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| Posture of Spine |
Characteristics involve having a pronounced lower back arch, glutes (your bottom) that stick out and a protruding stomach.
/ Why is having an anterior pelvic tilt a problem?
It is common for this anterior pelvic tilt position to drastically effect your posture (even up into the upper back and neck!)… That is why it is so important that you get it fixed as soon as possible. It could be the one reason why you have so much pain and tightness in your body.If your pelvis is in the wrong position, everything else is going to be out of position! That is a problem!
// How to tell if you have an anterior pelvic tilt?
1. (Thomas Test)
- Sit on the edge of a sturdy table.
- Lie back onto the table so that your legs hang off the table at the knee.
- Pull one of your legs in toward you, holding under your knee and bending your leg until it rests against your chest.
- Repeat with the other leg.
If you need to extend the resting leg or rotate your leg or hip in order to touch the table, your front thigh muscles are tight. This likely signals a tilted pelvis.
2. Posture Method.
Stand up. Place one finger on your pointy hip bone at the front, and the other on your pointy bone at the back. (check out the picture above for the points. See it?… That’s the spot!)
If you have anterior pelvic tilt, the finger at the front of your hip bone will be significantly lower in comparison to the finger on the pointy bone at the back.
Note: It is normal for the pelvis to tilt slightly forward. This is what I refer to as a “neutral pelvis”. (see above)
Note #2: Everyone has different shaped and sized “pointy bones”. This is just a general guideline to quickly determine if you have an anterior pelvic tilt or not.
// Why do you have an anterior pelvic tilt?
You are either sitting too much or sitting incorrectly. Not that I am spying on you right now, but chances are that you are doing both of them right now! Make sure you click on the post: The correct pelvis position to find out how to sit properly and prevent this problem altogether.Excessive sitting causes the muscles that control the position of the pelvis to get tight, overactive, weak and/or inhibited. As a result, there is an imbalance of the forces around the pelvis region causing a net force to forward tilt (anterior pelvic tilt).
Anatomy 101: Without going into great detail, here are a bunch of muscles that you will need to target to fix an anterior pelvic tilt.
Tight/overactive muscles: Hip flexors, Tensor fascia lata, quadriceps, Lower back erectors, Thoracolumbar fascia
Weak/inhibited muscles: Gluteal group, Hamstring, Abdominals, Obliques
Let’s fix your anterior pelvic tilt posture! You need to:
- 1) stretch the tight/overactive muscles
- 2) strengthen/activate the weak/inhibited muscles and;
- 3) Train your brain to keep the pelvis in the neutral position.
1. Stretch/Release the muscles and structures at the front of the hip area
Before you can start to strengthen any of your weak muscles that are contributing to your anterior pelvic tilt, you need to stretch the tight muscles which may be inhibiting them in the first place.// Hip flexor stretch
Key points:
- Make sure you feel the stretch where you are meant to feel it. There’s no point doing a stretch if it isn’t stretching you. In this stretch you should feel a pulling sensation at the front section of your hip
- Hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. As you become more familiar with the movements, try to work your way up to holding for 1- 2 minutes.
- I find this stretch is very much a game of angles. Once you are in position as instructed, move the hip around until you can feel the stretch strongly.
Key points:
- Hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. As you become more familiar with the movements, try to work your way up to holding for 1- 2 minutes.
- Stay as upright as possible. Resist the urge to bend at the hips as this will decrease the tension on the quadricep complex.
- Hold onto something (like a wall) for balance
- Drive your hips forward and tense your glutes if you feel that you aren’t getting a strong stretch.
Key points:
- Hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. As you become more familiar with the movements, try to work your way up to holding for 1- 2 minutes.
- If you cannot feel a stretch in your groin muscle, try out the different variations. In some positions, you may feel the stretch more than the others.
Stretching the muscles of the lower back can be slightly more difficult. If you have pre-existing lower back pain, please take care with these exercises. You may need to specifically address your lower back pain before fixing your anterior pelvic tilt if the pain is too much to do the exercises.
// Side stretch
Key points:
- Hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. As you become more familiar with the movements, try to work your way up to holding for 1- 2 minutes.
- As mentioned before, if you already have pain in your lower back area, take care when performing the exercise. If there is pain, change your position. If it still hurts, then stop the exercise.
- Relax your muscles as much as you can. This allows for a deep stretch.
