Wholesome SI Joint: Half 2

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

There might properly be extra the explanation why SI joint dysfunction is widespread amongst yoga practitioners that I haven’t but encountered. (I welcome your ideas in case you’ve skilled SI joint ache from a motion apart from those I checklist beneath.) And there are actually different issues we do in our day by day lives which will trigger issues. For instance, actions resembling improper lifting, shoveling snow and traumatic accidents can destabilize the joint. However there are particular actions we follow often in yoga that may trigger SI joint dysfunction.

Listed here are those I’ve recognized to this point:

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

Wholesome SI Joint Follow

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 start, 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 principal perform of transferring drive 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 towards the anterior rims of the hip sockets. This could 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.

Decide Your SI Joint Place

Probably the most dependable approach to know whether or not your pelvis, and due to this fact your SI joint, is in a impartial place is to develop an inside reference for what correct positioning looks like. An out of doors observer, resembling a yoga trainer, 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 could be vast 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, in reality, be tucking the tailbone. Right here’s an exploration to strive:

1. Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) along with your toes hips-width aside.
2. Place your fingertips on the prime of your thighs, on the hip crease.
3. Tuck your tailbone and palpate the tissue on the hip crease. Word how this tissue feels. It’s going to seemingly really feel taut and onerous.
4. Start to attract the heads of the thighbones again, guiding them gently along with your fingertips. You’ll seemingly really feel as in case 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. In the event you tilt too far ahead, the tissues will really feel slack. So when the tissues really feel not too tight, or not too free, you’re in all probability within the ballpark.

Wag Your Tail for Blissful Hips

One other means of figuring out your sacral place is to test to see in case you can “wag your tail,” transferring your buttocks aspect to aspect.

1. First, stand in Tadasana and tuck your tailbone. Attempt to wag your tail. Your pelvis will seemingly 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. In the event you can wag your pelvis back and forth, your pelvis is probably going in impartial and your sacrum can sit securely within the joint.

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

In the event you’re thinking about extra detailed information in regards to the hips and SI joints, learn my most up-to-date ebook: Hip-Wholesome Asana: A Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache. The ebook consists of an efficient methodology for academics to check pelvic place with their college students.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook 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 Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.