On Wednesday, I wrote about my initial sacroiliac joint injury and the general mechanisms for common issues with SI joint issues. After my injury, the next step was to seek out a manual therapist who released the tissues surrounding my right hip along with a gentle adjustment of the SI joint and pubic bone. This was painless.

Immediately after, I was standing with equal weight in both my legs, my belly button more centered, and the creak in my neck disappeared quickly thereafter. I still had plenty of issues in my tissues, including unyielding adductors, QLs and piriformis that were just working too hard, all the time, but this was a huge step forward.

Nowadays, I maintain a regular routine with my Yoga Tune Up® Therapy balls to decongest my tissues. I especially love using the Alpha Ball to take a tour of my pelvis. Check out this great Yoga Tune Up® self-massage video for a wonderful release for your piriformis and all of the muscles that run from your sacrum to femur. While Jill demonstrates in the video with the YTU Therapy Balls, feel free to experiment with any size of Roll Model Therapy Ball. 

While therapy balls help, releasing the tissues is only part of the solution. After you seek professional help from a Sports Medicine PT or Osteopath, it’s a good idea to follow a stability program that should become part of your lifestyle so that you don’t find yourself on your therapist’s table any time soon. Here are my three favourite sacroiliac joint exercises to strengthen your core and stabilize the SIJ for the long haul.

Do them regularly, completing as many repetitions as you can while maintaining good form, and you will find the stability and strength that will hug your sacroiliac joints in place and help prevent back pain.

 

Bridge Lifts

This pose is a bang for your buck. You will strengthen your legs, pelvic floor, gluteal muscles and core muscles, all of which are key to stabilizing your pelvis and spine. In addition, this can also open up the front body, including the psoas.

Shalabhasana Mini Vini

I like to think of this minivini as reverse bridge lift, the only difference being that you are on your belly. This upper back strengthening pose requires the core muscles to switch on to stabilize the pelvis and spine. It asks that you move from your thoracic spine without compressing the lumbar spine, much like in Bridge Lifts.

Lower Back Strengthening QuickFix for Back Pain Relief

Strengthen your entire torso, especially your transverse abdominus, internal obliques and quadratus lumborum on the side that is shortening. On the other side, you will traction those muscles away from the pelvis, creating more space for you to move with ease.

 

Whether or not you’ve experienced an SIJ injury, it is important for joint health to maintain mobility and stability in all ranges of movement, not just the ones you do continually on a daily basis. Give these exercises a try and let me know what you think!

 

Enjoyed this article? Read Finding Center by Mastering the Midline

Comments (64)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *