5 Steps to Relieve SI Joint Pain (sacroiliitis)
Do you have a pain in your butt region? A real nagging pain that gets worse when you try to put on pants, stand up, or take walks? Do you feel like your sacrum is “tweaky” or “off”? These are classic symptoms of sacroiliac joint (SI/SIJ) pain. SI joint exercises can help resolve the SIJ dysfunction.
What Is Sacroiliitis?
Sacroiliac joint pain is frequently misdiagnosed as sciatica, but it is not sciatica at all. While they both can cause discomfort in your butt region, the pathology behind each is different. SI joint dysfunction often looks like lower back pain, pain radiating into one leg or two, butt pain on one side (or both), just like sciatica.
Sacroiliitis has a variety of causes ; knowing what aggravates the SIJ is key to resolving SIJ pain.
What Are the Causes of Sacroiliac Joint Pain?
The sacroiliac joint is where the two halves of the pelvis meet the sacrum. The sacrum and pelvis are connected by strong ligaments. The joint is normally very stable, as it is responsible for transferring weight and forces between the spine & the pelvis. Because it is so important for movements like walking and climbing stairs, having a sacroiliac joint injury can feel debilitating.
What can aggravate the SIJ (not a comprehensive list):
- Stability/mobility issue of the sacroiliac joint. Sometimes you’ll notice that the pain is more intense on the side of your sacrum that moves more easily.
- Overstretched ligaments
- An upslip of one pelvic half
- Lack of lumbar spine mobility
- Asymmetrical movements
- Unbalanced muscles or tight muscles on one side
- Spinal twists where the pelvis is kept stable
- Stretching the hips excessively in external rotation- like pigeon pose or number 4 stretch
In a well-balanced sacroiliac joint, twisting movements, asymmetrical movements, standing for long periods of time, etc., are not problems. Usually a great orthopedic doc or a PT can help you determine whether you are suffering from SIJ pain or sciatica. Exercises that can help a sciatica issue can often make an SIJ issue worse, so it is best to be clear on this.
Conventional Approaches to Treating Sacroiliac Joint Pain
Physical therapy is one recommendation for treating SI joint pain. Your PT will focus on bringing balance into the muscles that move the pelvis and spine, so that you SI joint can better stay in its natural alignment. With severe SI joint pain, a special SI support belt can be helpful in finding stability until the muscles are more balanced.
Manual therapy options for SI joint pain include chiropractic care and massage therapy. A chiropractor can get your SI joint back into place, but getting the muscles around the sacrum in balance is essential for the adjustment to last. Likewise, massage therapy can release muscular tension around the joint, but PT or movement work will be necessary to sustain the changes.
Some medical practitioners will suggest steroid injections at the SI joint, or fusing the joint via surgery. Again, because determining whether the pain comes from the SI joint is complex, these options are best discussed with your doctor.
Exercises to Relieve SI Joint Pain
With sacroiliac joint issues, they key is to avoid heavy hip stretching. It seems counter-intuitive, but excessive hip and butt region stretching can actually make the joint less stable and cause more discomfort. The key to resolving SIJ issues is to identify the root causes that are pulling your SIJ out of alignment. These can include tight/tense/weak back, hip and thigh muscles. They can also include repetitive movements that we do all day as you will learn in the video below. Being mindful of how you move, changing some habits that might be causing strain to your pelvis, and learning exercises to stabilize your pelvis are all crucial to ridding yourself of SIJ issues for good. As always, movement advice does not constitute medical advice. Check in with your medical provider before you embark on a movement program.
For those who prefer reading to watching, here are tips to relief SI joint pain:
- DON’T
- Do pigeon pose (this is excessive stretching of the hip & butt and could aggravate your SIJ).
- Don’t do butterfly stretch (aka cobbler’s pose—sitting with soles of feet together and kees wide)
- Don’t do #4 stretch (piriformis stretch with ankle across opposite knee)
- DO
- Listing: standing on one side to strengthen side hips
- Warrior 3/deadlift to strengthen butt muscles
- Glute bridges: NOT a yoga bridge, in this exercise, push straight down through the heels to lift pelvis off the floor and slowly lower back down
- Stand well: Don’t hike your hips or stand only on one leg. Stand with weight evenly balanced between both feet.
- Sit well: Don’t cross your legs or sit back on your sacrum. DO sit on your sitting bones.
- Learn a self-adjustment: Lie down on your back with both feet flat on the floor. Pull one knee in toward your chest and hold with your hands. Create a push/pull: pull your knee in with your hands while you resist the pull by pushing with your leg. Hold for 5 seconds and repeat 2 times. Repeat on the other side.
More in-depth practice to relieve SI joint pain
If you’d like an even more in-depth practice that relieves SI joint pain, there’s a bonus 30-minute video included in my Restore Your Core program that walks you through a number of exercises that I do to take care of my SI joint. I’ve gotten tons of positive feedback from clients about this sequence. While the bonus is only available to those who own RYC™, the program itself is also designed to help you balance all the muscles that may affect your SI joint.