Sacrum Core Connection

Hi. My name is Olivia, and this class is for you. If you're having questions or concerns about your sacroiliac joint, often one side will be more symptomatic than the other. And so this class will help you to rebalance your pelvis. Well, let's start with lying down. You will need two blankets, and a block and a strap will start just with the strap You have the block nearby.

And the strap, you'll fold it and then put it underneath your lower back. So when you lie down, it will go into the small of the back. And then if you don't feel it, you can fold it again. Even if it doesn't traverse the entire width of your lower back as long as there's some on the right and some on the left side of the spine. And so what the strap is doing is giving us a a curve in the spine that is considered part of a neutral spine. It's called called a lordosis in the lumbar spine where it curves up and off the floor, but then you'll feel your sacrum which is in line with the upper buttocks.

The sacroiliac joints are there on the floor. And so what we're gonna start with, you can just place your hands on your belly or wherever is comfortable, is just rock a little right and left. And these are like mini movements. And you're rocking right and left to feel what it's like to be imbalanced on the sacrum. So you shift a little to the right with your legs, a little to the left, and feel feel the extra weight coming down through one side of the sacrum or the the top of the buttock there on the back of the pelvis and then the other.

And from here, you'll start to make these oscillations smaller and smaller until you land in the center. So there's even weight coming down on the mat through the right and the left sides of the back of your pelvis. And then you can place your hands again on the belly or wherever they're comfortable and take a breath into the belly and exhale soften the tops of your shoulders through the neck, jaw. And dropping within. And feeling down to this contact, not only of the back of the pelvis with the floor, but also your lower back to the strap beneath. And similarly, if there's more pressure, more contact on one side of the lower back than the other, Now it is possible that one side of the lower back is more developed muscularly.

It's possible. But for most people, if you feel more weight on one side, we can, see that the spine is rotated that way a little bit. And so feeling your back where it touches the strap, take a breath in. And when you exhale, start to firm your belly towards your back. And if one side of the lower back felt light, you firm more on that side.

So you do get equal touch of the back to the strap and then inhale and exhale. Now what's interesting here is we're not trying to flatten the back to the mat in this case. We're just touching the back to the strap. Inhale. The belly rises. The back might rise a little bit too, but as we exhale, the belly and the back move towards the strap and hold steady there and in an even fashion. So for much of this practice, your mind's eye will be in the back of the pelvis and your back and trying to even out the weight coming down on the right and the left.

So we have the floor. We have the strap. Alright. So let's progress this now. You're gonna inhale and exhale. And this is same. Firming the belly to the lower back and then float the right foot a few inches off the floor.

And notice what happened. The contact points on the back of your your hips and the back of your back. And then we'll lower that foot down, inhale, exhale your left, lift it up, notice how things might be shifting or not. And then inhale placing that foot down. Exhale firming the abdomen.

Now try to hold steady the contact points back of pelvis. Back of your back to the floor, to the strap, not only as your leg moves up, but also as the foot moves back down, it's very tempting to arch in that moment. Keep your back plaster touching the strap. Inhale. The foot goes down. Exhale. You have the help of the exhale here.

Exhale is a natural pressing down in the abdomen moment. So when you inhale and place the foot back down, that could be a challenging moment. The foot's going away from the body. A lot of weight coming up on the spine you're holding the spine down. Inhale.

Exhale. Few more times Barry side to side with the legs for this marching. And so if you were only examining your lower back or your hips, you might not know that anything is moving. So completely stable in the lower back and hips. And then the thigh just moves in the hip socket And it might feel more challenging on one side than the other, and these are usually the clues into the healing process for sacroiliac dysfunction.

Alright. Now there's another one we can do. This one, you'll take a knee and out to the side and bring it back up. Now if you do this casually, which you can without pain if there's no sacroiliac dysfunction or maybe if there is, but the whole pelvis rocks towards that knee that's opening out, and you'll feel extra weight on that lower back on that pelvis to the floor, the strap, beneath. So next time you open a knee out, pre contract on the opposite waist. So if you're opening your right knee, hold your left belly, your left lower Barry, strongly down so that you can't rock into the right hip.

