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 vehicles up or change lanes, we don’t rotate our spines quite a bit in our every day lives. That might be why twisting feels so good. However twisting in yoga might be perilous for the SI joint if we don’t follow 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 lecturers that holding 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 actual fact is, the side joints come collectively in such a method that the lumbar backbone is barely able to about 1 to three levels of rotation. That’s about 2 to 4 millimeters. So after we attempt to power the lumbar backbone to rotate, we are able to as an alternative find yourself rotating the sacrum. This may result in SI joint dysfunction.
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 holding the joint secure and wholesome. The next instance explains the way to maintain your SI joint secure in Parvrtta Sukhasana (Rotated Straightforward Seated Pose).
- Sit in Sukhasana (Straightforward Pose) on a folded yoga blanket in order that your hips are larger 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 properly. As an alternative 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 method may also help you keep away from SI joint issues sooner or later. This adjustment might 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 liable to dysfunction. So it is best to follow any seated twist the place you’re inserting your elbow on the surface of an upright, bent knee with care. As an alternative 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 Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third guide 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 folks sextet Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.
