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| ILLUSTRATION OF TURNED SACRUM |
This page is primarily for people who have chosen to get started with the somatic education exercises (action patterns) of Comforting Your S-I Joints, for free, as a way to test them in yourself as a way to get relief from sacroileitis pain.
In it, you'll see or hear people describing their own experience.What's shown here isn't for "half-measures" people, "quick fix" people, or "do it for me", consumer-minded people. It's for people who are intent on results and will do what it takes to get them.
This is a "getting started" page -- not a "symptoms all gone" page. You can't evaluate the effectiveness of the whole program based on what this page contains because the whole program produces the results; you can evaluate the quality of instruction and the organization of the program and you will get feel-able improvements -- just not the whole result.
This program is the best approach that I know of to get out of pain from a turned sacrum. What you should know in advance is that it's work. You earn the results by applying yourself. If you want a quick fix or you want someone to fix you, go elsewhere until you realize that you can't find a quick fix that works. This program will be available.
That said, don't try to swallow everything on this page in one gulp. It's impossible and that's not how the program is designed; the program presents the information and instructions in bite-size pieces. I guide you, step-by-step in the recorded program and in personal mentoring sessions, if you choose to have them.
So this page provides an overview. You needn't remember what's on it. If you try to swallow it all in one gulp, particularly without experiencing the action patterns, you'll only get brain-fog.
So, just go for an overview, at first. Scan through this page quickly, first, to locate topics of special interest, to you, or just view the videos, which are brief.
Google ranking of this entry has made this entry more visible than the entry that should have preceded it, Understanding Sacro-iliac Joint Pain | Stopping the Pains and Weird Symptoms, so I'm giving it to you, here. Read it to understand sacroiliac joint dysfunction and why this regimen works.
This regimen is an alternative to surgery with no negative side effects. It sufficiently improves comfort and function to make you fit and comfortable for all activities, including heavy lifting. Improvements are long-lasting.
It does have side effects: positive side effects. You end up feeling better put-together, more robust, stronger and more agile than before the symptoms set in.
However, you have to do the work.
So you have two general options:
It does have side effects: positive side effects. You end up feeling better put-together, more robust, stronger and more agile than before the symptoms set in.
However, you have to do the work.
So you have two general options:
- costly options with permanent side-effects or which need to be redone, periodically -- and --
- a cost-effective option with no negative side effects and with positive side-benefits beyond mere recovery.
I'll make a prediction: How you approach and do what's here is how you approach and do everything in your life. (That may explain why your life has gone as it has.)
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MORE:
WHY IT WORKS
This approach works because bones go where soft-tissue pulls them. This program systematically changes the shape of the pelvis (which includes sacrum) by changing the weight-bearing and postural forces of the soft tissue for right-left, mirror-image symmetry. Changes accumulate and symptoms decrease, with practice, with feel-able changes during and after each practice session.
With the changes created by this regimen, your health practitioners are likely to notice and to comment with something like, "Whatever you're doing, keep it up!"
Face-to-face, live-on-line mentoring, needed by a minority of users of this program, is available. The email address to request a mentoring consultation exists at the end of every section of the program, Comforting Your S-I Joints.
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CONTENTS
* Who This Program is For
* Program Overview
* How and Why I Developed, Comforting Your S-I Joints
* How to ...
* Getting Started (for free -- yes, it's Unit 1 of the actual program)
* Promised Results of Unit 2 (for which you may invest)
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WHO IS THIS PROGRAM FOR?
I recommend this program for people who have two or more of the following symptoms:
- groin pain that has persisted despite therapy for tight psoas muscles
- testicular pain or vulvar pain
- pelvic floor dysfunction
- bladder pain
- deep pain in the pelvis
- a gripping sensation at the bottom of the abdomen
- deep pain at the waist in back, on one side
- pain around the rim of the pelvis
- pain deep in one hip joint
- a feeling like a tight wire going down the low back and into the pelvis
- pain, numbness, or "lightning like" shooting/burning pain at the side or front of the thighs or in the pelvis
The general approach of therapy is to regard the cause of a symptom as being at the location of the symptom. With the symptoms named above, when they occur in combination, that's not the case. The cause is elsewhere -- in this case, from the sacrum being turned with one sacro-iliac joint being jammed, and sometimes (more rarely) both sacro-iliac joints.
