by Jean McClelland

Cuore in Italian, coeur in French and cor in Latin: all three words mean the same thing—heart. Our core muscles are the “heart and soul” of our body. Every day we are bombarded with information on how “strengthening our core” can reduce back pain, lead to a flatter abdominal wall, and even reduce anxiety, fatigue and intestinal issues. In our zealousness to obtain this nirvana, we do a myriad of exercises designed to strengthen this area by contracting the outer abdominal muscles with endless “crunches.” 

An Alexander Technique (AT) teacher understands the core muscles of the body in a somewhat different way. In Alexander, we help our students bring to consciousness the synergy between the muscles of postural support and the respiratory muscles. The psoas muscles are the muscles of posture and movement, and they intersect with the diaphragm at the solar plexus. This connection between the psoas and the diaphragm forms the true support for our body and gives us fuller respiration, a stronger voice, and greater flexibility. Most discomfort in the body—especially back pain—is caused by a shortened psoas. Lessons in the Alexander Technique encourage the lengthening of the psoas which, in turn, tones the outer abdominal muscles. No crunches needed!

It was the ancient Greeks who named these “muscles of the loin” the psoas. The psoai influence all the major muscle groups of the body and are involuntary. Voluntary muscles can be controlled by our conscious thought—for example, chopping vegetables or lifting weights. Involuntary muscles work mostly unconsciously; they “whisper” to us. They are intuited. Respiratory muscles are also mostly involuntary and are controlled by the autonomic nervous system. In AT, we become consciously aware of these muscles, and when we connect to them, we engage our full body in everything we do.

Our bodies have two psoas muscles, one attached to each leg. The psoas muscles link the legs to the sides of the lumbar spine. The psoas muscle goes from the twelfth thoracic vertebra—located around the bottom of the ribcage—and descends down the side of the lumbar spine, crosses over the hip joint, and inserts at the lesser trochanter at the neck of the femur. 

Since our psoas muscles are crucially involved in posture, we can start by observing how we are sitting. Is there evidence of slumping down into the chair? Slumping is a fatiguing posture that strains the neck and back and shortens the psoas. Instead of tensing and fixing our bodies to sit up straight, we can imagine our chair is an elevator platform rising up underneath us. We may put a small pillow or a folded-up towel behind our back so that when leaning against the pillow, we will be supported. This helps us become “comfortably erect” which will not only greatly improve posture, but it will also lengthen and strengthen the psoas muscles.

In the next few issues, we will discover more ways to uncover and strengthen our core muscles.

Submit your questions on how to use your body more efficiently on the contact form at JeanMcClellandVoice.com.

Jean McClelland is on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Acting at Columbia University and a guest lecturer in the music department at William Paterson University. She is an AmSAT certified senior teacher of the Alexander Technique and studied with Carl Stough at his Institute for Breathing Coordination. She is one of fewer than a dozen people worldwide personally selected by Stough to teach his work. In addition, she has performed extensively in musical theater and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. She teaches in-person at One Spirit Learning Alliance, in addition to other in-person and virtual private lessons and group classes.