SI issues

[TheNumberNine]

Any one ever had issues with their SI joint? What helped?

[mattp]

I had a chiroKraktor who used to be able to fix me with one crack-none of this come back twice a week kind of stuff. It was always kind of scary to lie on his table, awaiting the crack, but he would send me out the door feeling pretty damn good and I didn't need to come back for a while.

 

As it turned out, he wasn't curing anything, though. I ended up having problems that have lasted many years. I still remember Dr. Bernier with fondness because nobody before or since has ever been able to produce that kind of result but it was not - in-the-end - what keeps me well today.

 

There is help - and there is help. Go for the Kraktor if you have one who helps. I've gotten benefit from acupuncture and acupressure, too. But meanwhile keep looking for long term help. For me it turned out to be "traditional" medicine.

[TheNumberNine]

How bad was your SI joint issue? Terrible? Moderate? Mild? Mine seems to be pretty mild.. I hurt it back in Oct and it went away totally but it comes back to haunt every once in a while. A few weeks ago at the climbing gym I was stretching and did a weird twist and it popped. Been giving me some trouble since...

[mattp]

I've had what I can only call "severe" issues. It gave me more than a "haunt." It made me screech. For decades. Explore your options.

[Jim]

Oh yea, big time. Chronic issue do to some back sturctural things. Chiropractors - despite their claim I've found them rather useless in this area - they all seem to revert to the same lay-on-your-side and wing away process, rather than actually diagnosing the sturctural movement of a particular issue. After a year of searching I found a PT who actually knew what he was doing. It's amazing the amoung of BS practioners out there who are willing to try anything w/o the proper background or skills. Anyway, this PT would look at the mechanics closely and slowly pop it back in place with subtle movements.

 

Probably the best advice I can give is to regularly, several times a week, work on low back and core exercises. Mine is generally in check, but wigs out once in a while. Unfortunately that great PT moved to AZ and semi-retirement. I haven't found a similar one yet, but have a line on one I'm planning on seeing soon.

[Skatan]

I've had lower back issues for years which at times has lead to muscle spasm. The only thing doctors did was prescribe meds take xray and cost me money. Finally had a doc look at me last fall said it was probably SI problem. I didn't know what the hell SI joint was. Xray showed arthrtic change in the SI joint. I guess causes pain and stiffness on my left presenting it self as muscle spasm some times. I thouht back and I had injured my back 26 years ago on a motorcycle. I have been doing the following and it helped me.

Supplements- Move free, concentrated cherry and fish oil

Foam roller ahhh

Changed around my workout regiment some added some more prehab train smarter

After a long day with a pack I'm feeling alot better than I have in the past.

Hope you find some thing that helps.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Skatan

[boadman]

Si always gives me tons of trouble too. The routes are definitely not rated for the onsight.

[KyleJ]

I have had SI issues for many years. It turns out mine was due to an underlying condition, Ankylosing Spondylitis. In times when it flares up, these stretches seem to help a bit:

There was also another that I can't find a video for... it involved laying on the floor with one leg straight, and the other leg up and bent, with the foot placed on the opposite side, over the opposing leg. You twist in the direction of the bent leg until you get a gentle pulling, and repeat that a few times.

 

Worst stretch description ever. I will edit this post if I can find a better one.

 

Good luck to you. That can be a painful spot.

 

 

[TheNumberNine]

I have had SI issues for many years. It turns out mine was due to an underlying condition, Ankylosing Spondylitis. In times when it flares up, these stretches seem to help a bit:

There was also another that I can't find a video for... it involved laying on the floor with one leg straight, and the other leg up and bent, with the foot placed on the opposite side, over the opposing leg. You twist in the direction of the bent leg until you get a gentle pulling, and repeat that a few times.

 

Worst stretch description ever. I will edit this post if I can find a better one.

 

Good luck to you. That can be a painful spot.

 

 

What's having AS like? Does it have a huge affect on what you can do or is it manageable?

 

Hope mine is just injury related...

[elaine]

NumberNine-

 

I've been dealing with mine for years until I finally found a PT that specializes in SI joint dysfunction. Many PT's will focus on a joint or area of the body that they are interested in, but have a basic level of knowledge of rehabing the whole body. So after years of do this one stretch, or strengthen that one muscle, it wasn't that I had A, B, C going on, but more like I had A, B, C, D....all the way to J going on.