The symptoms consist of radiating pain, nerve pain, muscular pain, and unnatural patterns of joint and spinal compression, all of which come from the turned sacrum. The pain of the turned sacrum triggers muscular cringing responses, potentially anywhere in the body, and untraceable (i.e., undiagnosable) by looking at the locations of the pains.
Addressing symptoms as if their cause is at their location is generally unsuccessful; the successful approach involves correcting the position of the sacrum.
Manipulation of the sacrum is a case of "addressing the symptom at its location" and is a limited benefit.
Normalizing the muscular and weight-bearing forces that are keeping the sacrum turned causes it to straighten and to resume its healthy mobility. As the sacrum straightens, symptoms decrease and disappear. The shape of the whole pelvis -- and mobility -- normalize.
Comforting Your S-I Joints -- PROGRAM OVERVIEW
You don't need to keep any of this in your mind or make any effort at all to remember it. Just understand it, once. You may find yourself imagining what I'm describing or remembering it, in yourself.
The design of the program does the remembering, for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydYpneQc0tA
ARE THESE STRETCHES?
ANSWER: no, definitely not
These are programmed movements -- action patterns -- that reprogram muscle/movement memory in ways you can distinctly feel. Never stretch. Never do these action patterns as stretches. Avoid stretching. Always work within your range of comfort short of any cringe response.
ARE THESE ACTION PATTERNS PAINFUL and DO I WORK THROUGH THE PAIN?
ANSWER: "no" and "no"For a person in good condition, these action patterns are entirely comfortable, to do. Pain is a sign of the trouble you're in -- and the difference between pain (as I use the term), and "intense sensation", is the cringe response.
If you find an action pattern pattern painful enough to make you cringe, you're not ready for it. Skip it, for now, and continue through the rest of the program.
Working with these action patterns while cringing and forcing through pain is counterproductive. It just teaches you to expect pain and to cringe in anticipation, reinforcing the muscular tension patterns.
As you cycle through the program, the other action patterns prepare you so that you are comfortable enough to do the previously painful action pattern without cringing. Never force or "work through the pain"; cultivate control within your non-cringing comfort zone.
You will feel changes in movement and balance almost from the beginning. If you don't feel improvements from a given exercise in one or two practice sessions, either you don't particularly need that exercise, you need preparation from the other action patterns, or you were doing it differently than as described in the instructions. It doesn't matter; do the whole program, as given. Mentoring helps to speed your improvement.
HOW and WHY I DEVELOPED THE PROGRAM, COMFORTING YOUR S-I JOINTS
This program came into existence from correcting my own S-I joint dysfunction.
I had pain in back at waist level on the right side, pain around the rim of my pelvis on the right, deep "gluteal" (buttock) pain (which wasn't muscle pain, but referred nerve pain), pain deep in my left hip joint, sciatica-like pain in my right calf (which wasn't typical sciatica, but came from a jammed sacrum), and other very unpleasant symptoms that I describe in my entry on Understanding the S-I Joints and Stopping the Pain and Attendant Weird Symptoms. I was like a poster-child for S-I joint pain. A few people I have worked with have had symptoms worse than mine -- most, not.
The strategy I adopted for this program is
- to remove forces that simultaneously twist and compress the sacrum or twist the ilium (side-hip bone) in relation to the sacrum.
- to repattern coordination of muscular and weight-bearing forces for symmetry between right and left sides to cause the pelvis to become symmetrical -- and so untwist the sacrum.
I started with Gentle Spine Waves -- done with respect for my own tolerance, never making myself cringe either from pain or from expectation of pain. I was in delicate condition, so I treated myself delicately. I developed other exercises, some of which I refined to make them more efficient and others of which I replaced with better exercises. Gradually, I discovered more movement patterns that addressed more aspects of the problem. So, the program evolved into its present form.
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HOW TO FOLLOW THE PROGRAM
First note: It's best to do this program last-thing in the day, so sleep is next. You'll sleep better and tissue growth that occurs at night will be in the better pattern brought about by the action patterns.
