Anatomy – Sacrum Dysfunction

As I travel throughout the US and SE Asia to  teach yoga, I see more and more yogis developing pain around their sacroiliac joints. I think we may be practicing without understanding what is causing the pain, and what might help to alleviate pain, and stabilise the joint.

You can have different areas of weak and tight muscles in torso, shoulders and legs which will affect sacroiliac joint problems. This will affect your personal yoga practice and yoga teachers have a great responsibility to avoid causing additional Sacroiliac problems in students.

Sacroiliac dysfunction can be caused by injury, muscle imbalances or differences between the left and right sides of the body. Sacroiliac dysfunction can be exacerbated and even caused by misaligned yoga poses.

Asymmetrical poses like Trikonasana, Virabhadrasana I, II & III, Parsvakonasana and variations in backbending can exacerbate SI dysfunction if practiced without awareness of the pelvis and differences in individual bodies.

The core-muscle stabilisers of the sacroiliac joint are the pelvic floor muscles, lower Transverse Abdominis and the Multifidis (deep stabilisers of the spine). Learn to stabilise in standing poses and backbending, so you can move limbs without clenching the hip muscles or shifting hipbones. This will help to stabilise your practice of sequences without irritating the sacroiliac joint.