Written by

Gina Conley, MS

June 20, 2024

Tailbone Pain Relief Exercises

Fitness, Pelvic Floor, Pregnancy, Prenatal

Tailbone pain can be a real pain in the butt… and you may be wondering what you can do to find relief! In this blog, I will discuss WHY you might have tailbone pain and three exercises to help you find relief! Pain is NOT a requirement of pregnancy, so there is hope!

Why Might You Have Tailbone Pain??

When you understand the anatomy of the tailbone (coccyx), you’ll better understand the WHY of tailbone pain.

The tailbone or the coccyx attaches to the bottom of the sacrum, and a joint connects the two. It’s not a singular bone, there are two components to it. Because of this, the tailbone can move around depending on the tension within the pelvic floor.

The pelvic floor attaches to the tailbone, so different types of tension within the pelvic floor can pull it in different directions, which could cause some of that discomfort. During pregnancy, because of common postural tendencies or ways that we like to stand, we tend to have more tension in the back half of our pelvic floor, particularly towards the left side. And so that tailbone may be getting pulled a little bit to the left side, causing some discomfort.

For a lot of us, the left hip rotates more forward and the right hip sits more backward, which can cause a torquing or a change in the bottom of our pelvis. Because of this, the ischial tuberosity (sitz bone) bone is closer to that tailbone area, while we have a lot more space on the right. The pelvic floor on the left posterior portion can be a little bit tighter, pulling that tailbone towards that left side.

Exercises for Tailbone Pain Relief

Exercises that we can do to find pain relief are going to involve hip shifting, where we’re bringing that left hip back and right hip forward to help stretch that tight posterior pelvic floor. And there are a few different ways that we can do hip shifts, and we’re going to start with a variation that’s down on the floor and we’re slowly going to progress towards more advanced hip shifting exercises.

1) All Fours Hip Shift

The first tailbone relief exercise you can do is a all fours hip shift with pelvic tilts. This movement stretches the posterior pelvic floor more so on one side than the other. Since we are wanting to target the LEFT posterior pelvic floor due to the common postural position of the pelvis, we will start with the LEFT knee on the yoga block.

Place the left knee on the yoga block.
Then shift your weight to the left. You should be able to lift the right knee off the floor without changing your body position.
Start with ten breaths where you inhale to feel the lower back/back half of the pelvic floor push outwards. Then exhale to lift the front half of the pelvic floor as you pull belly to spine.
Then move into pelvic tilts where you exhale to round, inhale to arch for ten reps.

Next, we can advance this movement with a mini band around the thighs. The mini band increases glute activation of the lower knee which can PUSH you deeper into the release.

Focus on keeping the right knee below the yoga block as you press the RIGHT knee out and keep your weight in the LEFT knee.

I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for the support you have given me throughout my first pregnancy. I'm currently 34 weeks, got your workout program in the 2nd trimester (mostly started because of pain, and am now pain free) and also a member of the Childbirth Education Course. I am feeling so physically and mentally ready for birth and I have you to thank!

I’m just here to say how much I LOVE MamasteFit 🩶 I’ve been hovering on the socials since 2018, purchased the pushing course in 2019, have completed the postpartum return to fitness twice now, prenatal program once (loosely) and have now been subscribed to the beyond postpartum programming for close to a year- and I just can’t sing high enough praises!! The programming is top-notch. The culture is amazing. I have 3 children (5, 3, almost 1) and a garage set up at home. MamasteFit has shown me it’s ok to have kids running around at my feet while I work out or have to pause for a nursing break. My kids now love getting out there with me and doing their own version of what they see me do. It’s become part of our rhythm; they know mommy is going to work out most afternoons. I’m loving how strong I am from the programming- just deadlifted 200lbs during max week a few weeks ago. I was a college runner, and I just so appreciate having solid programming to follow. And for such affordable prices too!! I genuinely tell anyone who asks about MamasteFit. Just wanted to say thank you to Gina and Roxanne for what you do!! It has made such a difference for me in my life. Keep it up!!

