All About Your Sacroiliac (SI) Joints

by Nina

Shadow with Pelvis and Moon by Georgia O'Keefe*

Although your sacroiliac joints are probably parts of your body you haven’t thought about much—if at all—they are a particular concern for yoga teachers and practitioners due to the frequency of SI joint problems in our population. Yes, although SI joint pain, injuries, and misalignments are uncommon in the general population, these problems are fairly common for dancers, gymnasts, and yoga practitioners. You may have noticed just this week that Charlotte Bell’s book Hip-Healthy Asana: The Yoga Practitioner's Guide to Protecting the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Pain even mentions SI joint pain in its title. So, it’s always good to revisit this topic because armed with the right knowledge you may be able to avoid these problems or if you already have them be able to use your practice to recover. Today I thought I’d provide an overview of all the posts we have on the blog that address the SI joint—after all, this is turning into hip health week!

In Yoga and the Sacroiliac Joint Shari describes the basic anatomy of the sacrum, including the SI joints, how the sacrum moves, and why having an understanding the sacrum is important for yoga practitioners,

In Keeping Your Sacrum and SI Joints Happy and Healthy Shari discusses how to keep your SI joints healthy as you do different classes of poses, including in standing poses, seated poses, and backbends.

In Overcoming Sacroiliac (SI) Joint Pain Ram provides some background information about the SI joint and why it’s vulnerable to injuries, and details the techniques Ram used in his yoga practice to heal his own injury.

In Friday Q&A: Sacroiliac (SI) Joint Injuries Baxter and I both discuss SI joint problems from our different points of view (we have both had the injury and Baxter has been teaching yoga for back care for many years. 

In Friday Q&A: Squarers Beware! Baxter discusses why the old cue to square your hips can contribute to SI joint and low back pain, and provides a different set of instructions for how to position your legs and hips in standing poses.

In Friday Q&A: Trikonasana, Janu Sirsasana, and Your Sacroiliac Joints Baxter and I discuss how to practice Triangle Pose and One-Legged Seated Forward Bend—two poses than can be challenging for SI joints—to keep your SI joint healthy and what to do in these poses if you already have an injury.

In Differences Between Male and Female Pelvic Structure Shari compares male and female pelvic anatomy and makes recommendations for how women might want to practice asanas differently than men (departing from some of the classical alignment recommendations). 


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