How to SAFELY Pop Your Sacroiliac Joint

In this video, I'll show you how to pop

your

sacroiliac

joint

s

safely

. Stay tuned. Hello everyone. Dr. Rowe comes to us from SpineCare in Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I'll go over four different exercises to

safely

pop the SI

joint

. If you're not familiar with the

sacroiliac

joint, it is the junction of the ilium of the pelvis and the sacrum. It acts as a shock absorber and stabilizer of the spine above the pelvis, hips and lower extremities. When this joint becomes blocked and inflamed, you can feel a lot of localized pain in the lower back, in the gluteal region, in the hips and also in the thighs.

Therefore, these exercises are designed to be done at home and are likely to give you very quick relief, even in a matter of seconds. So let's get started and blast that sacroiliac joint right now. So, here's a really easy way to self-mobilize

your

sacroiliac joint. I do this at home on the edge of the bed. If your mattress is quite firm the trick is to fold a couple of large bath towels or you can use a blanket, place it on the edge here, although it may seem simple it actually works and will firm up the mattress.

So whichever side you have pain on, let's say it's my left SI joint. That will be our inside leg during this exercise. So let's take our left leg here and put it right on the edge of that bed. Then we'll hook the edge of the bed with our foot and ankle to get a nice, stable anchor point. Support your upper body weight on your arms and hands like this. The outside leg, I'm going to bend that knee and then hook my foot into the foot on the other side. What I'm going to do is press my top foot down again to give myself a little more stability.

We want to position ourselves where the outside knee will be, right on the outside of that bed, so that it can slide up and down on it. Movement from here is very easy. What I'm going to do is move through my pelvis and through my hips and bring my knee toward the floor as much as I can. The lower you go, the more you will feel a deep stretch forming in the inner sacroiliac joint. So, on my left SI joint. If it's locked, you may hear a clicking, crackling, or sudden release, but don't try to force it.

Go only for a deep, comfortable stretch. Hold this for a couple of seconds. From there, what you're going to do is lift your right outside hip toward the ceiling as much as you can. You'll notice that it hits the internal sacroiliac joint a little differently. Hold this for a couple of seconds. You will relax and then repeat this five to 10 times and with each repetition, you will try to develop it a little more. Here, let me switch to the other side so you can look at it another way, but it's just a great way to open your SI joint really safely and get some quick pain relief.

And I recommend that if you only have sacroiliac joint pain on one side, do this on both sides because not only will it help relieve the pain but it will also strengthen your SI joints. Therefore, you want to keep the imbalance of both. So, here's a two-part exercise you can do daily that will help strengthen your SI joints, which will hopefully give us some lasting pain relief, but also offer a nice pop, crack, or release in there if those sacroiliac joints are tight. blocked. . So in the first position, I will lie down with my stomach right next to a smooth wall.

You may want to place a pillow, towel, or blanket under your chest or waist for a little extra comfort. I'm going to rest my upper body on my forearms like this. They are V-shaped. I simply clasp my hands together. What I'm going to do is bend my knees at approximately 90 degrees. Get them pretty close to that wall and then place the tops of my feet on the wall. From there, I'll tighten my core muscles and also squeeze my glutes to make sure we're really focusing on those muscles. Movement from here is very easy. I'm going to have my legs about hip-width apart and then slowly bring my feet out like this until I start to feel the sacroiliac joints along the pelvis start to open slightly.

From there, I'll lift my feet toward the ceiling as much as I can, lifting my thighs off the floor. In this position, you should feel many muscles activating. The core, the glutes, through the pelvis, to the hips. With this one you may also notice that you may have difficulty lifting one leg up to the other. That will show you which side you really need to focus on. So with this one, you might want to film yourself doing it or have someone watch you because if you have a lot of weakness on one side, it will be very obvious visually, but I try to hold this one for about five seconds.

From there, I'll just relax and take a breather. On the next rep, incorporate it a little more. Really try to go up as high as you can because it will challenge those muscles just to help them get stronger in the long run, but I try to do this about five times. So moving on to the second part of this exercise, we will focus more on the mobility of the sacroiliac joints, which can result in that pop, crack, or release that we are looking for. Start by sliding forward away from the wall. As a note, if you have a lot of pain or tenderness in your knees, you'll probably want to put something underneath, like a pillow, for a little more support and comfort, but what I'm going to do is bend one knee, keep it flat like this.

It doesn't matter which knee you start with because we are going to do it on both sides. What I'm going to do from there is place my other leg on top of the other. So, my left knee rests on my right foot. From here, I'm simply going to bend my top knee about 90 degrees toward the ceiling. With this exercise to make it easier, we can lean our body towards the side of the top leg. So in this case, it's my left. I'm going to put my hands at my sides like this. So this is also important for this movement.

