OW

[Morrigainz]

Okay. I don't have a video because I didn't bring my phone to the gym, but I tried my first "heavy" squats today since my SI joint problems earlier in the year. Heavy = 135.

 

My back has been bothering me a little over the past few days but it hasn't been terrible. Now it's terrible, even though I did lots of PT stuff before and in between my sets.

 

Anyway. Obviously I 1. should not have squatted today, and/or 2. should not have squatted that heavy.

 

I did notice some form issues though. I definitely did a little bit of a squat-morning.

 

My right knee has a tendency to cave in. This is not the first time I've noticed it but it's the first time it's been this bad.

 

My core was tight throughout the entire lift (I have tried to make double extra sure of this since the Incident) but I still felt like I was losing tension in the hole, which could definitely contribute to the back owies.

 

Also, and this is unusual, the squats were slow going down and slow going up. Slow going up is more normal, but for some reason I had a really hard time taking advantage of the stretch reflex in the bottom.

 

I don't want to stop squatting. But obviously I overdid it today and I might be out of commission for a few days.

 

And yes, no one here is a doctor, etc etc etc BUT! do y'all have any suggestions for improving form with the things I have noted? Part of it could be is that I just went too heavy, too fast. I don't know.

 

Also sorry this post is all over the place. I am Ow, destroyer of Mir's body.

[El Exorcisto]

Whenever I have been exceptionally slow on the drop with any of my lifts, it has been because I was about get hurt. That's my first red flag on a training day to rethink the movement of the day.

 

My SI joint issues started cropping up when I was box squatting. When I box squat I have a bad habit of hyperextending my lumbar spine which makes for an unstable SI. If that is your problem, you have a couple options. The first is to regroove your low bar squat to keep from hyperextending, which isn't easy. The other is to switch to high bar. High bar squatting maintains a more upright torso angle and as long as you don't consciously hyperextend at the start of the drop, it should keep you stable. Widening stance also puts the glutes in a more contracted position through the lift, providing more stability for the SI joint, especially in the hole where you are the most externally rotated.

 

Now, for rehab. The glute max is the biggest stabilizer of the sacrum. Work your glute max a lot. Hip thrusts and sumo deadlifts are my go-to glute work, with hip thrusts being my biggest rehab movement when I was jacking up my SI joint. Focus on locking the weight out in hip hyperextension. Be careful with unilateral work like lunges or step-ups while you are still rehabbing. Unilateral work puts a lot more torque on the SI joint than using twice as much in a bilateral movement. I don't remember the exact figure. I think it was something on Bret Contreras' site.

[Morrigainz]

That is a good point. Shocking to think my body knows what's going on! Damn. Smart body is smart.

 

I am high bar squatting And I don't think hyperextension is an issue anymore. I know it used to be. But many of my PT exercises started with me tilting the pelvis forward by contracting my rectus abdominus. However it did used to be a problem for me, and is likely what contributed to the issue in the first place.

 

Great tip for the glute max. I've been doing a lot of medius work (crab walks, clams) and my upper booty is looking quite fine but my lower booty is definitely lacking. I've been doing lunges and up until now haven't had any problems, but methinks I will have to be more careful from here on out. I do like hip thrusts and glute bridges, and I pulled sumo DLs once but am not confident on the form, so I'll go watch some videos and get my learn on.

 

Thanks for the help This freaking sucks.

[Dirt Diver]

That is a good point. Shocking to think my body knows what's going on! Damn. Smart body is smart.

 

I am high bar squatting And I don't think hyperextension is an issue anymore. I know it used to be. But many of my PT exercises started with me tilting the pelvis forward by contracting my rectus abdominus. However it did used to be a problem for me, and is likely what contributed to the issue in the first place.

 

Great tip for the glute max. I've been doing a lot of medius work (crab walks, clams) and my upper booty is looking quite fine but my lower booty is definitely lacking. I've been doing lunges and up until now haven't had any problems, but methinks I will have to be more careful from here on out. I do like hip thrusts and glute bridges, and I pulled sumo DLs once but am not confident on the form, so I'll go watch some videos and get my learn on.

 

Thanks for the help This freaking sucks.

I'm really sorry to see that you're still having trouble with SI joint pain. After you sent me that big response that included your PT routine, I started doing two things that seem to have completely fixed my issue.

The first, is laying down flat on my back and bringing one knee up towards my chest and stopping when the thigh is roughly 90-degress to my supine body. After that, I bring my hands together and interlace my fingers to create a sling for the leg that's raised off the ground. Place the hand-sling just below the raised knee (on the upper part of the front of your lower leg) as if you were going to pull your knee to your chest - but don't. Instead, keep the rest of your body flat against the floor, and push this knee against your hand-sling for about 5 seconds. I had relief from my SI pain after only 2 or 3 repetitions of this (do it about ten times with each leg for 5 seconds at a time).

The second thing I tried, was just repeatedly getting down all the way into the low position of the squat and trying to relax there, with my hamstrings touching my calves and my palms pressed together, using my elbows to flare my knees outward. I realize you're probably not going to low-bar squat all the way down like this, but I think some of my screwed up form (that caused my SI inflammation) resulted from unequal tension/tightness in my lower body. This seems to get everything stretched out enough that I'm able to drop down more fluidly, without unwanted tension cropping up on one side or the other. In Starting Strength, Rippetoe suggests something similar to this before any squat session, but he just has you dropping down into the bottom position of your squat instead of trying to touch your hammies to your calves.

I also played around with some of the "glute activation" exercises found here and I couldn't believe how lop-sided my strength or flexibility was for some of these.

[Morrigainz]

That's really interesting. I will have to try that stretch. I think I need more core work too. I've gotten lax about doing my planks. I will check out some of those activation exercises! They definitely look good.