Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums General SI Joint/L1 L4 L5 Problems for the past 8 years! Please Help Me! Re: SI Joint/L1 L4 L5 Problems for the past 8 years! Please Help Me!

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Dovey – sounds like we have very similar situations (symptoms, many years of pain, no success with other practitioners). 


Here’s my story:  For 10 years I’ve struggled with back and hip pain that I believe is the result of SI joint issues, muscle imbalances and years of poor posture.  The pain initially started after a fall while playing baseball and then several weeks of sharp pain in my Right SI Joint ensued.  Instead of properly rehabbing my SI joint injury I began working a desk job with long hours. Over time here are the symptoms that developed:


  • Lower back pain (including SI joint) and hip pain – pain and discomfort oscillates between left and right side from day to day.    Hip pain includes soreness around the joint, hip flexor tightness/pain and TFL tightness.  Additional tightness/pain in the glutes.  Like Dovey I also get some relief when I do a pubis reset. 


  • Right shoulder sag (and maybe right hip hike).  While standing there is a noticeable downward tilt on my right shoulder compared to my left.


  • Tight psoas and QL on my right side. I’ve had some terrible bouts with QL spasms.

  • Knots down both TFL’s, and on the inside of my right thigh near my groin and just above the knee.  Foam rolling helps a little.


  • In addition to SI pain/instability I think I have glute activation issues – probably not surprising since I work in front of a computer all day.


As I mentioned believe my original injury was a tear or strain of the ligaments (?) around my SI joint. It occurred when I slid across a wet base playing baseball and my right leg locked up when I hit the dry turf. A couple days later I sat down and felt a sharp pain on the right side of my tailbone.  I didn’t properly rehab the injury and then began a period of inactivity and working long hours in a seated position. The last decade has been fairly sedentary aside from the occasional after-work soccer league. At its worst I’m unable to run more than a couple hundred yards before my right side tenses up completely. I tried lifting regurlaly last winter but had to stop due to SI pain (right side) and QL/psoas pain.

Over the years I’ve tried numerous Chiros, PT’s and even injections. The only protocol that worked reasonably well was a mobility and strength regimen that I did in 2006 that got me back to 85-90%.  At the same time I was also doing Active Release Therapy to supplement my workouts and I experienced some success. However, between ’06 and ’12 my symptoms returned and last year I decided to try traditional PT again, including PRI (Postural Restoration). Unfortunately I have not seen much progress over the last year despite seeing a therapist once or twice a week and diligently performing home exercises.  I switched to a new PT recently that does dry needling and i’ve noticed some release in the trigger points following the sessions but I think I need to layer in more mobility and stability work to reinforce good movement patterns and strengthen atrophied muscles (glutes & core primarily).


Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide! I’m looking forward to getting back to a pain free life.  References to mwod videos would be great. I enjoy following a prescriptive workout so to the extent you can recommend a series of mobility and stability exercises, I would greatly appreciate it.