe real patterns. The question is not WHETHER emotions are stored in the hips but HOW — through what mechanisms does the hip region become a reservoir of unprocessed experience?

The answer lies in the psoas, the fight-or-flight reflex, the fascia, and the intimate neurological connections between the hip region and the autonomic nervous system.

The Psoas: Muscle of the Soul

The psoas major is the deepest muscle in the human body. It originates from the lateral surfaces and transverse processes of T12 through L5 (the thoracolumbar junction through the entire lumbar spine), descends through the retroperitoneal space (behind the abdominal organs), passes through the pelvis, and inserts on the lesser trochanter of the femur. It is the only muscle that directly connects the spine to the legs.

Liz Koch (2012), in “The Psoas Book,” calls it “the muscle of the soul” — not as mysticism but as a description of its unique functional position: the psoas connects the diaphragm (the primary muscle of breathing) to the legs (the primary muscles of locomotion and flight). It is the bridge between breath and movement, between the core and the periphery, between the will to act and the capacity to act.

The Psoas and Fight-or-Flight

When the sympathetic nervous system activates in response to threat, the body prepares to fight or flee. The primary muscles of fleeing are the hip flexors — the psoas and iliacus — which power the leg drive in running. The primary muscles of fighting involve the psoas in its role as a spinal stabilizer (bracing the trunk) and hip flexor (kneeing, kicking).

When the threat is acute and the fight-or-flight response completes (the person runs, fights, or collapses and recovers), the psoas contracts and then releases. The cycle completes. But when the threat is chronic, unresolved, or overwhelming — as in childhood abuse, ongoing domestic violence, chronic workplace stress, or developmental trauma — the psoas may remain in a state of chronic contraction.

This chronic contraction produces:

• Lower back pain (the contracted psoas pulls the lumbar spine into increased lordosis)
• Hip flexor tightness (reduced hip extension, anterior pelvic tilt)
• Compromised diaphragmatic breathing (the psoas shares fascial attachments with the diaphragm)
• Chronic sympathetic activation (the muscular tension pattern associated with threat is maintained, feeding back to the nervous system that the threat is ongoing)

The Psoas and Polyvagal Theory

In polyvagal terms, the chronically contracted psoas represents a body stuck in sympathetic mobilization — perpetually prepared to flee even when the conscious mind knows it is safe. The body does not believe the mind’s assessment. The psoas holds its own opinion about whether the world is safe, and that opinion is formed by experience, not by reason.

Van der Kolk (2014) describes this phenomenon in “The Body Keeps the Score”: traumatic experience is stored not in narrative memory (which the prefrontal cortex manages) but in procedural memory (which the body holds). The psoas’s chronic contraction IS the body’s memory of danger — a muscular encoding of threat that persists independent of conscious recollection.

Key Hip-Opening Postures

Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (Pigeon Pose)

The most emotionally provocative hip opener. The front leg is bent with the knee forward and the shin crossing the mat. The back leg extends straight behind. The torso can remain upright or fold forward over the front leg.

Muscles targeted: The primary stretch is on the external rotators of the front hip (piriformis, obturator internus, gemelli, quadratus femoris) and the hip flexors of the back leg (psoas, iliacus, rectus femoris). The piriformis stretch is particularly significant — the piriformis lies directly over the sciatic nerve, and chronic piriformis tension can produce piriformis syndrome (sciatica-like symptoms from nerve compression).

Why it triggers emotional release: The combination of deep external rotation (which stretches the deep hip rotators where chronic tension accumulates), hip flexor stretch (which releases the psoas), and the forward-folding position (which activates parasympathetic response) creates a perfect storm for somatic release. The physical opening of the hip joints removes the muscular guarding that has been holding unprocessed emotional content in place. When the guard drops, the content surfaces.

Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle / Butterfly Pose)

Seated with the soles of the feet together, knees falling open to the sides.

Muscles targeted: Adductors (gracilis, adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, pectineus), internal rotators, and the pelvic floor musculature.

Pelvic floor connection: The adductors share fascial connections with the pelvic floor muscles. Chronic pelvic floor tension — common in trauma survivors, particularly those who have experienced sexual trauma — restricts adductor flexibility. Baddha Konasana gently opens the pelvic floor through adductor stretching.

Svadhisthana activation: In the chakra system, Baddha Konasana directly addresses the sacral chakra (Svadhisthana) — the center of pleasure, creativity, sexuality, and emotional fluidity. Restriction in this area is associated with sexual dysfunction, creative block, and emotional rigidity.

Utthan Pristhasana (Lizard Pose)

A deep lunge with the front foot outside the hands, back leg extended, forearms on the floor or blocks.

Muscles targeted: Deep hip flexor stretch of the back leg (psoas, iliacus), hip flexor and abductor stretch of the front leg, groin opening.