This program consists of somatic education action patterns done in a specific order. You don't do all the action patterns in one sweep (which is why I divide the instruction into sections of practice); you do them in entire sections, as described, below.
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As you work through the program, if a certain action pattern feels too painful to do because of your condition, skip to the next section; you'll return to the too-painful action pattern as you cycle through the program and likely find that you can now do it comfortably -- and if not, skip it, again.
Each action pattern sets changes in motion that progress for some time after practice. Some decompress your S-I joints, so the other action patterns can work; some self-correct your coordination, so the forces that position your sacrum change direction; some flush up existing problems so you can correct them as you cycle through the program; and some integrate and consolidate the improvements that have occurred.
As in a recipe, no one ingredient constitutes the entire recipe, no one ingredient, but the whole recipe, produces the result, and there are steps of preparation. Each action pattern may be viewed as an ingredient and the program, as the recipe.
The program takes you, step-by-step, through your self-renewal, back to life free of pain and in robust condition.
HOW TO DO THE ACTION PATTERNS
Too tired to do them? That's a sign you need them. Do them, anyway. You'll finish more refreshed -- not more tired.
You do the action patterns in sections for the number of practice days stated at the opening screen of each section -- unless you find it necessary to skip an action pattern due to pain, as stated above.
You begin each practice session with all of the action patterns of Unit 1, Part 1 and finish each practice session with all of the action patterns of Unit 1, Part 2.
Here's a summary of the program:
The Tongue Mudra is an evolved form of an ancient yogic technique. It involves positioning the tongue and lower jaw in a particular way along with special breathing. This positioning creates internal feeling-connections that cause spontaneous self-corrections of tension, feeling, and posture.
It may seem odd that positioning the tongue in some way can cause these effects, but cause them, it does. I have often felt the effects all the way into my sacrum as shifts of comfort and position.
It's very handy and the first thing you should learn in the program. An instructional video follows, below. Start your practice of The Tongue Mudra when you reach that video, on this page.
You might do the action patterns in this program without The Tongue Mudra and get results, but results occur much more quickly and easily if you use the Mudra during or immediately after practice.
There is an exception: the action patterns that involve the jaws (Unit 2, Section F.2); it's rather impossible to do both at the same time, so you follow the action pattern with a few minutes of The Tongue Mudra.
Some people have residue from neck injuries. If that's you, The Tongue Mudra is essential, for you.
If you get too sore to want to practice, take a break and pick up where you left off, after the soreness abates.
Until you're familiar with the action patterns, it's best to follow the practice guidelines given for each section.
The Tongue Mudra
Done as instructed in the tutorial above, even by itself, The Tongue Mudra is very powerful at triggering self-adjustments to posture and movement -- if you do it correctly, meaning, in the correct position so that you get the sensations described -- easy, but specific.
The use of The Tongue Mudra after practice increases the changes caused by the action patterns.
We like it.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
You determine your own sacral position before each practice session; people's sacrum changes position and you may want to make sure you are doing the action pattern for the correct side. A video-tutorial provides instructions.
Self-assessment is not optional or occasional. Self-assessment is required in order to know on which side to do certain action patterns -- and that will probably change unpredictably as you do the program. So, check yourself.
If you feel worse after practice, you may have done the wrong side. Do the other side, immediately.
However, remember that even if you did the correct side, soreness sometimes happens after practice. It may last a few hours before subsiding. If it doesn't subside within a day, do the action pattern for your other side, next.
Determining Sacral Position
(self-assessment)
Determine which way your sacrum is turned (left or right side jammed forward) to determine which side is your working side; the introductions to the exercises explain. You're manually measuring the depression or "dimple" next to the ridges; you compare the distance between the depth of each dimple and the height of each ridge where it touches your fingers. If one side of your sacrum is "high" or closer to the surface, the other side is jammed.
The exercise patterns are designed to correct twists, up-and-down displacements and rotations of the pelvic bones.
UNITS of PRACTICE
This section shows how the program is organized, how you follow it.
1. "Unit 1" (seven cycles, or so -- or until you have accurately memorized the movements and no new changes occur.)
