Your hip bone's connected to your...

Most people think they know where their joints are: hips, knees, ankles, toes, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers.  There's another little joint that most people don't know exists until it starts to dysfunction.  Ok, yes, there are a bunch of others as well, but that's not the point of this post.

The joints I'm talking about, and those I've been left awkwardly icing for the last few days are the Sacroiliac Joints, or SI Joints.  It means sitting on an ice pack by the way.

Inside the red oval- one on each side.

I got tangled up with another player during my soccer game Thursday night, stood up, but when I tried to walk away I fell back to my knees in pain.  All I knew was that my sacrum hurt, a lot.  I stepped off the field, slowly, and tried to stretch it out with no luck.  It hurt to sit, so I spent the rest of the game cheering from the boards.

I've been icing, stretching, and resting.  I may head to gym for some upper body strengthening later, but that will be the unfortunate extent at least for today.  And even that's probably not the wisest choice.  Even the most mundane tasks like picking up something from the floor or walking down the stairs can send quite a twinge of pain.

You see, the SI joint is a tricky joint.  It doesn't just move one bone or one limb; it's the core of so many movements.  It joins your sacrum, the most distal spine, to your pelvis.  The pelvis is home to your hip joint, and the chain goes on.  That "hip bone's connected to your knee bone" song really has some truth to it.  If you're back or legs are moving- chances are that your SI joints are in on it too.

I'm less than 48 hours post-injury so I don't even dare venture a guess at what's going on.  Sprain, strain, a little bruising, something worse, something better- who knows.  My SI joints (L more so than R) are just letting me know they're there.