Is this an SI issue?

[Tobias]

Hi Rip,

I had some minor back pain a while ago, at the time. I thaught it was much serious than it was. And looked at the Mckenzie method, incase I had herniated a disc.

The McKenzie method is basically... this;


I had no pain in the end ranges of motion in extension, I can flex and rotate my spine fine too.

However the next day, If I sat down longer than 10 minuites I had burning and shooting pains down both legs extending down to the heels, and pain around the coccyx area. on a scale of 1-10. 5 at max.

Within a week my symptoms had reduced by around 50%, and at present (Around 2months later) I have only minor pains down my buttocks and random twitching along my legs (Not much of an issue), is this typical for acute SI injury?

What makes it worse
-Sitting
-Lack of sleep
- Decompression (When I hang off a bar for 2 mins, I feel sharp pains around my coccyx area around 10 mins later, is this due to increased pressure on the SI?)

What makes it better
-Sleep (Sleeping on side with pillow between legs feels alot better than lying on back)
-Walking
-Ice
-Hot baths

I have been stretching the hip flexors and using a lacrosse ball around the piriformis and psoas. I am avoiding stretches that put more tension on the sciatic nerve as it seems to exacerbate the the pain. I have no pain around the L5-S1 area, it feels tight however around the area however.

Sometimes when I sit for long periods of time, or when I feel like something is jammed up around the SI area. If I spread my feet against the floor (Like during a squat) I feel a loud clunk noise. And then suddenly it feels instantly better. Is this the sacrum resetting its position? Why does it do this?

I do have a minor leg length discrepency. The osteopath advised that I should not wear raised heels to compensate.

Im aware you have had SI issues yourself, are there any resources or books regarding this issue that have helped?

Thank you very much for any help,
Tobias.

[Mark Rippetoe]

What do squats do to the pain? Where do you perceive the clunk when it happens?

[51M0n]

I do have a minor leg length discrepency. The osteopath advised that I should not wear raised heels to compensate.

Im aware you have had SI issues yourself, are there any resources or books regarding this issue that have helped?

I've had problems with pain around the left glute/SI joint area for the last couple of years. It is a pain in the ass, both figuratively and literally. For me it's mainly only a problem when lying at bed at night, doesn't affect my ability to train, but does impact on recovery.

Apparently my right leg is around 13mm shorter than my left. While I don't wear a heel raise for normal walking etc, I shimmed my right weightlifting shoes by about 1cm a few months back. It hasn't entirely solved the problem, but I have noticed that I get pain in the SI joint less often these days, although my glutes are still prone to getting tight/inflamed. It also fixed the tendency for my hips to shift laterally at the bottom of the squat.

I found that daily stretching of the glutes helped, as does rolling on a baseball (I also found that using an old-fashioned glass coke bottle is good for digging into tight points on the glutes). I also had a go at trying to work on my QL muscles the other night, which seems to have helped (will get a massage on them after my comp next week).

SI joint issues do seem to be one of the more annoying problems, since it isn't always easy to figure out what is going on (in my case I think it's referred pain from muscles around the joint rather than the joint itself.

[Tobias]

My gym does not have a squat rack, I've nagged them for months...And finally, about a month ago they finally ordered in a 'squat rack', it was a fucking smith machine. So fuck them, I'm moving to a new gym once I address my flexibility issues. I did squats with just an empty bar (20kg) today, even with some buttwink; I had no pain anywhere.

The clunk happends around the lower sacrum/coccyx area. I've had a look around on the internet, I think it may be Sacrococcygeal Joint Pain. Some symptoms I've found that sound similar to mine:

•Sciatica
•Hanging upside down from inversion table: Immediate sharp pain around sacro-coccygeal joint. Feels like sacrum and coccyx are being pulled from one another
•Stretches or exercises such as push-ups where buttock is fulcrum causes immediate pain to sacro-coccygeal area (I had this, but it wasnt so severe)

I remember a while ago but didnt take much notice; If i put pressure on the lower sacrum area I would feel cracking and movement around there. Do you think this joint could be hypermobile?

Should I just ice it like a mofo,improve hip mobility and then squat/dead to unfuck everything?

Thanks Rip.

[Mark Rippetoe]

My experience has been that squats always help "set" the SI. But you're not even doing a barbell training program. Most problems correct themselves when you get stronger.