In this video, I'm going to show you how to safely pop your
sacroiliac joints. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I'm going to go over
four different exercises to safely pop your sacroiliac
joint. If you're unfamiliar with the sacroiliac joint, it's
the union of the ilium of the pelvis and the sacrum. It acts
as a shock absorber and a stabilizer for the spine above
the pelvis, the hips, and the lower extremities. When this
joint becomes locked up tight and inflamed, you can get a lot
of localized pain in the lower back over the region of the
glutes, into the hips, and also into the thighs. So, these
exercises are designed to be done at home and you may find
give very quick relief even within seconds. So, let's get
started and self pop that sacroiliac joint right now. So,
here's a really easy way to self mobilize your sacroiliac
joint. I do this one at home at the edge of a bed. If your
mattress is pretty firm, the trick is to fold up a couple
large bath towels or you can use a blanket, put it at the
edge right here while it may seem simple, it actually does
work and it will firm up the mattress. So, whatever side
that you're having pain, let's say it's my left SI joint. That
is going to be our inside leg during this exercise. So, let's
take our left leg right here and put it right at the edge of
that bed. We're then going to hook the edge of the bed with
our foot and our ankle for a nice, stable anchor point. Rest
your upper body weight to your arms and hands just like this.
The outside leg, I'm going to bend that knee and then hook my
foot on the other side's foot. What I'm going to do is press
down with the top foot right here into my bottom foot again
for a little bit more stability. We want to position
ourselves where the outside knee is going to be right on
the outside of that bed so it can glide up and down on it.
The movement from here is very easy. What I'm going to do is
move through my pelvis and through my hips and take my
knee downward towards the floor as much as I can. The more that
you go down, the more that you're going to feel a deep
stretch forming on the inside sacroiliac joint. So, on my
left SI joint. If it is locked up, you might get a sudden pop,
crack, or release but do not try to force it. Only go
towards a deep, comfortable stretch. Hold this for a couple
seconds. From there, what you're going to do is then
raise that right outside hip upward towards the ceiling as
much as you can. You'll notice that it hits the inside
sacroiliac joint just a little bit differently. Hold this for
a couple seconds. You're going to relax and then you're just
going to repeat this one five to 10 times and with each
repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more.
Here, let me switch to the other side so you can get
another view of it but it's just a great way to really
safely open that SI joint up and get a lot of quick pain
relief. And I do recommend that if you only have one-sided
sacroiliac joint pain to do this on both sides because it
not only will help get pain relief but it does strengthen
the SI joints. So, you want to keep them both imbalance. So,
here's a two-part exercise that you can do daily that will help
strengthen the SI joints, hopefully giving us
long-lasting pain relief but also offering a nice self pop,
crack, or release in there if those sacroiliac joints are
locked up. So, in the first position, I'm going to lie my
stomach right next to a smooth wall. You might want to put a
pillow, towel, or blanket underneath your chest or waist
for a little bit more comfort. I'm going to rest my upper body
onto my forearms just like this. They're in a V shape. I
just clasp my hands together. What I'm going to do is bend my
knees roughly at 90 degrees. Get them pretty close to that
wall and then put the top of my feet on the wall. From there,
I'm going to tighten my core muscles and also squeeze my
glutes to make sure that we're really focusing on those
muscles. The movement from here is very easy. I'm going to have
my legs roughly hip width apart and then I'm slowly going to
take my feet outward like this until I start to feel those
sacroiliac joints across the pelvis start to open up just
very slightly. From there, I'm going to raise my feet upward
towards the ceiling as much as I can, lifting my thighs off
the floor. In this position, you should feel a lot of
muscles firing. The core, the glutes, across the pelvis, into
the hips. You may notice with this one too that you might
have a challenge lifting one leg up as far as the other.
That will show you what side that you really need to focus
on. So, with this one, you might want to either film
yourself doing it or have somebody watch you because if
you do have a lot of weakness off to one side, it's going to
be very visually evident but I try to hold this one for about
five seconds. From there, I'm just going to relax, take a
breather. On the next repetition, build into it just
a little bit more. Really try to go up as much as you can
because it will challenge those muscles only to help make them
stronger in the long run but I try to do this for about five
times. So, moving on to the second part of this exercise,
we're going to focus more on mobility into the sacroiliac
joints which may result in that self pop, crack, or release
that we are looking for. Start off by scooting forward away
from the wall. As a note, if you have a lot of knee pain or
sensitivity, you'll probably want to put something
underneath them like a pillow for a little bit more support
and comfort but what I'm going to do is bend one knee, keep it
flat like this. Doesn't matter what knee you start off with
because we're going to do it on both sides. What I'm going to
do from there is then position my other leg on top of the
other. So, my left knee is resting over my right foot.
From here, I'm just going to bend that top knee roughly at
90 degrees foot up towards the ceiling. With this exercise to
make it easier, we can tilt our body off to the side of the top
leg. So, in this case, it's my left. I'm going to put my hands
off to my side just like this. So, this one's important too
for this movement. Whatever side that we're tilting towards
or the top leg side, we're going to use that side's hand
to push our body to create a little bit more leverage to do
this movement just a little bit easier. So, what I'm going to
do is start off by tightening my core muscles, squeezing my
glutes to fire those muscles and then, I'm going to press
this hand and then rotate my body towards the other side.
