Tight Hip, Twisted Core: The Key to Unresolved Pain - by Koth, Christine and Pimas, Masha (Paperback, Aug 13, 2019) Paperback

Iliopsoas, iliacus, psoas, hip... the hip I knew about.I found Ms. month's book informative, easy to understand, and useful.The exercises are easy to follow and apply. As an ice hockey goaltender in me early 60s, it natural to feel some aches, pain, and stiffness in the hips and lower back. Understanding how our body is built, then why the pain occurs, naturally leads to curiosity for relief, and this book delivers. Applying the simple terms and using supporting diagrams for direction, has made my life after play, much better. Using this information has also assisted me in making changes in daily activities, so I move a lot more easily.I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in having more mobility and less pain in all of your physical activities.

I stayed up until midnight and I binge read this entire book last night (the first book in my entire 30 years I ever binged).It is the first time in the past few months I have cried tears of joy instead of tears of pain and frustration. Everything shared in this book has described my situation to a tee.Following reading the book, I immediately ordered the Hip Hook Release Tool as well as the Ball. This book and these tools have changed my life to say the least.Update: Words cannot describe the first time I used this tool. After 90 seconds of placing this tool on my psoas/illiacus, I instantly felt a release or almost melting feeling of the muscle. I then realigned my pelvis according to the book and stood up to walk around. Wow! My lower back tightness disappeared, my knee and my over pronated foot went into a better position. I still have some work to do in terms of strengthening due to these misalignment issues however, I now know what direction to go in and I will be referencing the book and using the Hip Hook routinely in my practice. I will be sharing the book and tool with my PT because knowledge is power :)My Story:I noticed my right hip felt extremely tight specifically, my hip flexors. It didn’t matter how much I stretched, foam rolled or used a tennis ball I could not get rid of that uncomfortable tightness. That night, I experienced a sharp pain on my right inner thigh. It went away the next morning luckily so I thought nothing of it. Over the next couple of weeks, I began experiencing what I perceived as nerve pain on my right leg and when I would walk I felt misaligned like one leg was longer than the other. It was then I decided to refer out to Physical Therapy. My Physical Therapist suspected I had FAI, pelvic obliquity and lumbar spine derangement. Halfway through my first phase of PT, my PT seemed stumped of why I had new referred pain and why some modalities I would respond successfully to and then the next session, it would not work. I decided to make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to get a second opinion on my hip. After observation and testing, he concluded there were no signs of hip impingement and my hip seemed functional. Additionally, my lumbar spine MRI was unremarkable. I completed my first 12 visit phase of PT with significantly decreased pain and increased mobility of my hip. I was relieved to be almost pain-free but something still did not feel right with my body. I felt lopsided, my gait was off, when looking down at my legs I looked misaligned and my right knee had difficulty tracking in its groove.Seeing all of these specialists who told me I’m not sure what was going on was an extremely frustrating process and left me perplexed. Being a clinician myself, I felt there were so many puzzle pieces that were not connecting together. I decided to take a different route and looked into seeing a chiropractor whospecialized in postural neurology. After hearing my story, my chiropractor suspected all of my concerns were related to my posture. The chiropractor stated I presented with functional leg length discrepancy, lordosis, right QL tightness, and had a right collapsed flat foot. For two weeks and presently (3x/ a week), I would receive adjustments and practicing diaphragmatic breathing, however, I was still experiencing the same “misaligned” feeling after leaving the office. At our last session, she stated, “Your psoas muscles are so tight. Your right psoas muscle is staying contracted for some reason.”After leaving her office, I went home and researched psoas stretches and how to release the psoas muscle. The more I researched the more I realized static stretching would only help temporarily.A video of the Hip Hook and book popped up on my Instagram and the rest is history.Thank you so much Christine!

I'm a competitive powerlifter and this book has helped so much. After reading just the first chapter I was able to identify my iliopsoas. Then I immediately ordered a psoas release tool off of Amazon and started laying on it before and after training. Not only is pain now gone, but I can squat deeper. Which this book suggests you avoid. But that's the sport I do, so now I've learned that the least I can do is tend to this muscle group diligently. Now when I get bodywork, we don't spend the whole session on hip release. Great info, everybody who is in sport should know this.

I've had a lifetime of foot pain and several years of recurring knee pain, hip pain, lower back pain, arch pain, metatarsal pain, and plantar fasciitis. The pain would move from one area to another, go away inexplicably, and then come back again over and over again. Most recently, I've had excruciating hip and glute pain that prevented me from walking, and a feeling that one leg is longer than the other. The traditional medical community basically failed me. The podiatrist only considered my feet. A sports orthopedist had no interest in a middle aged woman who didn't have an extreme sports injury, and PT only focused on a one body part at a time -- hip OR knee. I started a journey to find out what was happening in my body and why.I first discovered the work of Katy Bowman (Move Your DNA). Aha! Interesting ... alignment and load can create pain and issues in different parts of the body. Her work is fascinating and entertaining, well worth exploring, but a little science geeky and not as approachable as I would like. Then I accidentally came across Tight Hip, Twisted Core on Amazon and bought it immediately. Every page, every symptom, every diagram was like looking in a mirror. I read it as fast as I could. It's easy to read, conversational, and the science is easy to grasp. I couldn't wait to get to the "fix". Even before I got to the section on the exercises and pressure points, I tried just applying pressure to the recommended areas and painful tissues with my thumb. Instant relief! I even watched as I pressed an area on my upper thigh, felt an energy flow into my foot, and saw my ankle swelling go down before my eyes. I am a believer!I ordered the small orange ball that is available with the program (also Amazon). I just received it so have not yet done the movements with the ball, but I have done the pelvic alignment exercise several times today and have no pain at the end of a long day at my desk. The movements are so gentle, easy and short that they will be easy to incorporate into my day. I'm looking forward to what a more regular application of the program will bring. I will put off investing in the Hip Hook until I see what kind of relief I can get using the ball. If this sounds like your story, I encourage you to read this book.