 

Yours might not be as serious as mine, and I'm happy to say that I'm back to climbing, but still a little conservatively. I'm not running yet, but I hope to give that a try again this summer.

 

I definitely had an imbalance of glutes, hip flexors, deep core muscles, spinal extensors, and hamstrings. These all connect into the pelvis and SI joint area. I had a lot of compensatory issues with contracting and isolating one muscle or a group of muscles. Take spinal extension: I would lay face down on the floor and to extend my trunk ( "supermans"), but I would initiate with my hamstrings and glutes first and not my spinal extensors. Same with my core or transverse abdominus muscle and obliques. I would engage my hip flexors to set my core. I had it all wrong!

 

So I've spent lots of time on the floor doing these very simple exercises to retrain and re-educate my muscles on how to move and contract when I needed them to. Now I'm doing more advanced exercises on stability balls, bosu balls, foam rollers, etc.

 

I would find a PT that specializes in SI joint dysfunction, and sometimes you have to look to womens health type clinics. If you're in Portland, I can recommend a clinic that has 2 campuses. You may get lucky and find a chiro who can do this stuff, but I've gotten a way from those that just pop my back and neck ( which did nothing for 10 years - and I kept paying for it!), and have moved towards active release specialists who make a point to focus on muscle re-education.

 

Good luck!

[layton]

every therapy, diagnostic, stretch, etc... mentioned in this thread are taught to chiropractors, and I'm assuming to PT's also. It's not the profession, it is the practitioner.

 

No muscle actually crosses the SI joint, making it a difficult joint to stabilize. Adjustments or PT mobilizations pop it back in, but since there's nothing to keep it there, there is a chance that some other imbalance will pop it back out. Pregnant women have a hard time with this joint from relaxin, etc.

 

Here's a small checklist of things that may be causing your issue:

leg legnth inequality - functional (because of a muscle imbalance), or anatomical (one leg is longer)

Overpronation of the foot.

Lower Cross Syndrome: weak gluts and abs, tight hip flexors

 

some solutions: change footwear, orthotics, heel lift

short term therapy: adjustment, ice, electrical modalities, massage

stretch the shit out of: hams, hip flex and quads, piriformis, adductors

exercise the crap out of (and I mean 50 reps and a minute or so of isometric stability at least every day): back extensors, transverse abs(including pelvic floor), rectus abdominus, obliques, lumbar lateral flexors, gluts/leg extensors, leg abductors

 

 

anyway, chiros don't get paid like PTs do which is why, i think, there are so many bad chiros. I usually only get paid for an adjustment...and maybe a couple bucks for extra things. So chiros can't spend the time that PTs do. Hopefully the anti-discrimination in payment clause in the new healthcare bill actually gets enforced.

[layton]

p.s.

 

it's funny. if people were cars, it would be so easy to diagnose and fix these issues. but for some reason, when you toss in anatomy, the mechanic somehow becomes this amazing practitioner! My point? Start treating auto mechanics like doctors.

[KyleJ]

I have had SI issues for many years. It turns out mine was due to an underlying condition, Ankylosing Spondylitis. In times when it flares up, these stretches seem to help a bit:

There was also another that I can't find a video for... it involved laying on the floor with one leg straight, and the other leg up and bent, with the foot placed on the opposite side, over the opposing leg. You twist in the direction of the bent leg until you get a gentle pulling, and repeat that a few times.

 

Worst stretch description ever. I will edit this post if I can find a better one.

 

Good luck to you. That can be a painful spot.

 

 

What's having AS like? Does it have a huge affect on what you can do or is it manageable?

 

Hope mine is just injury related...

 

The main effects of AS (for me) are in the SI joint and middle back.

 

Back is painful, or at least tight, most of the time; at its worst after sleeping, then better as the day goes on and it loosens up. That is mostly managed by ibuprofen so I can sleep, but otherwise I have gotten used to it and it doesn't really keep me from doing things.

 

I manage the SI joint issues by completely avoiding any high-impact activities like running. This usually keeps it at a mild throb, though about once a month it will get bad enough that I am visibly limping.

 

On the upside, I am starting a medication for it tomorrow, (diagnosed after ten years.) Hoping that will clear up a lot of the symptoms.

 

Didn't mean to freak you out. I wouldn't worry too much about a major condition causing the SI joint stuff. They are pretty rare. Like has been said, there are lots of things that can cause the SI joint to get inflamed. If you haven't started yet, I would try doing the stretches and if necessary see a PT.