I also just wanted to thank you ladies! You have no idea how much support you gave me throughout my TTC, pregnancy and now birth! I was able to have a VBAC with an 8 pound 4 ounce baby (I’m 5’1” so clearly size doesn’t matter!) with hardly any tearing at all, just a minor nick. My labor was so smooth and pushing was super effective and quick thanks to your super helpful tips. I did your workout classes, childbirth education class (which is SO helpful) and listened to your podcast a ton. You ladies were seriously the MVPs of my birth and I’m on cloud 9!

If you want more daily workouts to support a strong pregnancy as you prepare for birth, join our online prenatal fitness programs!

MamasteFit is unique in that we are one of the ONLY prenatal/postnatal training facilities in the United States. We develop our workout programs from our experience of working with in-person pre/postnatal fitness clients and work closely with physical therapists to refine our programming. In addition, we are birth workers, so we combine our experience as perinatal fitness trainers and birth professionals to ensure that our programs actually support your birth preparation and recovery!

Our prenatal fitness programs are offered in several formats:

40-Week Prenatal Strength Program in the Teambuildr App:
- This program is a self-paced workout with shorter demo videos. This is ideal if you like to workout in a gym setting and prefer a traditional workout delivery format.
- This program syncs to your current week of pregnancy, so you can start anytime, with one-time payment or month-to-month payment options.
- This program has a full and mini version, depending on how much time you have to dedicate to workouts!
Prenatal On-Demand Fitness Program:
- If you prefer to follow a video as you workout at the same time, this workout program will be the best option!
- This program syncs to your current trimester, so you can grab the trimesters you need!
Birth Prep Workout Program:
- If you have a current workout routine, and you want to add on workouts to prep for birth–check out this program!
Prenatal Yoga Classes:
- If you want prenatal yoga, join our prenatal yoga program! This also syncs to your current trimester.

2) Standing Hip Shift

The next movement is the standing hip shift. This movement has more overall activation in the body since its a standing position, so for some of us, we may feel this release more than the all fours position.

In the standing hip shift, you’ll place the LEFT foot on the yoga block and shift your weight towards the left hip. Similar to all fours, you should be able to lift the right foot off the floor with fairly little shift in your body.

Place the left foot on the yoga block.
Shift your weight to the left as you hinge the hips backward.
Reach forward and across with your right hand as you rotate your belly towards the left thigh. This will increase the stretch in your left glute.
Keep weight in the left big toe as you attempt to rotate the left knee inward and reach forward with the right hand. This will rotate the upper body in the opposite direction as the lower body to emphasize the stretch at that hip.
Hold here for ten breaths.

Another variation is to add some movement. From the standing hip shift position, you can extend the hip to reach forward and then shift back into the hip-shifted position.

3) Standing Archer Row and Press

The final hip shifted variation is the archer row and press! This is one of my favorites for this pregnancy. In the archer row and press, we are adding resistance to the upper body to increase the rotation in the upper body. This rotation in the upper body better translates to a counter rotation in the lower body, which brings you deeper into the release.

Think about the upper body rotating towards the left, as the lower body rotates towards the right. And that connection point is at the hip/pelvic floor.

In the archer row:

Start with the band attached around eye level (option in the video to use no attachments).
Hold the band in the left hand with the left foot slightly staggered behind the right foot.
Exhale to row the band back as you shift your weight into the left foot. Think about putting a lot of weight in the left big toe.
As you row, crunch slightly to the left side to help you rotate more into the left hip.

In the archer press:

Start with the band attached around eye level (option in the video to use no attachments) and face away from the point of attachment.
Hold the band in the right hand with the left foot slightly staggered behind the right foot.
Exhale to press the band forward as you shift your weight into the left foot. Think about putting a lot of weight on the left big toe.
As you press, reach across towards the left to lengthen the right side body.

You can use those three exercises, and so many more, to help find a hip shift to release tension in that posterior pelvic floor, which could be influencing where the tailbone is moving.

If you want more exercises to help you find pain relief throughout your pregnancy, check out our online prenatal fitness programs. Our online prenatal fitness programs are designed to not only keep you strong throughout your pregnancy, but also pain free with tons of hip shifting exercises, pelvic floor release exercises, and improving your mobility of your hip and your rib cage, so that we have a lot more movement happening within our pelvic floor.