Have you ever ever felt a pinching sensation in your pelvis, a number of inches beneath your waist? If that’s the case, you’re not alone. From my expertise, and that of a pair internationally touring academics I do know, ache within the sacroiliac, a.ok.a. SI joint is among the commonest complaints of yoga practitioners of all expertise ranges.

The SI joint is the assembly place between the sacrum and the ilium. The sacrum is a triangular-shaped bone that extends off the lumbar backbone and ends within the coccyx (tailbone). In different phrases, it’s the bottom portion of your backbone. The 2 sides pelvic bones make up the ilia. The place the sacrum and ilia meet within the ilia is the SI joint.

The SI Joint: Cellular Stability

Donna Farhi calls the SI joint a joint of “cellular stability.” What this implies is that whereas it does have some mobility—about 1 to three millimeters of motion functionality—its main operate is stability. The SI joint is the hub for the transmission of pressure from the decrease to the higher physique and the higher to the decrease physique. To ensure that pressure to maneuver by way of the joint easily, the joint should be in integrity. Which means the sacrum should be firmly seated within the ilium for optimum stability.

3 Yoga Practices that Could Contribute to SI Joint Dysfunction

What could cause the SI joint to lose integrity? Right here are some things I’ve realized over the many years of instructing yoga, and experiencing my very own continual SI joint ache:

Tucking the Tailbone

The sacrum seats firmly into the ilium when it’s tilted ahead at roughly a 30-degree angle. After we tuck the tailbone, the sacrum strikes right into a extra vertical place, which causes the sacrum to lose its agency contact.

Squaring the Hips

The outdated, however persistent, instruction to sq. the hips in asymmetrical standing poses corresponding to Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) or the Warrior poses is considered one of yoga’s most potent SI joint destabilizers. Nobody’s hips are designed to do that. Whenever you attempt to sq. the hips in asymmetrical standing poses, one thing has to offer—the knees, the hip joints and/or the SI joint. Variations within the placement, depth and orientation of particular person hip sockets makes this instruction much more fraught, notably when you or your college students have hip joints that don’t externally rotate simply.

Too A lot Concentrate on Hip Opening

Trendy yoga appears to fetishize hip hypermobility. If you concentrate on it, the hips—which embody the hip joints, SI joints and pubic symphysis—must be steady above all. They’re supporting the load of our our bodies as we transfer by way of our lives. An excessive amount of flexibility destabilizes the joints by over stretching the ligaments.

Ligaments would not have the blood provide and due to this fact, the “reminiscence” that muscle tissue has. In different phrases, once we over stretch ligaments, they don’t get better their unique size; they keep overstretched. Then the muscle tissue should kick in to do the job of stabilizing the joint, which truly causes them to tighten. Right here’s one piece of recommendation that would assist everybody protect their SI joints: Disabuse your self of the concept placing your ankle behind your head is an effective factor. There’s no motive ever to do that. This pose destabilizes the hip joints and the SI joints and might put on down the cartilage in your hip joints. Even when it feels high-quality whilst you’re doing it, don’t!

So, on this submit, I’ve outlined some yoga practices that may contribute to SI joint dysfunction. In coming posts, I’ll provide some methods to observe asana to assist alleviate the ache from SI joint dysfunction and methods to forestall additional harm.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed 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 folks sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards in 2010.