2. "Abbreviated Unit 1" + "Unit 2"
(subject to personal coaching recommendations)
In "abbreviated Unit 1", you do two repetitions of each movement (instead of five), from memory.
You prepare for the Unit 2 exercises with Unit 1, PART 1 and finish the Unit 2 exercises with Unit 1, PART 2, "AFTER EVERY UNIT 2 or UNIT 3 PRACTICE SESSION".
3. "Unit 3"
UNIT 1 | Unlocking the Situation
From the Unit 1 preparatory exercises, expect relaxation and lengthening of the spine of the whole side worked, feel-able as you lie in repose after practice; it prepares you so the other exercises can do their work. What you will feel is a lengthening of the "working" side and decompression of that side's S-I Joint -- preparation for what is to follow.
Do seven cycles, or so, through all of Unit 1 (parts 1 and 2), using the video tutorial until you remember the movements well enough to do them from memory. (A "cycle" is a practice session of all of the exercises in a section.)
Then, combine Unit 1 with one section from Unit 2, as instructed, above.
Unit 1.1.1. Gentle Spine Waves
Gentle Spine Waves is an "unlocking" step that loosens your back tension so you can make other changes. The additional looseness makes it easier for things to shift to a new position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylqm8dNtc48
Unit 1.1.2. Sidelying Sacral Decompression
Start with the deeper side up; this instruction will make sense once you've followed the video-tutorial, the first time, not from reading these instructions or just viewing the tutorial video.
When working Unit 2, you do Unit 1 as preparation for each Unit 2 section. You are unlocking the situation so the Unit 2 action pattern work.
CLIENT EXPERIENCE
Section C. Gentle Spine Waves, PART 2
1. Gentle Spine Waves, PART 2 (two minutes or so)
2. Freeing Hamstrings, Standing Position (twelve-minute tutorial, two-to-three minutes to do when you know the exercise)
3. Standing Side-Sway (one minute)
4. a 5-10 minute walk to integrate the changes:
GET STARTED, FOR FREE.
On the rest of this page, you find the exercises that constitute the rest of this program, what to expect from each exercise, and links to the access page for the entire program.
UNIT 2 | Normalizing Movement: Self-Corrections and Integration
OVERALL EXPECTED RESULTS:
GET STARTED, FOR FREE.
CLICK FOR THE FULL PROGRAM
UNIT 3 | Higher Integration Movements: Consolidating Improvements
By now, you are much more comfortable and mobile. You may notice that it's hard to tell which side of your sacrum is deeper or which side moves more easily.
That's when you start UNIT 3.
EXPECTED RESULT:
Alternative 1 (RFA): uses electromagnetic (radio) energy to burn/cook the nerve to kill the pain, but does nothing to correct the cause of the pain. Nerves usually regenerate, so this procedure must be redone every 6-9 months.
Alternative 2 (surgery): makes permanent changes to (usually one) sacroiliac joint and alters movement, with no guarantee of relief. Expense, post-surgical pain and recovery time are involved.
This program, Comforting Your S-I Joints (which you may start immediately from the video instruction on this page) clears up sacro-iliac joint pain and attendant symptoms more completely than joint fusion surgery, more effectively than cortisone shots, TENS (electrical stimulation), pain meds or manipulative therapies, and more lastingly than RFA (burning the nerve). It dissolves pains and makes movement easy, better balanced, and more efficient. Muscle/movement memory changes. Postural changes occur.
Here's a summary of the program:
- Unit 1: Preparation
- Unit 2: Self-Corrections and Integrations
- Unit 3: Refining your Movement and Consolidating the Improvements
Unit 1: Preparation
The Tongue Mudra
Very Powerful.The Tongue Mudra is an evolved form of an ancient yogic technique. It involves positioning the tongue and lower jaw in a particular way along with special breathing. This positioning creates internal feeling-connections that cause spontaneous self-corrections of tension, feeling, and posture.
It may seem odd that positioning the tongue in some way can cause these effects, but cause them, it does. I have often felt the effects all the way into my sacrum as shifts of comfort and position.
