Massage Therapy Journal Spring 2024

Spring 2024 • 23

TRY IT FOR YOURSELF: Assessing and Releasing the Sacroiliac Joint Try these following techniques with clients you suspect may have issues with their sacroiliac joint (SI). You can easily assess and work on the SI joint in a side-lying position.

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With your hand tucked under the ASIS, release the SI joint by reaching around the client’s pelvis as far as you can and drawing the pelvis over your hand toward you. It will be easier for the client to let go if you bring their pelvis toward your hand than if you push your hand into their pelvis/iliacus.

Facing the client lying on their side with their hips and knees at 90 degrees, tuck your hand or knuckles under the anterior superior iliac spine and you’ll find the iliacus. If the person is overweight or pregnant, they’ll always need iliacus work, and side-lying may be the only way to get to that muscle.

muscles, for example the glutes and piriformis, influence the motion of the sacrum. When they are asymmetrical, the pelvis twists and wreaks havoc on a person’s gait and stability, among other things. But of all the muscles that impact the SI joint, the most influential is the iliacus. Its fibers attach to the inner groin, angle across the fulcrum of the pubic bone, and connect via powerful fibers to the whole inside of the ilium. Stand behind the client’s pelvis. Use your hand on the posterior superior iliac spine, knee or greater trochanter to slide one leg back and forth along the other leg like a piston. The top leg rests along the other the whole time. This maneuver mobilizes both sides at once because the other leg and pelvis are pinned to the table. You’re also automatically mobilizing both sides of the lumbar and thoracic spine and ribcage.

When your torso stays still and you stand on one leg, the iliacus flexes and externally rotates your thigh to create an action similar to if you were to step one leg onto the seat of a chair that’s in front and to the side of you. But when you stand on both legs, a tight iliacus tilts to the same side ilium anteriorly ,

Of all the muscles that impact the SI joint, the most influential is the iliacus . Its fibers attach to the inner groin, angle across the fulcrum of the pubic bone, and connect via powerful fibers to the whole inside of the ilium.

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