Sacroiliac (SI) joint pain is a frequently overlooked source of low back and hip pain in athletes. It’s easy to miss because it doesn’t always announce itself the way a muscle strain does — instead, it tends to show up as a dull ache in the lower back, buttock, or posterior hip that can mimic...
If you’ve been told spinal manipulation “puts your SI joint back into place,” that explanation doesn’t hold up under imaging, even though the treatment itself works. Manipulation, alongside targeted strength training, remains one of the most effective interventions for sacroiliac (SI) pain. The question researchers have spent decades on isn’t whether it works. It’s why....
If you’ve been told your sacroiliac (SI) joint is “out of alignment” based on a clinician feeling for bony landmarks on your pelvis, that finding is on shakier ground than most patients realize. Static palpation and motion-based SI testing have been studied since the 1980s, and the reliability numbers are bad enough that flipping a...
Manipulation, exercise, and taping are the three interventions physical therapists reach for first with sacroiliac (SI) joint pain. For years, though, the SI joint has been one of the most argued-about diagnoses in orthopedic PT. That changed somewhat in late 2025: a multispecialty consensus guideline endorsed by more than twenty medical societies, including the American...
Healthcare demonstrates significant swings of the pendulum in examination and treatment trends. Thankfully the medical evidence helps balance these swings allowing us to come to a more appropriate balance in clinical practice. Unfortunately, unchecked bias in a clinician, such as confirmation bias, can lead to missed diagnoses and inappropriate treatments. In Physical Therapy, this can...
The vast majority of musculoskeletal conditions and diagnoses are not life threatening or time sensitive and allow for conservative treatments, including Physical Therapy, to be utilized prior to surgery. In our Boulder Physical Therapy practice we commonly see outcomes consistent with the current research on the utilization of Physical Therapy instead of surgery for common...
Background Sacroiliac (SI) joint pain is an less common source of low back pain but has a higher incidence pregnant and post partum patients, as well as, after trauma. The incidence of SI pain in patients with low back pain is 13% (9-26%) (1). The majority of patients will report buttock pain (94%), lower lumbar...
In our Boulder County physical therapy practice, we are observing a resurgence of the use of clinical tests by some area providers to determine mobility and position of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) not only to explain posterior pelvic girdle pain, but also lower back, hip issues and beyond. Approximately 20 years ago, the tides began...
During arm movements, a relative ratio of degree measurements occurs between the ball and socket of the shoulder and the shoulder blade on the rib cage. This ratio or rhythm is thought to preserve spacing in the shoulder joint and optimize the length tension relationship in the surrounding muscles. Abnormal rhythms have been associated with...
By: John Crawley, PT, DPT, OCS Rock climbing, like all other sports, has risk factors that contribute to injury rates. Knowing what factors contribute to added injury risk can help participants build better training programs and potentially reduce future risk of injury. Luckily, researchers have begun to ask these questions and have made progress in...