Intensity: Lizard is more accessible than Pigeon for many practitioners because the knee is not placed in deep external rotation. It provides deep psoas stretch in a position that is easier to control and modify.

Mandukasana (Frog Pose)

Kneeling position with knees spread wide, hips moving back and down toward the floor, inner thighs and groins stretching.

Muscles targeted: Deep adductor stretch, particularly the adductor magnus and brevis. Also stretches the gracilis and pectineus.

Intensity and duration: Frog pose is typically held for 2-5 minutes in yin yoga style. The sustained hold allows the fascia (which responds to sustained loading rather than brief stretching) to undergo creep — the slow deformation of connective tissue under constant load. This fascial creep is the mechanism by which deep fascial restrictions are released.

Trauma-Sensitive Considerations

Hip openers are among the most triggering postures for trauma survivors. The physical opening of the hip region can surface traumatic memories, produce flashbacks, or trigger dissociative episodes. This requires specific considerations:

Choice-based language: “You might choose to lower your forearms” rather than “lower your forearms.” The trauma survivor’s autonomy was violated — restoring a sense of choice in every moment is therapeutic.

No assists: Physical adjustments in hip openers are contraindicated for trauma survivors. Touch in the hip/pelvis region can trigger traumatic associations regardless of the teacher’s intention.

Exit options: Always offer modifications that reduce intensity, and explicitly state that leaving the posture at any time is acceptable and encouraged.

Titration: Brief holds (30-60 seconds) rather than extended holds (3-5 minutes) for trauma survivors. The goal is to approach the edge of the container without exceeding it. Longer holds can overwhelm the nervous system’s capacity to integrate the material that surfaces.

Integration time: After deep hip work, provide restorative postures (Supta Baddha Konasana, Constructive Rest Position) and extended Savasana. The nervous system needs time to integrate what has been released.

Therapeutic partnership: Deep hip opening as trauma work is best done in the context of ongoing psychotherapy (particularly somatic experiencing, EMDR, or IFS) where the material that surfaces can be processed with professional support.

The Fascia-Emotion Connection

Why does connective tissue store emotion? Several mechanisms have been proposed:

Piezoelectric Signaling

Fascia contains piezoelectric collagen fibers that generate electrical signals when deformed. Chronic fascial contraction produces chronic electrical signaling that may maintain autonomic activation patterns. Release of the fascia releases the electrical pattern — and with it, the associated autonomic state and its emotional correlate.

Interoceptive Afferents

Fascia is richly innervated with C-fibers — slow, unmyelinated sensory fibers that carry interoceptive information (deep pressure, temperature, chemical changes) to the insular cortex. The insular cortex is the brain’s primary center for interoceptive processing AND for emotional awareness. Fascial release generates a flood of interoceptive signals that the insular cortex processes as emotional experience.

Myofascial Memory

Schleip (2003) demonstrated that fascia contains contractile cells (myofibroblasts) that can maintain sustained contraction independent of neural input — analogous to smooth muscle. This means that fascia can hold tension patterns autonomously, without the nervous system actively contracting it. These tension patterns may persist for years after the original stimulus (trauma, injury, chronic stress) has passed.

Integration with Somatic Therapy

Hip-opening yoga work integrates naturally with several somatic therapy modalities:

Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine): SE works with the body’s trauma responses through titrated exposure to activation, pendulation between activation and calm, and the completion of incomplete fight-or-flight responses. Hip openers provide the physical context for completing flight responses (releasing the psoas from its chronic “ready to run” contraction).

EMDR: Some EMDR practitioners report that incorporating hip-opening yoga between EMDR sessions accelerates processing by releasing the somatic component of traumatic memories between cognitive processing sessions.

IFS (Internal Family Systems): In IFS terms, the chronically contracted psoas is a protector — a firefighter or manager that is holding the body in a state of readiness to protect against a threat that may no longer exist. Hip opening is a form of “unburdening” — releasing the protector from its chronic role and restoring flexibility.

Testable Hypotheses

1. Psoas length (measured by the Thomas test) will correlate negatively with scores on the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) questionnaire — more childhood trauma predicts shorter psoas length.
2. A 12-week hip-opening yoga program will reduce PTSD symptom severity (PCL-5) in a population with known trauma history.
3. fMRI during deep hip opening (sustained Pigeon pose) will show activation of the insular cortex and amygdala, consistent with interoceptive-emotional processing of stored somatic content.

References

• Koch, L. (2012). The Psoas Book (3rd ed.). Guinea Pig Publications.
• Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. North Atlantic Books.
• Schleip, R. (2003). Fascial plasticity — a new neurobiological explanation. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 7(1), 11-19.
• van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.
• Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. W. W. Norton.