Hey everyone,
The other day, I realized I sat on this hard metal chair all day long! This was at my grandmother’s back patio. I totally forgot to take the cushion she offered me! (The cushions are supposed to go with the chairs; she keeps them inside in case of rain).
I simply didn’t even think of it because even after several hours, it didn’t start to hurt!
I used to have a hard time sitting down at all.
I know so many of you are going through this too, especially those of you who need to sit for work.
Once you stabilize the joint in the correct position, the ligaments begin to heal and inflammation goes down.
My clients often ask me how I improved my ability to sit. The answer is that the improvement in sitting is really just one part of how things overall started coming together again.
After everything I’ve learned, I can say that much of the pain from SI joint dysfunction comes from when the joint is out of alignment. That means the ilium, or hip bone, is out of place relative to the sacrum, or base of the spine.
This misalignment can seem small in the grand scheme of things, because it doesn’t even show up in an x-ray. The SI joint itself has a very small range of motion (estimates range from 2-4 mm) so when its movement is restricted, it doesn’t seem like a lot.
However, this seemingly small imbalance can wreak a lot of problems, especially when you’re bearing weight directly on the joint for a prolonged time, as in sitting. The imbalance may not be enough for you to notice it when you’re moving about gradually, or changing position. But when you just sit in one position without moving, over time the pain can build up. That’s from all the pressure being applied for a prolonged amount of time, and also because when you stop moving, fluid and inflammation can start to build up.
That’s why you might feel okay when you’re moving around and changing positions, or lying down (assuming your mattress is comfortable – that’s a whole other topic!). But when you put that weight directly on the joint, compressing it, and you’ve stopped moving, things can become painful fast.
So, to fix it, we basically want to reverse the problem.
My overall recovery process involved learning to correct my own SI joint alignment in the most gentle way. Then, with help from various PT’s, I ultimately discovered the right ways to move for my body and designed exercises that allowed me to keep the joints in place.
Basically, using this process allowed me to teach my body to hold the SI joints in place. Correcting your alignment doesn’t just help in the short term– over time, it helps to create muscle memory, as your body learns that being “in alignment” is its normal position. Combine that with exercises to strengthen the muscles that hold the joint in places– and taking the pressure off off the tight muscles that could be pulling it out of alignment — and that’s how everything starts to come together.
Over time, as your joints stay in place and you reduce tension on the joint capsule and ligaments, you’ll find that you don’t need adjustments as frequently — and eventually, you’ll hardly need them at all!
As your joints stay in place, and the inflammation in your joints and ligaments settles down, you’ll find your ability to sit increases!
I used to only have a limited number of chairs I could sit on comfortably, without needing to get up. At home, I had one chair in particular that was the exact right size, height, and level of padding for me. It wasn’t too hard that my joints hurt, and it wasn’t so soft that I sank in, which sometimes also made my joints move out of alignment.
The dimensions were perfect for me, and kept my hips, knees, and ankles all at a 90 degree angle (which you may have heard is best for you, ergonomically).
For several years, that was really the only chair I could sit in comfortably at home. I had to be extremely careful about how I sat and where I sat, when I went out. When I went to friends’ houses, I always tried to avoid the couch if it was too soft, and looked as if I would sink into it. For that would be all it took to totally undo my most recent chiropractor adjustment (which I now know weren’t the best for my body).
As I began to heal, sitting gradually became easier and easier for me, until it was something I no longer really needed to think about it anymore.
Like so many other things it gradually just faded into the background and I stopped needing to worry about it too much.
Fast forward to my long day working from my grandmother’s back patio — she was more worried about the hard metal chair than I was!
Once you start to stabilize and heal your joints in the right position, you’ll be able to get back so much more of what you were able to do.
Believe it!
My Sacroiliac Joint Saga 