Another person with Sacrum/Hip Flexor issues!

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi,
I have been reading threads related to my issue, and came up with more questions than answers, but didn’t know really what to ask.
Now I have some idea.

For about 1 1/2 years I was doing at least 1 session of yoga per week at home, plus 20 minutes or so most mornings and 10 minutes in the evenings until I had a lumpectomy in August of 2008. I could not do yoga due to not being able to lift my arms or move in a lot of ways, and instead of modifying, I stopped and have not motivated myself to start back up until now.

I moved from an active job last October 2009 (8 hrs a day on my feet in retail) to a sedentary office job where I am seated most of the day. I am a couch potato at home and have been struggling to get the motivation to begin my yoga practice started back up again. I have noticed my hips have become extremely tight, and my sacroiliac is causing me more and more discomfort.

I had my chiropractor x-ray my sacroiliac joint. I don’t know the technical language, but it shows that my tailbone is wedged to the left against the bone when standing. There is a gap on the right. The chiropractor also determined that my left hip is about 5mm lower than the right, and has me wearing a small lift in my shoe to help correct it. I wear it religiously, even in my sock as I walk around the house.

In the xray, the chiropractor pointed out a large muscle connecting to the spine and stretching diagonally down to my pelvis, and explained that we could see it because it is so tight. I do not usually feel tightness in this area.
He also pointed out that the last vertebrae is slightly twisted, but not quite pinching the nerve.

He doesn’t seem to know much about what muscles to work, strengthen, stretch, etc. and only says exercise will certainly help. No specifics though.

I am finally ready to do what it takes to get motivated and have been doing some stretching, lunges and warrior pose in the morning for about 10 minutes before work. I want to begin doing a full hour at least once, but ideally twice or more a week.
I have been afraid to try to do any full classes (I use videos from Yogatoday.com, I just don’t have time to go to a yoga studio) because some poses seem to exacerbate the issue and it has gotten to the point that I’m not sure in each situation if the discomfort should be avoided or stretched through.

Sorry for the wordiness, I do sometimes have a hard time being succinct and I’m out of time to edit.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I am not sure if I should be seeing a massage therapist to help loosen the tight hip areas while I begin my practice up again, or if I should try looking for a chiropractor who works more with the muscle groups as well as skeleton, or if perhaps you all have some other advice.

I already know to avoid forward bends at this stage, and to hold the pelvis neutral in twists but am not sure how to do that.
I have tried the exercise Mukunda suggested, but my hip flexors have become so tight that it’s very uncomfortable unless I take at least 20 minutes to loosen my pelvic muscles/hips first.

#2

Hello Joanna,

This is a fairly complex situation you present. Sounds to me like you would benefit from making time to go to a studio - if there happens to be one in the area with a sound, therapeutically trained, alignment-based teacher.

As you point out, some postures exacerbate the issue (and this is why I’ve often stated that “Yoga is not inherently good, appropriate yoga is.”) and there is confusion as to whether discomfort should be avoided or worked through. And this makes book, DVD, and streaming video learnin’ almost impossible.

Chiropractic and massage therapy can be very important additions to a customized asana, pranayama, meditation practice. And while there is a physical element, all this stuff comes about from our living, from our choices, from our thoughts, from our feelings. So that nectar will have to be extracted from the rind of your consciousness in order for this knots to go bye-bye and not return.

If you can do this without a teacher then you are a far more advanced student than I, since I could not. It is only from my ongoing studies with my teacher that I have learned how to embrace the four elements of the yoga we teach (train and practice); asana/pranayama, meditation, applied philosophy, and nutrition/lifestyle.

I don’t know anyone in Alaska but if there’s a receptive studio I’d certainly consider coming up to do a workshop there and including the work on the lower back as part of that curriculum.

gordon

#3

IA, thank you so much for that answer. I believe you hit the nail on the head and have confirmed for me what I was suspecting I should be doing.

In reading back over my first post, I see that I answered some of my own questions. I should know better, I do that a lot!

I know of two yoga studios here in Alaska that may be receptive to you coming up. If you would like me to talk to them, let me know. There are more yoga studios around, but these two are the most well established.

Let me know if you’d like me to contact them or if you’d like their contact info and I can readily provide that.

I suppose I’ll just have to make the time to attend some classes. I commute 3 hrs each day, so my time is rather precious to me, and it’s hard to shake the sense that I don’t have enough of it. I do have some work to do to pull myself back to a good solid place.