rehab and SI Joint

[sourpickle]

Mark,
at 48 years of age , i have had a history of lower back pain and the last 2 years of squatting has relieved most of it, thanks.
but i aggravated it again after spending way to many hours in a car on thanksgiving and then squatting. (i blame the car seat, not the squat)
Went to the chiropractor who says it is the SI joint, mostly the right but the pain jumps from side to side.
anyway i started the starr rehab program. the funny thing is that although it hurts to walk, get out of bed, sit in a chair and all that daily stuff, it doesn't hurt when i squat !!!
this doesn't pass the "do the thing that hurts" test.
should i be deadlifting, pressing, benching and finding the most painful ???
is izz a bit confused.
thanks again

[Mark Rippetoe]

The Starr rehab is not for SI joint inflammation. I get this occasionally, and it will go away with normal training. Up your fish oil, take drugs/alcohol so you can sleep, and it will be gone withing the week.

[engineer]

What seems to work for SI joint pain are swings ... kettlebell, dumbbell, 35# throwing weight, coreblaster (fairly light). Tom Fahey (masters discus thrower and Prof of Kineseology) wrote about using kettlebell swings to fix his SI problems. When mine got inflamed about a year ago and was hurting like hell, I remembered that I stopped doing swings about 4 or 5 months previous (because I am an idiot). Started again and within 2 weeks I felt 100% again.

Your mileage may vary.

[JaredLLL]

I've dealt with some lower back pain and SI-joint pain for awhile and here are some thoughts on it:

Generally speaking, from my experience, is the pain is due to muscles getting too tight. This moves the spine away from proper alignment which may or may not cause pain. Something such as squatting or sitting too long may cause those muscles to tighten further, not permanently but only for the time being. Yet that increased tension could be enough force on the spine to cause pain in the joints.

The simplest way to approach the problem is be stretching out your hips and back with the initial intent of giving yourself more breathing room before you start to cause yourself pain. Later on it will simply give you more freedom of mobility which makes for a happier you and reduces the incidence of injury from that problem area. Stretching also gives you the ability to see your ROM in things like your spinal erectors for example to see where tightness occurs. If you are having difficulty stretching the tight muscles as though they are happy just as they are and stretching doesn't feel relaxing as it should, the next step is massage.

Try to get those muscles to loosen up so you can productively stretch those muscles, work towards equality with the tighter side receiving more attention. Golf ball, Tennis Ball, someone's elbow all have potential to be effective.

Google quadratus lumborum. This muscle is pretty keen for causing lower back pain. So here is a good stretch for it. Sit in a chair with your legs spread wide, put your right hand under the corner of the chair where your left leg/knee is. Using your right arm now as an anchor lean over to the right and extend your left arm up and over your head as you reach as far as you can to the right ( don't forget shoulder extension). Where your left shoulder ends up depends on the stretch, rolling it more forward places the stretch more to the back, pulling your shoulder behind you puts the stretch more on the obliques, all on the left side mind you.

Lastly, be mindful of all the other muscles that can help to cause your back pain, piriformis and psoas are obvious ones, as is the rectus femoris. If any of these muscles are tight, work to improve on all of these muscles and then some. Establish a routine and be diligent.

I hope this helps, good luck.