When you do this, you're going to feel a deep stretch across
the pelvis into that sacroiliac joint. Again, you might get a
sudden pop or release but don't try to force it. Instead, hold
this comfortably for about 5 seconds. From there, you're
just going to relax and then repeat this one up to five
times and with each repetition, try to build into it just a
little bit more. Always challenge yourself. To make
this one more challenging and taking it to the next level,
Start to work your body to the point where it is now in a nice
straight line and you'll notice that this becomes a much deeper
but more challenging stretch. So, experiment with different
angles. If you find that one just hits that sacroiliac joint
pain or just helps release it a little bit easier, throw more
repetitions in and I do recommend doing this on both
sides to keep them in balance. This is what I call the
sacroiliac joint corkscrew. It's a very easy exercise that
can do on a floor or in bed. The trick with this one is to
elevate your feet upward just a little bit so you're going to
be able to hook behind your knee. So, this one can be done
right next to a staircase. Just put your feet up on the stairs.
If you want to do this one in bed or on a floor, use
something like a stack of books. You can use a yoga
block, a step up board like I'm using, or even a foam roller.
So, just start off by lying flat on your back. Whatever
side that you're having a issues. Let's say it's my right
SI joint. I'm going to bend that side's knee and then hook
behind the other side's knee. We want to make sure that this
is a nice sturdy point. So, I really try to focus on hooking
in there and then keep the non-painful sides leg straight
as possible. What you're going to do is take the arm on the
non-painful side, hook on the outside of the bent knee.
You're going to keep your shoulder blades and upper back
flat as possible and then you're going to rotate by
pulling on this knee right here and then moving through your
hips and through your pelvis. The more that you go over, the
more that you're going to feel a deep stretch forming into
that SI joint and across the pelvis. Only go to your comfort
level. This usually feels really good and you can get
that sudden pop crack or release that you're looking for
but again, don't try to force it. I try to hold this one
comfortably for about 5 seconds. From there, I just
relax and then I can repeat this one up to five times and
with each repetition, challenge yourself to pull the knee down
just a little bit further but again, only to your comfort
level. If you want to take this one to the next level, you can
add in a little bit more of a passive stretch focused on that
sacroiliac joint. So, let me switch sides so you can see
this just a little bit better. So, what I'm going to do is get
back into my original stretch. So, I'm pulling down like this
but I'm going to take my hand on the other side and then put
it right over that sacroiliac joint. To find it pretty much
you just start right on the belt line right here. Go down
just a little bit off to the side kind of right over the
glute area. I just kind of cut that area like this. What I'm
going to do is gently push in there for a little bit of a
deeper stretch. So I'm not going to ram it in or anything
like that. I'm just pressing in for a very gentle stretch and
again this might be enough to finally get that to self
mobilize but you want to focus on a deep comfortable stretch.
Relax and then you can repeat this one up to five times and I
do recommend doing it on both sides to keep them in balance.
This exercise is called the sacral roll. It feels amazing
after a long day. It's not only going to help open up the SI
joints but it's going to reduce a lot of tension in the soft
tissues including the muscles that help support the pelvis
and the sacrum. For this one, we need a foam roller. I'm
going to be using a twenty-four-inch high-density
foam roller. If you don't have one, it's a worthwhile
investment because you use it on pretty much any part of the
body. I will leave the link in this video's description if you
would like to get one online but what I'm going to do is
start off lying on my back. I'm going to position my foam
roller below the belt line over pretty much the top of the
glutes. We're going to support the pelvis and the sacrum. From
there, I'm going to take my hands and then place them onto
the side of the foam roller or off to the side on the floor
for a little bit more stability. What I'm going to do
is then raise my legs up like this, have my knees bent
roughly at degrees put our legs together. I'm going to then
just turn through my waist through my hips while keeping
my upper body flat taking my knees downward towards the
floor. The more that you go down, the more that you're
going to feel a deep stretch into that SI joint but you're
also going to feel a very good self massage on the SI joint
over this foam roller. Again, it feels usually pretty good. I
hold this position comfortably for about three to 5 seconds.
From there, I just relax and then repeat it on the other
side. I try to do this slowly for about 10 to 15 repetitions
on both sides and with each repetition, try to build into
it just a little bit more. If you would like to take this one
to the next level, you can do what is called a pigeon pose or
a figure four to hit it just a little bit differently. So,
take one leg and then bring it up over the other just like
this. I'm going to rest my right ankle over my left side's
knee and vice versa when you want to do it on the other
side. So, when you look down, it should look like a figure
four starting to form. What I'm going to do from here is
whatever side that is on top, I'm going to then rotate my
body towards the other side. What you'll notice is is that
you'll get a very good stretch on this top side right here.
It's going to hit the glutes and also a muscle called the
piriformis, a big instigator of what is known as pseudo
sciatica, kind of like sciatica leg pain going down but you're
also going to feel that deep massage over that SI joint that
is making contact with this foam roller. Again, three to
five second hold. You're just going to relax and then repeat
this up to 10 to 15 times and then switch to the other side
and repeat to keep them both in balance. It's just a good way
to not only open up the SI joint but also help focus on
the muscles that help support it. If the exercises help,
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