Movements to protect the Sacroiliac SI Joints

 

Imagine: We’re sitting in a swivel chair and if we want to turn to reach something we turn on the chair so we swivel at the pelvis, torso, neck and the arm reaches out. We wouldn’t lock the chair into not move which we could say is our pelvis locked in to be squared off and then rotate our upper body only. In our lower back /lumbar spine there is little rotation available and even less in the SI Joints.

In a yoga pose if we lock our pelvis in to be squared off – it’s going to make it difficult to rotate and put more pressure on the spine, SI joints and then we over-rotate the neck to compensate to get movements around into poses.

In moving into poses, let’s say Trikonasana, Paravritti Trik(Twisted Trik) or our open lunge Virabhadrasana II and Parsvakonasana (side angle stretch), we need to have some rotation in the hips to allow an openness to get into the pose. i.e.: so let the lower back, sacrum and pelvis be in agreement of where they are moving to – not locking in the hips and trying to rotate in the legs and body only.

The Sacrum can start to corkscrew and the lumbar facets can jam up causing the pain in this lower area of the back – not actually the spine but the SI joints.

So in poses start to let your hips have a little more movement and see if this releases any pain you may be feeling from jamming up your SI joints by trying to keep the pelvis squared.

Source: Donna Farhi

Trikonasana: How to:

• When turning to your front foot, make sure your front foot is at 90 degrees
• Then align the front foot, shin, knee and femur (upper bone leg) all in one line.
• For this to happen the back foot needs to be turned in approx 20-30 degrees so you’re not jamming/torsioning the SI joints.
• You will need to allow the turning in of the back foot to help let the hip come around to release pressure.
• If you try and keep your hips squared;
  • In the front leg the head of the femur will turn back in the pelvis – not good for your hip,
  • Then the front knee will twist in and collapse ( not good for the knee) and
  • The front of the SI joint will be getting jammed open and pinching then into the back of the joint -causing discomfort and inflammation.
  • This has a detrimental affect of the SI stability.
• Let the pelvis organise itself around the leg so you can then lean the body and protect the SI joint.