It's very handy and the first thing you should learn in the program. An instructional video follows, below. Start your practice of The Tongue Mudra when you reach that video, on this page.
You might do the action patterns in this program without The Tongue Mudra and get results, but results occur much more quickly and easily if you use the Mudra during or immediately after practice.
There is an exception: the action patterns that involve the jaws (Unit 2, Section F.2); it's rather impossible to do both at the same time, so you follow the action pattern with a few minutes of The Tongue Mudra.
Some people have residue from neck injuries. If that's you, The Tongue Mudra is essential, for you.
How Much Time Does It Take?
Once you know the Unit 1 action patterns, most practice sessions take about 1/2 to 3/4 hour; some take less, some take more.If you get too sore to want to practice, take a break and pick up where you left off, after the soreness abates.
Until you're familiar with the action patterns, it's best to follow the practice guidelines given for each section.
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The "Getting Started" Part
The "Getting Started" Part
SPECIAL, WORTHWHILE PRACTICE ORIENTATION:
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The Tongue Mudra
INSTRUCTION
Done as instructed in the tutorial above, even by itself, The Tongue Mudra is very powerful at triggering self-adjustments to posture and movement -- if you do it correctly, meaning, in the correct position so that you get the sensations described -- easy, but specific.
The use of The Tongue Mudra when practicing these action patterns increases their potency, making larger self-corrections occur more quickly.
The use of The Tongue Mudra after practice increases the changes caused by the action patterns.
We like it.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
You determine your own sacral position before each practice session; people's sacrum changes position and you may want to make sure you are doing the action pattern for the correct side. A video-tutorial provides instructions.
Self-assessment is not optional or occasional. Self-assessment is required in order to know on which side to do certain action patterns -- and that will probably change unpredictably as you do the program. So, check yourself.
If You Can't Confidently (and Competently) Assess Yourself
Get a therapist to teach you how and to confirm your accuracy.If you feel worse after practice, you may have done the wrong side. Do the other side, immediately.
However, remember that even if you did the correct side, soreness sometimes happens after practice. It may last a few hours before subsiding. If it doesn't subside within a day, do the action pattern for your other side, next.
Determining Sacral Position
(self-assessment)
The exercise patterns are designed to correct twists, up-and-down displacements and rotations of the pelvic bones.
This section shows how the program is organized, how you follow it.
1. "Unit 1" (seven cycles, or so -- or until you have accurately memorized the movements and no new changes occur.)
2. "Abbreviated Unit 1" + "Unit 2"
(subject to personal coaching recommendations)
In "abbreviated Unit 1", you do two repetitions of each movement (instead of five), from memory.
You prepare for the Unit 2 exercises with Unit 1, PART 1 and finish the Unit 2 exercises with Unit 1, PART 2, "AFTER EVERY UNIT 2 or UNIT 3 PRACTICE SESSION".
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| CLICK TO ENLARGE Using the Program Correctly |
3. "Unit 3"
UNIT 1 | Unlocking the Situation
Then, combine Unit 1 with one section from Unit 2, as instructed, above.
Unit 1.1.1. Gentle Spine Waves
Gentle Spine Waves is an "unlocking" step that loosens your back tension so you can make other changes. The additional looseness makes it easier for things to shift to a new position.
PART 1
INTRODUCTION
INSTRUCTION
Finding Your Sidelying Edge
NECESSARY PREPARATION FOR ALL
SIDELYING ACTION PATTERNS
NECESSARY PREPARATION FOR ALL
SIDELYING ACTION PATTERNS
Unit 1.1.2. Sidelying Sacral Decompression
INSTRUCTION
Start with the deeper side up; this instruction will make sense once you've followed the video-tutorial, the first time, not from reading these instructions or just viewing the tutorial video.
When working Unit 2, you do Unit 1 as preparation for each Unit 2 section. You are unlocking the situation so the Unit 2 action pattern work.
