This entry was posted on Dec 21, 2023 by Charlotte Bell.
Who doesn’t love a very good spinal twist? For most individuals, rotating the backbone feels refreshing. Aside from twisting to the appropriate to look behind us whereas we again our automobiles up or change lanes, we don’t rotate our spines lots in our each day lives. That may very well be why twisting feels so good. However twisting in yoga could be perilous for the SI joint if we don’t observe with each care and information. Just a few weeks in the past, I wrote about the significance of not squaring the hips in standing poses. The identical holds true for twisting.
A few years in the past, I discovered from a large number of yoga academics that conserving the hips squared in a seated twist helps rotate the lumbar backbone. That will make sense if the lumbar backbone was able to rotating. The very fact is, the side joints come collectively in such a approach that the lumbar backbone is simply able to about 1 to three levels of rotation. That’s about 2 to 4 millimeters. So once we attempt to drive the lumbar backbone to rotate, we are able to as a substitute find yourself rotating the sacrum. This may result in SI joint dysfunction.
Easy methods to Maintain the SI Joint Secure in Seated Twists
If you’re having signs of SI joint dysfunction, your greatest wager is to keep away from twisting, no less than till you begin to really feel higher. But when your SI joint is feeling okay, do this tip for conserving the joint secure and wholesome. The next instance explains the way to preserve your SI joint secure in Parvrtta Sukhasana (Rotated Simple Seated Pose).
- Sit in Sukhasana (Simple Pose) on a folded yoga blanket in order that your hips are greater than your ankles.
- Rotate your torso to the appropriate. As you rotate, you’ll possible really feel the appropriate facet of your pelvis eager to scoot again as nicely. As a substitute of resisting this, let the appropriate facet of the pelvis scoot again. This retains the twist within the thoracic backbone, which is the a part of the backbone that’s designed to twist.
Practising easy twists on this approach might help you keep away from SI joint issues sooner or later. This adjustment could be utilized to all seated twists.
It’s necessary to keep away from twists the place you’re levering together with your arm when your SI joint is misplaced or in case your SI joint is vulnerable to dysfunction. So you need to observe any seated twist the place you’re inserting your elbow on the surface of an upright, bent knee with care. As a substitute of inserting your elbow on the surface of your knee, merely maintain the knee together with your hand.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards in 2010.
