In general, the sacroiliac (SI) joints connect your hip bones to your lower spine. But do you ever think what would happen if you get injuries in SI joints? Your legs and hips will lock into a place and you will feel pain and difficulty in moving. Now, you might ask what are the exact causes of it. There are lots of factors that can lead to sacroiliitis including trauma, arthritis, pregnancy, and many infections. But if you focus on some good quality exercises, you can get rid of SI joint pain very easily. Let’s learn about them in this blog.
Exercises for SI Joint Pain Relief
Apart from yoga, many more exercises for SI joint pain are equally beneficial. Some of them are as follows:
The Pelvic Tilt:
Being one of the effective sacroiliac joint exercises, it involves laying on the back with bent knees and feet on the floor. After that, you have to use your abdominal muscles to push your lower back into the floor. You can hold this for 8 seconds and try repeating it 10 times.
Quadruped Arm/Leg Raise:
Begin on your hands and knees (Can be done on a bed if needed for cushioning). Raise your left arm and extend your right leg at the same time. Hold this position for 8 seconds and then switch to your right arm and left leg.
Side Plank:
In a side plank, you need to lay on your right side with your right arm out for support. After that, lift your hips off the ground. At this time, only your feet and arm should be touching the ground. Hold this for 8 seconds. If you repeat it 10 times for both the right and left sides, it is one of the useful SI joint pain exercises.
Cat and Camel:
This is a very interesting exercise where the person needs to arch his/ her back alternatively between hands and knees. After that, he/ she dips it by holding each position for at least 8 seconds. If you want to improve flexibility and let go of pain, the 10 repetitions of cat and camel are a must.
Yoga Exercises for SI Pain Relief
The practitioners say that yoga is an exercise for the whole body. Those who cannot go to gyms daily can perform yoga for 20-25 minutes and experience whole-body relief in no time. If we talk about sacroiliitis, yoga is one of the best sacroiliac joint pain relief exercises. To treat the problem, you need to focus on mainly stretching exercises. Let us have a look at some below:
Child’s Pose:
This is one of the most helpful SI joint exercises that is specifically for stretching the lower back and hips. To perform a child’s pose, you need to start on your hands and knees, then sit back on your heels while extending your arms forward. For long-term results, you can hold this pose for 20-30 seconds, breathing deeply.
Bridge Pose:
Bridge pose is also one of the useful stretches for SI joint pain that helps strengthen your lower back and the glutes. To perform a bridge pose, you need to lay on your back with your knees bent and feet standing flat on the floor. After that, you need to lift your hips upwards (towards the ceiling) and squeeze your glutes. If you perform this pose for 8-10 seconds before lowering, it works very well.
Sacroiliac Joint Pain Exercises to Avoid
Along with the best exercises for SI joint pain, there are some important exercises to avoid with sacroiliac joint pain. It is equally important to know what exercises not to perform as to perform. Let us have a look at some of the avoidable exercises during SI pain:
High-Impact Activities:
If you have severe pain in the sacroiliac joint, then you need to avoid running, jumping, and other high-impact activities. These exercises can worsen the pain even more. Instead of these, you can go with low-impact activities such as swimming, cycling, etc.
Heavy Weightlifting:
Always keep in mind that if you lift heavy weights in SI pain, it can impact your back portion and hips. As a result, your SI pain will increase a lot. That’s why, you need to avoid these kinds of heavy weight lifting exercises and focus on bodyweight exercises or light weights.
Treatment for SI Pain
Now, let us understand how we can treat SI pain in addition to performing these stretches for sacroiliac joint pain:
Physical Therapy:
You can go for physical therapy specifically designed to strengthen the muscles and support the SI joints.
Medications:
If you are experiencing a lot of pain, there are many pain-relief medicines available such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen. For severe cases, we recommend consulting a doctor first.
Lifestyle Changes:
Also, your eating and drinking habits, posture, and sleeping schedule are one of the important treatments for SI pain.
Conclusion
Overall, you can treat SI pain with the help of yoga and stretching poses. But a small kind of carelessness can cost a lot. Yes, it can even worsen your joint pain. So, learn about the poses before directly jumping to perform them. Additionally, take care of your lifestyle habits: eat well, drink enough water, and sleep properly or you can also get professional advice or Medicare Chiropractic services in The Villages at Legacy Clinic of Chiropractic.