And now I'll bring the knee back up and then exhale firm your right belly down the left knee opens to the side. Still, it should be about identical. The amount of weight coming to the strap from both sides of the lower back and then bring the knee back up. Inhale. Now let's pay attention to the back of the pelvis. As you exhale and the right knee goes to the right, can you hold the left sacrum, the left buttock as much on the floor as the right. This is not easy. It might look easy, but you can feel how challenging it is to keep the pelvis stable, completely stable.

If you've really pay attention, very challenging ab work, and there's more. Now we'll take it with the heels slides. Same concept. Exhale firming the belly down. Slide your right leg forward.

You'll straighten the leg. And then you bring it back. So again, you can try these in sort of a sloppy fashion so long as it doesn't irritate your issue just to to realize what we do when we're not thinking about it. And the back will go up and down off of the strap. So the right leg goes out.

There's weight to it. The back goes up. And then that informs you of how you need to move to protect the back. So you begin with a pre contraction firm the belly down so that as you slide the leg out, again, the back of the back stays touching the strap, even on the right and the left. And the back of the sacrum, same, even weight down to the right and left sides of it.

Alright. One more here. You'll float the right foot up off the floor and then send it out. So just without the traction of the heel on the floor, inhale lift your left foot, exhale. Send it out. It will hover over the floor. Inhale. Bring the leg Barry.

Exhale, right leg out, belly down. Inhale. Back, exhale, and left. Again, one side might feel more challenging than the other. And on your own time, you could do more for example, with that leg. So the two sides of you start to even out. Alright. Now we're gonna move into dead buck.

So for this one, bring your knees up to your chest. Then take your arms up to the ceiling, turn your palms to face in, and take tabletop with the legs. From there, firm the belly down, touch the two sides of your lower back to the strap, even yourself out the weight on the back of the sacrum. Inhale here, and then exhale will push forward with the right leg reach back with the left arm. Inhale. Come back up.

And then second side, this is the most important part. This exhale in the belly down. It's more important than the way the arms and legs move for your sacrum. So the key is keep the mind's eye on the abdomen and the lower back. And then we try to move the limbs.

It's a lot of the time we're actually moving our back and we get tight in our shoulders and our hips. They're not moving as much. And then our back gets overused. Or one side of a sacrum gets overworked or over stretched. Now as the strength increases, you'll be able to take the leg lower.

So more of a hovering a few inches off the floor. But if you try that and you're not quite ready for it, you'll know because your back will leave the strap. And so that's a way just even at home, just you and your strap to know, could I be taking my leg lower? Well, if the back comes up, then you keep your leg a little bit higher. We started with the right leg. So ending with the left leg, right arm, and then reach for your legs.

Alright. Now, holding the legs up with the feet off the floor is a moment where the lower back can naturally without a lot of abdominal effort will touch the strap. And notice what happens if you just take one foot to the mat, and then you could change try the other foot or both. You might notice if you don't do anything consciously, the lower back rises off of the strap. And so sometimes when people are having a lot of issues with the sacrum and the lower back, little movements like that can cause a great deal.

Of chaos. And so let's practice. Take your shins. Hold on to them. Exhale. Touch your back to your strap and keep that as you put the foot down.

And then as you put the other foot down. So even the way we move around just in general life can really affect the state of our lower spine or sacrum. Similarly, if you just straighten your legs out, what happens. The lower back starts to come up off the strap, and that might be fine. But if we're dealing with some issues at the lower back instead, you confirm the belly and then straighten the legs out So the lower back doesn't get yanked on by the weight of the leg.

