Wholesome SI Joint: Half 2

I lately wrote a submit on the widespread downside of sacroiliac (SI) joint dysfunction amongst yoga practitioners. Within the submit, I outlined a number of of the causes I’ve noticed over greater than 40 years of educating and working towards yoga asana. In in the present day’s submit, we’ll discover the right way to stop the primary of those causes of SI joint issues.

There might nicely be extra explanation why SI joint dysfunction is frequent amongst yoga practitioners that I haven’t but encountered. (I welcome your ideas should you’ve skilled SI joint ache from a motion aside from those I record under.) And there are actually different issues we do in our day by day lives which will trigger issues. For instance, actions akin to improper lifting, shoveling snow and traumatic accidents can destabilize the joint. However there are particular actions we observe usually in yoga that may trigger SI joint dysfunction.

Listed below are those I’ve recognized thus far:

• Tucking the tailbone
• Squaring the hips in asymmetrical standing poses akin to Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) and the Warrior poses, and in twists
• An excessive amount of give attention to hip opening

Wholesome SI Joint Apply

Untucking the Tailbone: The hip system is made up of three joints—the hip joints, the SI joint and the pubic symphysis. The place of every of those joints impacts the integrity of the others. (The pubic symphysis is motionless besides throughout beginning, so I’m going to give attention to the opposite two right here.)

For the sacrum to seat securely within the ilium, it ought to sit at roughly a 30-degree angle in order that the highest tilts ahead. Because of this the pelvic rim must tilt ahead with the tailbone pointing again. When the sacrum is seated within the joint, the SI joint can carry out its foremost operate of transferring pressure from the legs to the higher physique and vice versa. After we tuck the tailbone, we lose that connection. As well as, over time, tucking the tailbone can destabilize the joint because the ligaments that maintain the joint collectively are overstretched.

The sacral/pelvic place has necessary implications for the SI joint and for the hip joints, in addition to the backbone and the knees. After we tuck the tailbone, the heads of the femurs push up in opposition to the anterior rims of the hip sockets. This may put on down the cartilage and labrum of the hip joints over time. As well as, after we tuck the tailbone and push the thighbones ahead, the knees hyperextend. Lastly, tucking the tailbone straightens out the lumbar curve.

Easy methods to Decide Your SI Joint Place

Probably the most dependable strategy to know whether or not your pelvis, and subsequently your SI joint, is in a impartial place is to develop an inside reference for what correct positioning seems like. An out of doors observer, akin to a yoga instructor, can’t essentially decide your place just by taking a look at it. It is because the form of particular person sacrum bones is very variable. Sacrum bones might be huge or slim, triangular or comparatively straight sided, and the profile of the bone could also be curved or straight. So for instance, somebody with a curvy sacrum could look as if she is tilting the sacrum ahead however could, actually, be tucking the tailbone. Right here’s an exploration to strive:

1. Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) together with your toes hips-width aside.
2. Place your fingertips on the high of your thighs, on the hip crease.
3. Tuck your tailbone and palpate the tissue on the hip crease. Be aware how this tissue feels. It is going to doubtless really feel taut and laborious.
4. Start to attract the heads of the thighbones again, guiding them gently together with your fingertips. You’ll doubtless really feel as should you’re sticking your butt out.
5. Now palpate the tissue. In case your pelvis is in a impartial place, you’ll really feel a little bit of finish spring within the tissues on the hip crease. Should you tilt too far ahead, the tissues will really feel slack. So when the tissues really feel not too tight, or not too unfastened, you’re most likely within the ballpark.

Wag Your Tail for Blissful Hips

One other approach of figuring out your sacral place is to examine to see should you can “wag your tail,” shifting your buttocks aspect to aspect.

1. First, stand in Tadasana and tuck your tailbone. Attempt to wag your tail. Your pelvis will doubtless keep stationery and your higher physique will transfer aspect to aspect.
2. Then tilt your pelvic rim ahead to the purpose the place the tissues within the hip crease really feel springy however not slack. Now attempt to wag your tail. Should you can wag your pelvis backward and forward, your pelvis is probably going in impartial and your sacrum can sit securely within the joint.

Keep tuned for the following in my SI joint sequence, the place I’ll talk about why to not sq. your hips in asymmetrical standing poses.

Should you’re eager about extra detailed information concerning the hips and SI joints, learn my most up-to-date e book: Hip-Wholesome Asana: A Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache. The e book consists of an efficient methodology for lecturers to check pelvic place with their college students.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.