CLIENT EXPERIENCE
After This Section of Practice
Section C. Gentle Spine Waves, PART 2
UNIT 1 PART 2 -- INTRODUCTION
1. Gentle Spine Waves, PART 2 (two minutes or so)
INSTRUCTION
2. Freeing Hamstrings, Standing Position (twelve-minute tutorial, two-to-three minutes to do when you know the exercise)
INSTRUCTION
3. Standing Side-Sway (one minute)
CLIENT EXPERIENCE
After This Section of Practice
After This Section of Practice
4. a 5-10 minute walk to integrate the changes:
The Power Walks
- The Gyroscopic Walk | https://youtu.be/sDaiFa-SL_Y
- The Old Scottish Geezer's Walk | https://youtu.be/Cohw-NIzcww
CLICK THE IMAGE, FOR ACCESS.
GET STARTED, FOR FREE.
LIFETIME SATISFACTION REFUND GUARANTEE
The exercise instruction videos you've seen, above, are enough to get you started on the program, so you can evaluate its effectiveness, for you.
UNIT 2 | Normalizing Movement: Self-Corrections and Integration
OVERALL EXPECTED RESULTS:
- relief from pain in the S-I joint
- relief of various pains and weird symptoms, elsewhere
- freedom to bend forward (without abdominal muscles ttightening)
- freedom to straighten up
- easy walking
- better overall movement -- balance, flexibility, coordination
- relief from (so-called) "piriformis muscle pain" (actually, it's nerve pain)
- relief from burning / numbness in the thigh
- others, detailed below
CLICK THE IMAGE, FOR ACCESS.
GET STARTED, FOR FREE.
LIFETIME SATISFACTION REFUND GUARANTEE
CLICK FOR THE FULL PROGRAM
By now, you are much more comfortable and mobile. You may notice that it's hard to tell which side of your sacrum is deeper or which side moves more easily.
That's when you start UNIT 3.
EXPECTED RESULT:
- smoother, more fluid connection of legs, pelvis and trunk
disappearance of residual tensions and discomforts CLICK THE IMAGE, FOR ACCESS.
GET STARTED, FOR FREE.LIFETIME SATISFACTION REFUND GUARANTEE
Two surgical alternatives to this regimen exist:
- radio-frequency nerve ablation (RFA): $2,100, or so
- joint fusion surgery: $23,000, or so
Alternative 1 (RFA): uses electromagnetic (radio) energy to burn/cook the nerve to kill the pain, but does nothing to correct the cause of the pain. Nerves usually regenerate, so this procedure must be redone every 6-9 months.
Alternative 2 (surgery): makes permanent changes to (usually one) sacroiliac joint and alters movement, with no guarantee of relief. Expense, post-surgical pain and recovery time are involved.
This program, Comforting Your S-I Joints (which you may start immediately from the video instruction on this page) clears up sacro-iliac joint pain and attendant symptoms more completely than joint fusion surgery, more effectively than cortisone shots, TENS (electrical stimulation), pain meds or manipulative therapies, and more lastingly than RFA (burning the nerve). It dissolves pains and makes movement easy, better balanced, and more efficient. Muscle/movement memory changes. Postural changes occur.
It's more cost-effective than any of the alternatives named.
Lawrence Gold
The Institute for Somatic Study and Development
Milwaukie, OR 97222
505 819-0858
SKYPE: lawrencegold
You can end your own pain and be better than before.
Apply yourself to your own somatic education.
Relief that lasts: It's like finding gold.
Twitter: @somatic_healing
Facebook (forthcoming)
Blog:
Full-Spectrum Somatics | http://lawrencegoldsomatics.blogspot.com/
YouTube channel: Lawrence9Gold | http://www.youtube.com/user/Lawrence9Gold?feature=mhee
Consultation and Mentoring Options
If you get stuck, don't worry. You may contact me for one-time, or for ongoing, mentoring consultations (paid, with a satisfaction guarantee). Visit http://somatics.com/page7-consultation.htm to schedule.Lawrence Gold
The Institute for Somatic Study and Development
Milwaukie, OR 97222
505 819-0858
SKYPE: lawrencegold
You can end your own pain and be better than before.
Apply yourself to your own somatic education.
Relief that lasts: It's like finding gold.
Twitter: @somatic_healing
Facebook (forthcoming)
Blog:
Full-Spectrum Somatics | http://lawrencegoldsomatics.blogspot.com/
