Ongoing pain - SI Joint?

[OakLeaf]

This muslce (transversus abdominus) is the secret to good posture, core stability, bladder and bowel continence, skinny waist/flat tummy, and universal peace and brotherhood.

Partial thread hijack. Only because the transversus is my favorite muscle too Two points.

Best method I've found to teach unconditioned people where their transversus is: Put two fingers just inside the hipbone. Then cough. Ohhhh, THAT muscle!

Key to bladder continence: Relax the bladder! In my personal experience which I suspect parallels that of a lot of fit women, it's not about strength of the pelvic floor, the transversus or anything. It's that no matter HOW strong we make those muscles, a spastic bladder will always be stronger. So stop straining when we pee. Didn't realize you were straining? Neither did I. It takes a lot of conscious awareness to just relax the bladder. And when you're squatting to pee - as a lot of women do when we're "al fresco" or using public facilities - we're predisposed to strain the bladder. Relax the bladder. Visualize a cool breeze blowing across your kidneys. Voila, instant continence!

[KnottedYet]

What I'm finding just fascinating with my incontinent patients is how very little abdominal control and postural awareness they have.

I get a huge kick out of taking someone who leaks every time she picks up her bag of flour at home, teaching her abs/core and posture and proper lifting technique, and having her work out like crazy lifting and stuff in the gym. The look on her face when she realizes she just lifted the equivalent of 25# of flour 50 times *without leaking* is just wonderful!

(for these folks trans abd and the pelvic floor muscles just need to be woken up, and often it's as simple as the posture and core stuff we take for granted! It's awesome!)

[Wahine]

The cue I like to use to get people recruiting their transversus abdomenus correctly is to pretend you're putting on a really tight pair of jeans and you don't want to get anything caught in the zipper. OK, now hold that for 10 sec, rest 1 second or 2 then repeat. Do this for at least 1 min, at least 2 times per day. More often if you can.

I also like to get people doing psoas recruitment exercises. There's some good research out there to support the idea of the psoas acting as a stabilizer for the pelvis and low back. It works really well for some people with chronic SIJ issues. This muscle is a little harder to get to work. The easiest way is to lie on your back, have DH gently pull on your leg, by the ankle and then you try to suck your thigh bone back up into your pelvis. The first time you try, do it as hard as you can and have DH rotate your leg, there will be a lot of resistance. Then do it again but at 25% effort, this should stop you using your quads and hams too much. At that effort level DH should be able to rotate the leg with minimal resistance from you. If there's resistance, you're using the wrong muscles to perform the action. It's hard to explain. It's more of a demonstration type of exercise and even with demonstration a lot of patients struggle with this. So if you don't get it, don't get hung up on it. If you do get it do the exercise on both sides, use the same 10 sec hold, 1 min, twice per day. I might try to post something on yuotube about this. After Christmas, maybe.

[KnottedYet]

I use the zipping-up-tight-jeans cue, too.

I love using our polaroid to take "before" and "after" pics of folks' posture. It's a great learning tool, especially when someone feels that good posture is all wrong; then they get to see the evidence for themselves!

(they really like the flat tummy!)

[kelownagirl]

I do that exercise (holding in my abs) every time pass a mirror.

I have been working pretty hard at the abs with crunches and I always tighten that TA (long word) in before I do each crunch. Is that correct?

So do you hold your abs in all the time once you're good at it?

I don't leak when I pick stuff up, only when I sneak and don't have a chance to "clench" ...

My back has not hurt since Knot taught me the trick. Even yesterday when I woke up with back pain from lying on my tummy, I was able to get rid of most of it with the exercise. I am SO happy....

[KnottedYet]

TA doen't do anything to help you crunch (it doesn't move anything) but it does help stabilize you while you crunch. Instead of just flattening it before each crunch, keep it flattened all the time.

Ok, flattening as you go past a mirror is good, now keep it firm and flat ALL THE TIME.

Glad the trick is working! Share it with anyone you know who could use it!