And then maybe you choose to relax the belly for something like Shavasana or going to sleep at night. Okay. So with that, we're gonna bring the legs back in. So start with your exhale firm the belly. So the lower back is stable even for just this transition to bring the legs back to table top. Table top with the legs. Scrape your arms out to the sides, turn your palms down.

We'll do a simple Jatara Paribasana. Inhale in the middle here. Exhale. Your knees go to your right wrist. And now your waist is coming off of the strap on the left. Coming back to the center, inhale, exhale knees to the left.

But even though your back is lifting off of the strap, inhale knees back to the center, when you exhale hollow the abdomen back anyway, So taking the belly to the lower back as you take your knees to your right, inhale Barry to the center, touch the strap, and exhale knees to the left, hollow your belly back towards the lower back inhale leg center. One more time each side, exhale knees right, inhale to the center, and exhale to the left. And inhale to the center. So the exercise is over, but it's not over for the abs as you put your feet down. Keep the abdominals engaged, one foot, and then the other.

Okay. Now rolling over to your side, come up, and you'll set the strap aside and take your blankets. One blanket will be for your head. And one blanket will be for your ribs. You're gonna lie sideways down. So lying down on your left side, and your left arm can go right in between the blankets.

And the right arm is going to extend along the right side of the body. Inhale here. Exhale. Lift the head. Lift the shoulders and reach your right arm towards your feet. And then inhale.

Take the head back down. Exhale up and inhale down. Okay. So you can keep going like that. I'll talk about what's going on here. So the right ribs towards the right hip.

That's the action that helps you lift your head and shoulders. So every time you exhale, take the right rib cage towards the right hip. And so the sacrum is Barry nearby. A lot of times, as I've been saying, the sacrum, there's an asymmetry on the right and the left. You might also notice this if you have a scoliosis.

And so one side can feel strong. And the other side, not so strong. And so we'll go into asymmetrical yoga poses and then have the discomfort, and it can be difficult to fix it in the middle of a big pose. And so here, just noticing noticing how this side feels. Okay. Now we'll shift to hand on the hip.

Extend your right leg parallel to the floor. Flex the foot. Alright. Now instead of using the waist, we just used the waist. We're gonna try and get the effort down into the outer hip here. So you'll make small circles with the leg slow, and the whole time you're trying to reach your heel to the wall on the other side of the room.

So the wall that the sole of your foot is facing. And by really reaching the leg almost as if you're reaching the thigh out of the socket as if the waist gets long, it doesn't work as much, and then the outer hip does. So we've worked with strengthening the outer waist. Now the outer hips, so you're nice and strong on the whole outer side of the body. This leg here is a lot like an artichendrasana leg, half moon pose leg.

Now let's reverse the circles. With the hand on the hip, you can push the hip towards the foot to further lengthen the waist and engage in the glute, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus. And so it should be generating a nice burn there. And if there's some portion of this trajectory that's irritating the sacrum, you have 2 options. You could make a smaller circle.

Or you can start to stabilize the same work we did earlier further stabilize the sacrum from the abdomen drawing back towards it and release. Okay. Now log rolling. You're gonna turn as one unit. Come on to your back and then to the other side. Line on your right side.

Extend your left arm. Exhale reach left arm to feet. Inhale. Lower the head down. Exhale. Contract. Take your left ribs towards your left hip, shorten in that space, and then inhale lengthen to take the head down.

Exhale shorten and come up, inhale, release down, exhale firming the obliques. Now we really are using focusing on the abdominal muscles, the sides of the abdomen, and maybe feeling into this side, if you can remember how it felt on the other side, to start to compare a little bit maybe where your asymmetry of strength could be hiding away. And then there's always the option of pressing pause and doing some more reps on the side that you feel you need it more. Otherwise, moving on, take your left hand to your hips straighten your left leg push through the heel to the opposite side of the room. And again, like you're ejecting the femur bone out of the socket, circularize that left thigh bone in the air.

