Reciprocal inhibition!

I've begun working on some new choreography this past weekend and it's been a while since some of my dancers have been in rehearsal with me.  Needless to say, they were a little out of shape!  One of my dancers and I were walking up the stairs from the train to head home following rehearsal, and she had some intense pain in her hip flexor (psoas). 

As she was walking I told her to contract, or squeeze, her butt muscles -- this will help to release the muscles in the front of the hips as she walks.  This is called reciprocal inhibition and it's great for us to know about and use to encourage muscle relaxation!

Our muscles work in pairs: the prime mover, or the muscle doing the work, is called the agonist.  The muscle that opposes that muscle is called the antagonist.  Sort of like when doing an arm curl the bicep is the agonist and the tricep is the antagonist -- one is contracting (in this case the agonist is the bicep) and one is lengthening (in this case the antagonist is the tricep.)  If we tense up one of those, it inhibits the other from muscle contraction and it will cause the other to release.  In the case of my dancer, her hip flexor was tight so we tensed up the antagonist (glutes or butt) to inhibit muscle contraction and to encourage relaxation in her hip flexor. 

Happy relaxing!