Hi, I'm Natalie here with Veritas Health, and I'm going to give you guys some information on how to avoid an SI joint pain flare up.
There are multiple things you can do to modify your daily activities and lifestyle that will help reduce the risk of a flare up of SI joint pain.
First, you want to focus on having good posture. It's important whether you're sitting, standing, or walking, that you try to be as upright as possible. Having your hips and shoulders in good alignment.
Another important piece of good posture is taking frequent breaks if you have to sit for a long time. I recommend getting up and moving at least every 30 minutes. Walk around for about a minute then sit back down and perform this regularly throughout the day if you do have to sit for extended amounts of time.
Another piece of posture that you can do to help improve this is the use of a lumbar roll or wedge. You can put something behind your back just to provide a little more extra support through your low back and take pressure off the SI joints. If your SI joint is uncomfortable when you're laying flat in bed, you could also use something under your knees while lying on your back, take a little more pressure off them as well.
Another important tip is to perform proper lifting technique. If your daily life includes a lot of bending lifting heavy items, it's important to use proper technique with this. You want to keep your back nice and flat, hinge forward at the hips so your large muscle groups are the ones that are doing a fair amount of the work.
A really important piece of reducing a chance of another SI joint flare up is regular exercise. You should aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day. This can be walking, biking, jogging, elliptical or swimming whatever feels best for you and you can perform most comfortably and most consistently. It's also really important that at least twice a week, you get 30 minutes of strength training for the upper body, lower body and core. If you have any regular exercises that you perform from prior physical therapy or regular stretches or flexibility exercises you do for your SI joint performing these consistently every day is important as well. Even if your pain has gone away doing just a short amount of these exercises when you're healthy will help keep you at that healthy baseline.
When you're exercising, it's important to have proper footwear. Depending on your foot and your body type, you may prefer something that's more supportive and structured or something a little bit more minimalist. You want to look for something that's made of sturdy material, and something that will stay comfortably on your foot while you do exercise.
Another way to help reduce SI joint pain is to keep yourself at a healthy body weight. More body weight means more pressure through the SI joints so focusing on increasing lean body mass is really important. A healthy anti-inflammatory diet will not only help promote more lean body mass, less overall body weight, but also will help reduce inflammation that contribute to SI joint pain. So focusing on avoiding processed foods, and eating a primarily whole foods diet is really important for helping reduce chance of flare ups.
To learn more about how to prevent SI joint pain, please visit us at Spine-health.com and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one. Thanks for watching!
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