RE: tailbone pain when stretchsitting

Make sure you aren't "sitting on your tail" while you stretchsit. If after making sure you have your behind behind you (though not exaggeratedly so) you are still experiencing pain while stretchsitting, back off a little. Tailbone injuries take a long time to heal and can be quite finicky. Do all the things that you can do without exacerbating your tailbone pain, and one day stretchsitting will probably work fine.

Hi Esther -- I too have frequent/persistent tailbone pain, both in stretchsitting and stacksitting.  This is not from any acute injury, it just developed. It is especially noticeable with driving.

I recently visited an out-of-town friend and was dismayed to find that, even though she keeps her pelvis anteverted, she too has this problem. She uses an ice pack on the area for 20 minutes at night.  But I'd rather prevent the problem in the first place.

I do find that, if I am stacksitting (as I am doing at my computer right now) and move my knees farther apart than my hips, I experience relief of the pain. Then I move my knees back into hip-width position. This only works if I can keep my feet on the floor in the chair -- many desk chairs don't permit this.

Does this sound like a solution? Or is there anything else you would recommend? Thanks!

Spreading your legs further apart creates easier passage for the pelvis to "settle" between the legs. Another way is to externally rotate the legs, which you get most simply (but not easily without someone showing you how) by kidney bean shaping your feet. It sounds like more anteversion of the pelvis is your solution and that you have found a way to get there. This then allows for true stacksitting.

In stacksitting, the tailbone is away from the chair so it shouldn't get affected. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if the pelvis is truly anteverted. Especially to beginners, a sway in the low back can make the pelvis looked anteverted though it isn't.

Another idea is to use a wedge with a cutout for the tailbone. These are readily available and can be helpful until the tailbone area heals.

Hi Esther -- I'm still trying to deal with this tailbone pain.  Do you think the gluteus medius strengthening exercise on p213 would bring relief? Somehow I am convinced I am just not using all my pelvic muscles and that is why I have this painful tailbone.

Strengthening the gluteus medius (and the other glutes as well) is a good long term approach to facilitating the pelvis to default to a healthy position. For the short term any new pull or pressure in the tailbone area could potentially cause displacement and/or inflammation of the tissue around the tailbone - go by feel.

For this sort of thing, I like to use acupuncture to reset the muscles in the area.