Whichever side we're leaning towards or whichever side of the leg we're leaning towards, we're going to use the hand on that side to push against our body and create a little more leverage to make this movement a little easier. So what I'm going to do is start by squeezing my core muscles, squeezing my glutes to activate those muscles and then I'm going to press this hand and then rotate my body to the other side. When you do this, you will feel a deep stretch along the pelvis to the sacroiliac joint. Again, you may feel a burst or sudden release, but don't try to force it.

Instead, hold it comfortably for about 5 seconds. From there, you'll just relax and then repeat this up to five times and with each repetition, you'll try to build it up a little bit more. Always challenge yourself. To make it more challenging and take it to the next level, start working your body to the point where it is now in a straight line and you will notice that this becomes a much deeper but more challenging stretch. So, experiment with different angles. If you find that it just relieves the pain in your sacroiliac joint or just helps relieve it a little easier, add more reps and I recommend doing this on both sides to keep them balanced.

This is what I call the corkscrew of the sacroiliac joint. It is a very easy exercise that you can do on the floor or in bed. The trick with this one is to elevate your feet up a little so you can hook behind the knee. So, this one can be done right next to a staircase. Simply put your feet on the stairs. If you want to do this on the bed or the floor, use something like a stack of books. You can use a yoga block, a lift board like the one I'm using, or even a foam roller.

So, start by lying on your back. Whichever side you're having trouble on. Let's say it's my right SI joint. I'm going to bend the knee on that side and then hook behind the knee on the other side. We want to make sure this is a good sturdy point. So I really try to focus on hooking there and then keeping the leg on the non-painful side as straight as possible. What you're going to do is take the arm on the side that doesn't hurt and hook it around the outside of your bent knee. You're going to keep your shoulder blades and upper back as flat as possible and then you're going to rotate by pulling this knee right here and then moving through your hips and through your pelvis.

The more you do it, the more you will feel a deep stretch forming in the sacroiliac joint and throughout the pelvis. Just go to your comfort level. This usually feels great and you can feel that sudden burst or release that you are looking for, but again, don't try to force it. I try to hold it comfortably for about 5 seconds. From there, I just relax and then I can repeat this up to five times and with each repetition, challenge yourself to lower the knee a little bit further, but again, only to your comfort level. If you want to take this to the next level, you can add a little more passive stretching focused on that sacroiliac joint.

So let me switch sides so you can see this a little better. So what I'm going to do is go back to my original stretch. So I'm pulling down like this but I'm going to take my hand on the other side and then I'm going to put it right over that sacroiliac joint. To find it, just start right at the belt line here. Go down a little to the side, just over the gluteal area. I just cut that area like this. What I'm going to do is gently push there to get a little bit deeper stretch.

So I'm not going to ram him or anything like that. I'm just pushing for a very gentle stretch and again, this might be enough to finally get him to self-mobilize, but you want to focus on a deep, comfortable stretch. Relax and then you can repeat this up to five times and I do recommend doing it on both sides to keep them balanced. This exercise is called sacral roll. It feels amazing after a long day. Not only will it help open the SI joints, but it will also reduce a lot of stress on the soft tissues, including the muscles that help support the pelvis and sacrum.

For this we need a foam roller. I'm going to use a twenty-four inch high density foam roller. If you don't have one, it's a worthwhile investment because you can use it on virtually any part of your body. I'll leave the link in the description of this video if you want to get one online, but what I'm going to do is start by lying on your back. I'm going to place my foam roller below the belt line, practically over the top of your glutes. We are going to support the pelvis and the sacrum. From there, I'll take my hands and then place them on the side of the foam roller or on the side of the floor for a little more stability.

What I'm going to do is lift my legs like this, bend my knees approximately in degrees and bring my legs together. Then I'm going to twist my waist through my hips while keeping my upper body flat and bringing my knees toward the floor. The lower you go, the more you will feel a deep stretch in your SI joint, but you will also feel a very good self-massage in your SI joint on this foam roller. Again, it usually feels pretty good. I hold this position comfortably for about three to five seconds. From there, I just relax and then repeat it on the other side.

I try to do this slowly for about 10-15 reps on both sides and with each rep, I try to build it up a little more. If you want to take this one to the next level, you can do what's called a pigeon pose or a figure four to hit it a little different. So, take one leg and then raise it over the other like this. I'm going to rest my right ankle on the knee on my left side 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 whichever side is up, then I'm going to rotate my body to the other side. What you'll notice is that you'll get a really good stretch on this top side right here. It will hit the glutes and also a muscle called the piriformis, a great instigator of what is known as pseudo sciatica, something like sciatica pain in the lower leg, but you will also feel that deep massage on the SI joint that is making contact with this foam roller. Again, hold for three to five seconds. You'll just relax and then repeat this 10 to 15 times and then switch to the other side and repeat to keep 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, please support the channel by liking this video and maybe subscribing too. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below. I will contact youas soon as I can. Thanks for watching!