{"podcast":{"title":"The Thinking Practitioner","slug":"the-thinking-practitioner-958450","podcast_index_feed_id":958450,"rss_url":"https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/feed.xml","website_url":"https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/6037716/ttp_cover_art_1400x1400px_20191001al.jpg","author":"Til Luchau & Whitney Lowe","episode_count":175,"summary":"For the practitioner who’s never stopped being curious. Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe bring together leading researchers, master clinicians, and big questions from across bodywork, massage, and manual therapy — exploring not just what we do with our hands, but why it works and how to do it better. Smart, grounded, and genuinely useful conversations for the somatic arts and sciences. For professional practitioners in bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, chiropractic, myofascial and myotherapy, orthopedics, sports massage, physical therapy, and osteopathy — as well as yoga, strength and conditioning, and allied professions. This podcast is not medical or treatment advice.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T18:19:44.451763+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450"},"episode":{"title":"159: Can You Really Palpate the Psoas? (with Christopher DaPrato)","slug":"159-can-you-really-palpate-the-psoas-with-christopher-daprato","published_at":"2025-12-10T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/159-can-you-really-palpate-the-psoas-with-christopher-daprato","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450","url":"https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/e/159-gpt/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/7phn6fxvpawhf9yy/TTP_159_audio_20251201bv19o.mp3","summary":"🎙 Can You Really Palpate the Psoas? MRI Evidence, Clinical Debate & a Bonus Visit from the Researcher Can manual therapists actually palpate the psoas, or is it anatomically out of reach? In this episode, Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe unpack a new real-time MRI pilot study presented at the 7th International Fascia Research Congress by UCSF physical therapist Christopher DaPrato and colleagues. The study offers rare imaging-based insight into what really happens when we try to touch this deep, controversial muscle. And at the end, Christopher drops in for a brief bonus segment to share safety insights and his hopes for future research. The debate around psoas palpation has become a kind of proxy war in manual therapy — between pain-science and movement educators who question highly specific anatomical claims, and hands-on practitioners who have used psoas work for decades and find it clinically meaningful. This conversation explores how DaPrato’s imaging helps reframe that debate. In this episode, they discuss:- Why psoas palpation has become a flashpoint debate and a stand-in for deeper philosophical disagreements in the field- How DaPrato’s team used dynamic MRI to observe what happens under the hands during attempted psoas palpation- What the images showed about depth, tissue layers, and muscle deformation when pressure is applied- The surprising finding that even a higher-BMI participant showed clear psoas shape change under palpation- How viscera behaved under pressure — including what the study suggests about visceral compression and safety- Clinical implications for angle, depth, and pressure when working in the anterior hip/abdominal region- The role of tools like the PSO-RITE compared with hand palpation, and what may (or may not) be interchangeable- How this…","meta_description":"🎙 Can You Really Palpate the Psoas? MRI Evidence, Clinical Debate & a Bonus Visit from the Researcher Can manual therapists actually palpate the psoas…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1853,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/episodes/159-can-you-really-palpate-the-psoas-with-christopher-daprato/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/159-can-you-really-palpate-the-psoas-with-christopher-daprato.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}