While millions of Americans suffer from pain in the low back and pelvis, many back and hip issues are actually the result of sacroiliac instability (SI), i.e. an imbalance in the sacroiliac joint, which often goes undiagnosed or is improperly treated.
Alarmingly, yoga practitioners appear to experience S.I. problems at a significantly higher rate than in the average population. So the question is: How does this destabilization of the sacroiliac joint occur and what aspects of our approach to your yoga asana practice predispose us for SI?
It is critical for yoga teachers to understand how to assess and address this condition with intelligence, and above all, learn how to keep themselves and their students safe.
In this course, nationally renowned yoga therapist Robin Rothenberg, director of Essential Yoga Therapy and author of The Essential Low Back Program: Relieve Pain and Restore Health, will share her decades of experience in working with people living with chronic S.I. pain and hypermobility issues, many of them as a direct result of their yoga practice.
In this course, Robin will focus on the key differences between lumbar and sacral issues; the importance of core engagement and stabilization practices; safe sequencing and the challenge of breaking our addiction to the practices that we love that are actually ‘himsa’ – harming to the body.
Robin co-authored and taught the groundbreaking National Institutes of Health studies on yoga for back pain with Karen Sherman published in the Annals and Archives of Internal Medicine in 2005 and 2011 respectively. Seventy-eight percent of the participants in the NIH study experienced a significant reduction in their back pain levels following just 12 weeks of yoga practice.
What You Will Learn
- Important do’s and don’ts when working with students with S.I. pain
- How to distinguish between students with hypermobility and sacroiliac joint instability versus students with chronically tight/weak lower back condition
- Postures that help bring relief, posture types to avoid or use with caution
- How to organize a yoga practice to maximize pain relief and ensure your students’ safety
- The importance of breathing and sequencing when working with people with SI conditions
- Key principles of core stabilization for students with sacrum pain
- How to provide a safe way to learn to stabilize and strengthen the pelvic girdle.
- Lifelong tools to help maintain stability and restore overall well-being.
As director of Essential Yoga Therapy, Robin offers an IAYT Accredited Yoga Therapy Training Program, as well as The Essential Low Back Training Program, a 5-day intensive for yoga teachers who seek an in-depth understanding of how to address lower back conditions through yoga.
This Course Also Includes:
- Practice with Robin! Yoga Postures for Healing and Preventing SI Joint Pain: In this video yoga practice recorded specifically for this course, Robin will teach you the actions needed in postures to achieve the necessary abdominal engagement and pelvic stabilization to strengthen and protect the SI joint.
- Recordings of Both Sessions: Yours to keep. It’s generally acknowledged that many people only retain 10-20 percent of what they learn in a workshop. You will get the recordings of both sessions (MP3 – downloadable & MP4 – streaming online), enabling you to go back and listen to the workshop as many times as you like.
- Transcripts of Both Sessions: Ever wanted to refer to a certain part of a course? Even the best note takers miss a point every so often. With the transcripts of the sessions, you can go back and refer to particularly important passages or clarify sections you were in doubt about.
This course qualifies for 3 CEs with Yoga Alliance.
