A familiar injury: the psoas
Those annoying issues that show up from time to time
It didn’t take long: on the first slightly heavier deadlift session, I injured my right iliopsoas. The iliopsoas consists of the psoas major and the iliacus. It is the strongest hip flexor, it is easy to injure and hard to treat. I’ve had problems with both iliopsoas (right and left) forever, I believe from my days as a fencer.
The psoas major originates along the outer surfaces of the T12 and L1–L3 and their intervertebral discs, and the stabbing pain in the kidney area doesn’t let me forget it. It crosses the hip joint to insert on the lesser trochanter of the femur, which is where the groin pain comes from.
I don’t know what kind of injury I did to my psoas this time, and I will never know it. Could be one of many. It is just another annoying psoas injury. I have lost count how many times I hurt the psoas while deadlifting. It’s usually the left side, but I’ve had at least one right side injury that was suspected to be appendicitis.
They are two tiny muscles, but hurting either of them has kept me away from the majority of exercises for dozens of weeks over my athletic career. Because of its location, it’s an injury that impairs most movements.
It’s clearly not a big tear, and it’s more than just a tweak. In the past, I would guess three weeks for full recovery, with good chance of getting it right. Now I don’t have a clue. I don’t know how recovery works anymore for me.
Sounds like I have more time to work on benching and upper body work.