What to do for SI (Sacroiliac) Joint Pain - Long Term Relief!

0:00 If you want long-term relief from that SI joint pain, you need to do this exercise. You may have seen it before, but most people get it wrong. So, I'm going to walk you through exactly how to do it properly to make sure that you're getting the most out of it. Let me show you. So, clamshells are awesome for increasing your glute strength, and the stronger your glutes are, the happier your SI joint is going to be. But most people, if they do that clamshell exercise, they're doing it wrong. And a couple reasons why you might be doing it wrong is that you could be rolling backwards. And when you roll backwards when you lift that knee, you're going to be working your hip flexor more than your actual glute. So, let me show you. I'm going to walk you through the steps

0:45 of how to actually do this clamshell exercise properly. So, I want you to lay all the way down on your side, resting your ear on your outstretched arm. You're going to pull your heels up behind you so that your heels are in line with your hips. I don't want your heels out in front of your body or too far behind your body. Your heels need to be in line with your hips. And then take a peek at this top knee. Let's get this top knee to be slightly more forward than the bottom knee. And when you do that, it kind of pushes your hips, gets them more stacked in line. if that top knee rolls back from that bottom knee. It tells me that your back your top hip is rolled open too far. So, we got to keep that top knee forward. And then before we do any other motion, we're

1:32 going to bring that top arm and lay your forearm down on the floor in front of you. And once you're in this position, it is nearly impossible to roll backwards and use the wrong muscles. Okay? So, top knee is slightly more forward than the bottom knee. top arm is down on the floor. So, keeping your feet stacked and you can have your feet flexed. We're just going to pick up that top knee and set it back down. And it's going to feel like it's not going very far, like you should be able to go higher than it is, but it's not a big motion here. It's a very small motion because it's very targeted. It's targeting those deep hip flexor or your deep glute muscles on this outside hip. And so you don't have to lift very high to get it done. Okay. Now, there's a

2:18 couple things that you can do, a couple variations that you can add to it to get a little bit more out of that clamshell motion. The first thing is the easiest thing here. So, you're going to lift that top knee, pause when it's in this lifted position, and exhale. So, you're just pausing for a full exhale, and then release it down. And you'll do it again. You'll lift the knee, pause, and exhale, and release it down. And just that added hold really fires up your glutes. You're going to actually feel your core connect with your hips, too. Let me show you one more variation. And this is incorporating a band. Okay, so we'll pull your band on around your legs, so it's just above your knees. And

3:03 we'll just get in that same position. Now, we have a little bit of resistance for that clamshell. So, finding our way, going through the motion and making sure that top knee is slightly more forward than the bottom knee. Top arm is down on the floor. We're going to lift that knee. Now, there's resistance that you have to push apart. And you'll find that oh, you're having to really pull up and you might accidentally roll back. Okay? So, make sure that this top arm stays down. Pause and hold. Exhaling. And then release it down. And try that again. You're just going to lift Exhale. And when you exhale, you should feel your belly pull towards your spine and then release it down. Now, this kind of exercise, the clamshell, you can do a lot of repetitions of this. I recommend

3:50 10 minimum, but up to 20 reps on either side, and that is going to build up your glute muscles and really stabilize that SI joint so it feels so much better. If you want to do this motion as part of a full routine rather than just a standalone, I have another complete followalong routine that you can do that incorporates the clamshells. I'm going to link it for you right here. Definitely go check that out. [Music]