We often see patients with low back pain and sciatic pain, and an underlying cause is often poor hip alignment. Something has caused the pelvis to be rotated so that one hip bone is out of alignment with the other. This problem often reoccurs periodically, and patients often ask if they can check their own alignment at home. Here is a technique you can use to check and correct your alignment yourself or with a partner. This may provide you with some much needed relief if you are experiencing sciatic pain. You should always follow-up afterward with your manual physical therapist at JGPT or IPT to make sure there are no other contributing factors to your alignment issue.

Steps to check alignment:

  1. Find a somewhat firm surface and lay on your back
  2. Once on your back bend both of your knees while keeping your feet flat on the table
  3. Bridge up(lifting your hips off the table) and back down once
  4. Straighten your legs slowly until you are flat on the table
  5. Take your hands and find the front of your hip bones on both sides(the pointy part of your pelvis)
  6. Feel to see if one side is higher towards your chest than the other (if needed have someone else help you with this part)

Steps to correct alignment:

  1. Once alignment is checked, get off the table or bed and stand next to it
  2. Stand so that the side that is higher is closest to the table/bed.
  3. Take the side that is closest to the table/bed and place that side of your lower body(from your waist down) on the table, with the knee facing down into the table
  4. Make sure that your hips or facing forward
  5. The foot that is still on the ground should be flat
  6. Slightly extend at the hips moving your upper body backwards
  7. Next, push the top leg down into the table and push the heel of your bottom leg down into the floor, as if you were trying to make a scissor-like motion with your legs but they are being resisted by the table or bed. This is a muscle energy technique in attempt to correct your hip alignment.
  8. Hold for 10 seconds, repeat 10 times
  9. Re-check your hip alignment.

Follow-up with your physical therapist.

Watch Kate’s video of this technique at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTw27SjJxXs&list=PLrEeztSKC_eIebP7zQkd7IkxoSUAlFtUr&index=10.