Will lifting weights and other upper back strengthening exercises help with sacroiliac pain?
What about walking on a treadmill? Will this make the pain worse?
Public Comments
1. Mrs. Spock, there are a few reasons for this type of pain and there are simple ways to stop it. The question that can only be answered when someone sees you in person. One of the ways that the sacroiliac joint gives problems is when the lattissimus dorsi and the gluteus maximus are out of balance. This muscular imbalance causes a pull on the joint and thereby pain. One has to strengthen these muscles to correct the imbalance but without someone seeing you it would be impossible to know which was the one out of balance. Get a referral to a physical therapist. This is a very quick and simple problem to handle. It should only take a few visits to correct and self-care exercises can be given to control the problem. But to answer this question yes the use of resistance exercises could help this problem and walking on a treadmill could make it worse.2. Once you have a muscle of any type giving you pain it is going to continue to do that until you get it released. How much you can really hurt it is hard to say if any. I would think the additional pain you might experience would be enough to make you want to stop. Here is how you might be able to get that pain to stop by releasing the back muscles:
Back:
Place your left hand on your left knee. Place your right hand over your left shoulder and with your fingertips find the muscle next to your spine. Press on it and hold. Relax, take a deep breath and exhale and don’t tense up any part of your body. After about 30 seconds there should be a release happening and when it does slowly lower yourself forward onto your right leg. If you can lean over the outside edge of your leg it will be better for your release. Continue holding for a total of one minute. Then release but rest your body there for one minute longer. Then reverse and do the right side.
3. Lifting too much weight or not using proper technique can put a strain on your sacroiliac joints. These small joints at the back of your pelvis flex when you're walking, so if they are inflamed, walking on a treadmill could make the pain worse.
If this has been going on for just a few days you can probably give it rests and time to see if it goes away, but if this has been going on for several weeks you need to get in to see a doctor and be evaluated. If it is a simple strain, sometimes a steroid injection can help, but your doctor will have to examine you to decide what is causing the pain.
There are many possible causes of sacroiliac pain and you can read more about sacroiliitis at:
http://www.living-with-back-pain.org/sacroiliitis.html
Good Luck, and let me know how you are doing.
Dave
oolbp@living-with-back-pain.org/
