Your article really caught my attention because I have had a somewhat similar experience.

In 2002, I also injured my lower back by doing power squats with far too much weight (and not warming up). Ever since I have had lower back troubles which continue to this day, and which I feel at times, will never heal.

I also live in Vancouver and am concerned with wait lists to see specialists and the amount of coverage we are permitted. I am also frustrated with the lack of support and help we are given.

Six years later, my pain has returned in a bad way. Very chronic and debilitating. The doctors have ruled out structural damage (vertebrae misalignment) through X-rays, although I am having a bone scan done next week to reaffirm any cracks or fractures. Has your doctor recommended you have this done?

You may have suffered spondylolisis(thesis) which is a stress fracture to your lower vertebrae (pars) from squatting, and allows vertebrae to slide over each other. Apparently, I don’t suffer from this, but it is worth looking into. I will also be referred to a physiatrist, but this will take ages to get an appointment.

For me, physiotherapy, chiropractic and even prolotherapy havent helped, but I might suggest looking into prolotherapy for your case. I have also started trying intramuscular stimulation (IMS with needles), but to this end, no benefit has been established.

About these injections you speak of. Are you talking about cortisone? I havent had this done yet either, but may come as a last resort for pain management. I am still not sure whether my pain derives from joint/bone issues or muscle/tendon problems.

The lower back is a hard one to treat, and the longer it takes to cure, the more desperate we become for answers. Like you, I also can’t afford to spend a fortune looking for that answer either, but I also don’t want to be doomed to a life of pain.

After your squatting injury, did you have trouble standing upright? Are your lower back muscles permanently tense or spasming? Can you pinpoint the exact location of your pain with your finger or does it spread done to your hips and legs? Do you ‘feel’ that more of the pain is in the bones or in the muscles? Did you ever wear a lumbar support after your injury?

I am beginning to think my problem might be more of a muscular-neuropathic problem in which IMS should be the solution.
Feel free to contact me if you ever have questions or want to share experiences.

shauncreaney@hotmail.com

So as far as 80% of your body mass can be carryed by the other side SIJ with every step you take. So eventually muscles and ligamenst get tired and cause cramps and pain, sometimes even inflammation. And also on that side the nerves are more compressed bacause the scoliotic curve of lumbar causes more pressure on that side. It is not always like this but most cases are. Many other subluxations of pelvis can happen too and they can cause different posture and functional changes.

And medical sudies tell back pains are in 70-80% of the cases on the longer leg side. They just think that length difference is anatomical. Even if you look from X-rays there can be length difference because pelwis is twisted and iliums are not equally positioned so other femur is closer on z-axis than other, but on 2-dimensional picture you don’t see the z-axis. You see only 2D prjection of 3D world and that can shorten other leg easilly 1-2cm depending of the picture angle.

Some say SIJD is mostly women’s disorder. They are right, but many men have it too. About 80% of people have it causing them many different Muscular Skeletal Disorders. For women it is easier to happen because their pelvis is buld to give up easier. So smaller trauma can cause them upsplips, subluxations etc. And after giving birth those problems arevery common…

Most common SIJD case is upslip: Other ilium has moved out of it’s natural range and got stuck because of a trauma, fall, slip, or other accident. usually it is also rotated forward (anteriorly). When stuck it has no schock elimination and all those forces from down to up go to spine and causes countinuous stress there: wear and tear of spine and discs.

When pelvis is not functioning symmetrically it stresses the spine. There you get scoliosis, extended lordosis, wear and tear in discs and vertebra. Also altered pelvic ring posture causes piriformis tightening, ischias, leg weaknes, muscle imbalance, back muscles tightening, bad body posture, neck problems, shoulder problems,.. And to legs not only hip problems but also knee, ankle, achilles and many others too because it changes the way you walk.

But because the pain usually comes after yers of walking with SIJD that is difficult to diagnose. The trauma that caused it is so far in history. And it is not only a disorder for adults but also for children too. To children it causes ie. idiopathic scoliosis. See those pictures they use describing scoliosis: 9 out of 10 have pelvic bones malaligned. They say scoliosis causes that. But if your pelvis is not levelled the spine can not be straight. Can it? It was corrected from me at the age 35 by pushing it back by one old doctor. I had had mild scoliosis, short left leg and unleveled pelvis for all my life. Not any more!

And when they diagnose that rotation scoliosis, it means your other ilium is more forward than other (upslip and anteriorly rotated). It causes that twisting force to lumbar spine. And up in shoulder level you willingly fight against it trying to compensate that twist…
And when you have both SIJS upsipped you will get very exteded lordosis and you walk like Donald Duck …

This was a short message about SIJD and I am just an exSIJD patient who has interviewed hundreds of other similar patients and few experts who really knew how to help by correcting the problem.

Move your hands from the top of your pelvis at your sides around to your back where you will feel a bump just to the side of your spine. That’s the sacroiliac joint where your pelvic bones attach to your spine. If it hurts to touch that spot and when you bend forward or backward, you probably have sacroiliitis. This research shows that people with sacroiliitis have an overactive gluteus muscle in the buttocks below that painful joint and an overactive latissimus dorsi muscle in the back above the sacroiliac joint on the other side. Special rotary exercises that strengthen the latissimus dorsi on the other side and leg press exercises that strengthen the gluteus muscle on the same side were effective in controlling back pain in the sacroiliac joint.