Correcting Your Alignment

Hey everyone,

I started this section after hearing one story after another of people struggling in PT and being told to do exercises that are way too painful for them, without anyone actually addressing their SI joint alignment.

If you are working with a physical therapist or other practitioner who only has you do exercises, but never talks about alignment, you need to read this section.

What does it mean when the SI joint is out of alignment?

it means that the hip bone has moved out of place, relative to the sacrum.

When this happens, the hip bone is really only moving out of the correct position by a few millimeters. It isn’t even far enough to show up as abnormal in an x-ray.

The problem is that it’s still not the correct position for your body.

Even just those few millimeters can still have a big impact on your overall movement patterns. In my experience, if you are out of alignment, it’s really important to get it corrected.

I wrote these posts to explain more on the topic of SI joint alignment, and how to correct it if your joints are actually misaligned:

Here’s an overview of what it means to be out of alignment:

• What happens when an SI joint is out of alignment?
• What you need to know about SI joint alignment
• Why correcting your alignment can be the missing piece of the puzzle
• Levels of pathology: why some forms of misalignment are more “serious” than others

Adjustments:

How a physical therapist or other medical professional can actually correct your alignment, and help put your SI joints back into the proper position:

• How to know when an SI joint adjustment is working
• Reader question: can you realign your SI joint, even if it’s been stuck for many years?
• Why “less is more” when it comes to SI joint adjustments

Why the quick-fixes don’t work:

You’ve probably seen the videos online promising to teach you how to realign your SI joint by yourself at home. Unfortunately, these are not a good idea, and I explain why in this post:

• What most SI joint videos get wrong about alignment

Specific patterns:

These posts explain specific patterns of misalignment that you can have at the SI joint. Each pattern, such an upslip or a posterior rotation, is its own phenomenon that can occur independently, or at the same time of the other patterns.

These are the two patterns which had the biggest impact on me, over time:

Upslip:

• What is an upslip?

Posterior rotation:

• What happens when an SI joint gets stuck?
• Why do some people’s SI joints get stuck, when others’ don’t? 

One-on-one coaching

If you’re reading this and are super excited to learn more about alignment — or, if you’re feeling totally confused and want to talk to someone who understands — I can help!

I help people in all stages of their journey make sense out of their situation, and come up with a game plan to move forward.

My Coaching page has all the deets!