Hip Shear, Unleveled Pelvis

Yoga Discussion Structural Yoga Therapy
#1

Thank you for your helpful newsletter. I thought I’d pose a few questions. I’m 50 years old, in excellent condition and health, quite flexible, and maintain a vigorous 90 minute daily asana practice.

However, lately I’ve noticed several annoying things:

in seated poses my weight distribution now favors my left sitting bone while the right barely bears any weight;

when standing in tadasana I feel extreme tightness in the right groin area;

on long automobile drives (and in paschimottanasana) pain arises in my right sitbone area, on back of thigh on right side, and on right side of my right foot;

my right leg now has a slight external rotatation when I stand at ease, with the right foot no longer parallel to the left foot;

in uppavista konasana, I am no longer able to bend forward along my right side without lots of pain occuring along my right sitbone and back of right thigh;

overall it feels like my right pelvis has shifted/rotated/unleveled itself and I’ve lost the energy flows and kinesthetic sense along my right pelvis and right leg.

I’ve been to a hip specialist, chiropractors, podiatrists, cranial-sacral massage therapists, have had x-rays, and consulted with many yoga teachers … but have gained no real understanding of the problem nor alleviation of any the pain/symptoms.

Is there a simple way to self-diagnose a hip shear or unleveling of the right pelvis ? And what might one do about it ? Start wearing compression shorts to bind the pelvis ?

#2

Sounds like pelvis is indeed uneven. I would highly recommend doing the sacroiliac mobility exercise described here earlier. Also do longer and persistent stretches of the right inner thigh (adductors). You need to avoid stretching the right hamstring. Even when sitting in car it is getting too much workout so if you stretch the antagonists to the over stimulated muscles - which would be quadriceps and adductors - that should help immensely. So poses i would recommend would be camel (ustrasana) both with legs open knees together with a focus to tone gluteals and stretch groin region and also dyanmic version twisting pelvis sideways to stretch across thigh from inner to outer sections of the quadriceps. Also recommend you do the rolling bridge from my book, as this often provides great relief from the symptoms you are describing. The more you can tilt the pelvis coming down slowly the more you will relieve the tight psoas which is probably at the root of your challenges.
Also remember to do plenty of deep breathing using Ujjaye wave breath pattern described in my book, as this promotes balance of vata subtle energies of prana. doing all asanas with wave breath makes a significant difference in a short period of time.
namaste mukunda