Going forward of the hip up above it a little bit behind the hip joint below the hip joint. So small circles and the whole time attempting stability through the waist, stability through the sacrum. And so the waist will wiggle around if we let the leg shorten. So we can even with the hand on the hip push the hip away. That can be helpful. And also by hollowing the lower belly to the lower back to the sacrum to stabilize the lower back, especially when you take your leg behind a little bit.

Few more circles here. And then we'll reverse the directions. Go the other way. And as the effort creeps into the outer hip, hopefully here. Notice the shoulders, soften the shoulders, soften the neck, soften the face.

Notice the breath. Let it flow. Let it move. Steady, even breath, and then bend your left leg and come up off of the blankets. We'll set the blankets aside and take the block and the strap. Now for the strap, you'll make a loop And the loop is going to go around your thighs, mid thigh, and we'll take the block between the ankles, and it's okay if the block is on the floor.

Once you take the width, again, in the diameter of the strap and the width of the block where your ankles and knees are held hip distance apart. And then we'll lie down. Let's see how it is if you push your thighs out on the strap. If the knees start to go wider than the hips, it's not gonna be helpful. So take the strap as tight as needed so that when you press out on the strap, It gives you some resistance and holds the knees hip distance apart. Huggging the block with the ankles, press out on the strap with your thighs, inhale, and exhale, press down through heels and shoulders, lift your hips, come up into a bridge pose.

Lower back down as you inhale. We'll do it again. Exhale. Catch the block with the ankles. Press your thighs out on the strap and lift your hips up. Inhale. Lower down.

One more time. Exhale. Hug the block with your ankles. Lifting the hips. Press thies out on strap. And then take your hands and rest your hands on the front of your pelvis.

Now chances are here that both sides of the pelvis are approximately the same distance from the floor. If not, if one hip is dropped, you can roll that outer hip up. And we're gonna try to keep this as you bring more weight now into your left leg and extend the right. So the thighs stay parallel. Now what wants to happen is the right hip drops away from the right hand.

Then let's try the left. So what wants to happen is the left hip drops and goes lower than the right hip. So what we're going to do here is use a strength of the hips and the abdomen to keep the right hip up, even as we lift the right foot off the floor. And one way to do this is, as I mentioned, you can roll the outer hip up, and then you take the right foot back down. And then the left leg, that's the one that will want to drop. So you roll the outer hip up, and you can feel under your hands. Hopefully, no movement of the hips under the hands.

And you're gonna keep extending the legs out. And rolling that outer hip up, or pressing the opposite belly down to help keep stability. Now as we're doing this, another key point is to continuously press out on the strap with the thighs even when the leg is in transit or extended, continue that outward pressure. So your outer hips are firm, and your abdominal and back muscles are doing their best to keep your sacrum stable. Often with sacroiliac instability, this is very challenging on one side.

And so again, you have the option. Just repeat that side over and over. And make whatever side that wants to drop drop drop stronger and release down. Okay. We'll slip the strap off the legs.

And take the block. You might find it there, get it towards you, or you can sit up and get it. We're just gonna put the block under the sacrum. Low height or medium height. 1 of the 2 so that the block can be very wide.

Underneath the sacrum. And then rest your arms at your sides for a moment, strap still handy. And what we do at the very beginning of class very subtly walk rock, right, and left, and feel leaning to the right side of the sacrum, leaning to the left, and then make the oscillation smaller and smaller until you're right in the middle. Okay. Take a breath in. Ex exhale and stabilize in the belly. Lift the right knee up.

Take your strap and wrap the strap or lasso the strap around the ball of the right foot, and then you'll take your right leg up in the air. If you have a long enough strap, you can press down through the shoulders, buff the chest with the elbows on the floor. Otherwise, you'll have to hold a little bit higher on the strap, but still open across the chest. Now notice here the back of the pelvis is the right sacrum heavier or is the left heavier? Can you even out rock, right, or left as needed so the same weight comes down on the two sides of the back of your pelvis. Then slowly straighten your left leg forward.

