At a recent yoga class, the instructor dismissed us with a friendly reminder to flex our “spiritual muscles.” I thought she was joking, but she even had a name for it, which I can’t remember now. Is it true? Do we really have spiritual muscles?

Yes, if you view body/mind/spirit as one, not separate. I bet the muscle your yoga instructor was referring to is the psoas (pronounced so-as). Psoas is short for iliopsoas, a muscle in the hip flexor group that is important for standing, walking, and running.

The psoas is the deepest muscle of the body and affects structural balance, muscular integrity, flexibility, strength, range of motion, joint mobility, and organ function. The psoas is the only muscle that connects the spine to the legs; it allows us to lift our legs so that we can walk. It is not uncommon for yoga classes to begin and end with hip opening poses that involve the psoas and other flexors.