Anybody familiar with weightlifting and a SI joint injury?

Long story short, I'm an idiot. I rushed a Sumo deadlift PR without warming up enough and either tweaked my left SI joint or strained one of the muscles in the area. I had the exact same thing happen to me last year during a conventional deadlift. Back then, I waited for the pain to go away completely before doing squats and deadlifts again (3 whole weeks). I felt like I waited too long, and it definitely took some time to make those gains back.

It really doesn't hurt that bad today (day 3). It's more stiff than anything. This time I'm thinking of actually trying return to deadlift and squat tomorrow, with half my 1rep max or something and see how it goes. Is that stupid, or is that the best way to go about getting back to normal?

And I already know what the doctor says, but am curious what the weightlifter says.

 

@Gorilla George

 

https://startingstrength.com/article/aches-and-pains

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riq-DfDDimc Video version

 

Keep moving. Stretch and lift [very] light weights. Do yoga or swim, avoid anti inflammatory meds. Get plenty of sleep. It will heal.

 

Do you see a chiropractor? Generally, my hips need to get popped back into place every three weeks or so and having offset hips can really jack things up.

Make sure you stretch your hamstrings, A LOT. Thats a major issue with lower back strains.

 

I did the same thing last weekend. Woke up the next morning, tried to get out of bed, and fell to the ground in pain. Its been 10 days and I’m still tender.

 

Also, google psoas stretches. Usually when I have low back issues it’s caused by tightness in the psoas, not the back itself.

 

Yeah. They pull the hips and low back out of alignment and make the back hurt. I've noticed since I injured my back, my hips are noticeably rotated forward, causing my back to arch more and my belly to stick out. I attribute this to the injury messing up the balance, weakening the back and allowing the psoas to pull my hips down in the front .

 

Alan Thrall is awesome. I watch him all the time. I didn't even realize he had a back pain video!

Thanks everybody for the advice. Spent a bunch of time stretching, slowed everything down, lightened the weight a little, and was able to do pretty much my entire legs workout. No issues with squat. Swapped extra romanian deadlifts instead of the deficit sumo and conventional I would have normally done, and actually felt better when I was done than when I started.

A little achy now, but I really can't believe it went as well as it did.

 

Exactly. You see that ass-out posture in a lot of wrestlers and grapplers. I walk around like that every morning until I roll out and stretch.

I often wonder how many people are eating tramadol every day for their “bad back”, when nothing is even injured. Many of them just need to regain their mobility and would feel fine.

 

Alright. This thing is pissing me off! It's like I have no hip/back stability. Most of the time I'm fine, if a little stiff, but if I move just right (usually just off center and hold) it sends a bolt of pain up my back and if I don't have anything to grab, sometimes it'll buckle my knees.

I've never had a workout injury like this. Three weeks and I'm barely better than day 1.

 

Stretch, stretch again, and then stretch some more. When your done with the stretching, do another set of stretches.

Specifically, you'll want to focus on hams, quads, hip flexors, groin, and most of all - gluts. SI is a movable joint, but it doesn't like to move. Pain in the area is almost caused by something that's moved as a result of continuous, chronic tension created by flexibility imbalances. Stretching is the best LONG TERM solution and prevention of future injury.

 

It's mainly my hip flexors. Sitting seems to be a problem.

 

If you're sitting your hip flexors are lax while your hamstrings, gluts, etc are at stretch. If a sitting position causes pain it could indicate that your SI is rotated posterioraly or slipped inferioraly. Most dudes that are deadlifting or squatting on a regular basis have terrible hip flexibility all round, but I doubt it's your hips flexors that are causing problems. Stretch gluts and hamstrings religiously.

 

That's exactly the opposite of the other advice I've been given (that seems to help, although not quickly enough). My hips are canted forward, causing pain in the lower back. The explanation is that my hip flexors are tight (they are) as is my lower back. So I have muscles in the front pulling my hips down, and muscles in the back pulling them up. This causes strain on the abs and hamstrings/glutes (I can feel it). Stretching glutes and hams would only worsen the problem, weakening them and allowing the hips to rotate further and cause more low back arch and more pain.

 

That very well could be. Obviously difficult to assess over the web and with just the little info provided.

Once flexibility is improved and inflammation reduced there's muscle energy techniques that can be used to realign. These work sort of like a chiro manipulation that you can do on your own.

The first place to start, which can help regardless of how you're shifted is to lay on your back, knees bent to 90, and squeeze a rolled towel or ball between your knees just to the point that your muscles start shaking from the strain. People with your problem often feel or hear a pop as the 2 sides of your pubic bone realign.

Similarly, if your SI is rotated forward try standing sideways on a stair on your unaffected side with your affected leg hanging freely over the stair below. Without allowing your hips to shift or your knees to bend push the heel of your affected leg toward the lower step without actually moving. Think of it as an isometric without actually pushing on anything. This will force the extensor muscles to pull on their insertion points to rotate your pelvis back to its natural position. Tough to explain, I'm sure you can Google. These are the types of things you'd do in physical therapy to treat this problem.