SI pain after pilates

by Nicole Lamoureux
(Edmonton, Canada)

Hi,

I did pilates on the reformer today and really noticed my SI joints bothering me. I think it was the short spine excercise. Do you have any recommendations?



Jennifer's Response:

Hi Nicole and thank you for your question.

I believe you are correct in that the short spine, if not done with proper control using the abdominal muscles can definitely aggravate the si joints.

This is an advanced exercise and if the transverse abdominals are not activated properly the back and hip muscles take over and can become aggravated by the excessive pulling on the spine and through the si joint.

I would practice doing bridging with proper technique first so you get the feeling of how to properly articulate the spine using the abdominals.

Check out the proper way to do bridging here: Pilates Bridging.

And...here's a great page about exercises for SI Joint Pain.