And as you do, spin the left inner thigh down, and re examine what's going on in the pelvis. If there's a rock, right, or left, shift. Make that the weight even on the back of your pelvis. And then you may notice the right hip wants to hike up, and so you can send the right waist long towards the left foot. Every time you make an adjustment, re examine the pressure of your sacrum, on the block and see if you can make the weight even right and left.

So again, this might seem like a leg stretch exercise at first glance as opposed to rebalancing the sacrum, but it's how we pay attention, what we pay attention to in the shape of the pose that can shift the same pose in many different directions therapeutically. So we know to come out of this, there'll be a transition, and that transitions are the time when things get kind of shaky around the sacrum. So let's start by firming the belly and then bend the left leg, try to stay even on the sacrum. And then bend the right leg. And at that point, you might take your left foot into the strap and just put the right foot on the ground and straighten the left leg up and then pause, pressing the shoulders down with the chest Notice the weight on the back of the pelvis, even the weight out, maybe shift a little right and left, then find the center.

Next slide slide the right heel forward. Straighten the right leg and then check-in again with the pelvis is one side of the sacrum light. If so, rock a little more weight onto that side of the sacrum. So we're training the body to get used to be more symmetrical so that if one side of your sacrum has become lax, loose, if the ligaments have been overstretched, that we move away from a chronic low level over stretching to something more balanced. And with time, the ligaments will adapt and heal.

It can take a long time in the sacrum, but the sacrum heels too. Notice as you roll the inner right leg down, how that also can help to feel the sacrum or even on the block, similarly taking the left hip towards the right heel, evens the heights of the sacrum towards the head. Take a deep breath in here, soften through the jaw, the tongue, and then exhaling, bend your right leg, and you'll take also the right leg up in the strap, two legs up in the strap, press the shoulders down. You can either keep your hands on the strap, or just let the strap hang arms at your sides. So your mountain pose tadasana legs, chest is lifting, and then notice how the weight falls down through the right femur bone into the right hip, through the left femur bone, into the left hip.

If you're not quite flexible enough to straighten the legs without the chest dropping, try this with the knees bent. You can still get this dropping feeling. Maybe take the knees hip distance apart and let the heaviness come down through the femur bones. So that you can feel the two sides of the sacrum there on the block. And to come out of this, one of those transition moments again where the belly could rise in the back arches. So let's stabilize in the spine and then with some consideration of the spine, lower one foot at a time.

Even as you lift your hips off the block, does one hip wanna lift first? Can you evenly take both of them off the block and then remove the block to the side? And then rolling down through the spine, coming onto the back of the hips can each hip even touch the floor at the same time. Okay. Let's bring the knees really close to the chest now. Really, really close. Hug them in, and then we'll take a twist, taking the legs to the right, keep the knees up close to the chest. So we're not twisting so much around the sacrum, trying to get a little bit more in the upper back.

You can turn your head to the left if you like. At the end of your next exhale firm, the belly knees come again close, close to the chest, close to the left shoulder, legs to the left, and you can turn your head to the right. Beginning the shift with the exhale firm the Barry, and the legs come back to the center. Give them a last squeeze in. Then releasing, holding in the belly, releasing the legs, holding in the belly to Shavasana, and then adjusting from the sacrum to the feet, tuck the shoulder blades under lift the head up, place it back down, close the eyes.

And now it's more passive. Even in Shavasana, we can work with releasing the body down evenly. And the only effort the force is coming from gravity. And so if you feel one side of the pelvis higher here, invite that side of the pelvis to drop with gravity. A little bit more and see if that starts to even out the weight between the back of the pelvis and your mat or the floor.

Perhaps you have more time to spend here. If so, take that time. Otherwise, coming out of your Shavasana log roll to one side. Then press down to your hands. Come up.

Thank you for your practice.