- Make sure you feel the stretch from the side of torso. (see above)
If you are having difficulty feeling the stretch of these muscles, try using a lacrosse ball (or something of the similar) to release the structures directly.
- If it hurts, you are likely on the right spot. Tight muscles will often be the painful ones when pressed.
- A small amount of bruising can be normal after the first few times doing these self releases. However, it can easily be prevent by making sure your tool of choice is of the appropriate firmness.
- Keep rolling over the area for a good 1-2 minutes, or until the tightness/pain goes away.
- Avoid placing the ball directly in the middle of the spine.
2. Strengthen the gluteal/hamstring and abdominal group
Now that your tight/overactive muscles have been stretched and released, you are now ready to begin your strengthening of your weak muscles. Wake up those sleeping muscles!a) To strengthen your gluteals:
// Bridge
- Transition from position 1 to position 2. (see above)
- Prior to the movement, engage your glutes to tilt your pelvis backwards into a neutral position. This should flatten your lower back onto the ground.
- Engage core muscles.
- Make sure you feel the contraction of your glutes more than your hamstrings.
- Bridge as high as you can go as long as you keep a neutral spine.
- Do not over arch your back.
- Hold the end position for at least 30 seconds.
Did you know that there is a condition called “Glute amnesia”? It occurs when the gluteal muscles have been placed in a poor position (eg. sitting) over a prolonged amount of time, causing them to stop working efficiently.
*** Go to this post if you would like a list of ALL the gluteal strengthening exercises that you can do!
b) To strengthen your hamstrings:
// Hip lift
- Lie on the floor.
- Place your feet on the wall with your hips and knees bent at 90 degrees.
- Dig your feels into the wall and lift your tail bone off the floor.
- Keep your back flat on the ground.
- Feel the tension in your hamstring muscles.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Repeat 3 times.
c) To strengthen the abdominals:
// Dead bugs
Similar to your gluteal muscles, your abdominals which are connected to the top part of your front pelvis play a vital role in rotating the pelvis back into position.
- Lie on your back with both of your knees bent in the air (Position 1)
- Engage your core and abdominals group by drawing in your belly button
- Tuck your tail bone
- Keep your lower back completely in contact to the ground throughout movement.
- Do not let your lower back arch!
- Alternate the reverse curl of your knees towards your chest
- Progression: Add 5-10 second holds in Position 2.
- Assume the 4 point kneel position.
- Tuck in your tail bone to rotate your pelvis backwards.
- Engage your core muscles by drawing them in.
- Exhale all the air in the lungs as you form this position.
- Hold this for 5 seconds. (or as long as it takes to completely exhale all the air in your lungs)
- Repeat 10 times.
*** Go to this page if you are looking for more ways to strengthen you abdominals muscles to correct your anterior pelvic tilt.
// Another quick area to consider…
… Your feet!If you have flat feet, it can cause your pelvis to tilt forward.
Here’s the best exercise for you:
Instructions:
- Sit down on a chair with your feet on the ground.
- Whilst keeping your toes relaxed, proceed to scrunch the under-surface of your foot.
- If performed correctly, you should be able to feel the muscles under your foot tense up.
- Hold this for 10 seconds.
- Repeat 30 times.
- Progress this exercise to a standing position.
3. Neutral pelvic position training
By now, you should be fairly familiar with the stretching and strengthening of the muscles that contribute to your anterior pelvic tilt.The next step (… and in my opinion the most important) is learning how to take control of your pelvic position throughout your day. If you can’t neurologically control your pelvis (by consciously using your brain), the problem will continue to manifest no matter how much of these exercises you do.
How to determine the correct neutral position: Remember those bony land marks on your pelvis that we went through earlier on in this post? If you can’t remember, click here to go back up to it.
// Pelvic tilting: To begin with, you will need to learn how to rotate your pelvis posterior (which is essentially the opposite of anterior pelvic tilt). If you cannot do this without your whole body moving to compensate, it is likely the soft tissue around your joints are far too tight and need to be stretched or released. If this is you, you will need to go back to step 1 where we talking about how you can loosen the structures of your pelvis.
// Plank: Now that you are familiar with the movements of your pelvis, the next step is train the muscles to maintain the correct pelvis position. The plank position is a great way to train the endurance of these muscles.
// Functional movements: Great! You’re almost there!
All that we need to cover now is to apply what you’ve learnt in your day to day activities such as walking, sitting and standing.
It is likely that your functional movements (… especially sitting!!) has caused your anterior pelvic tilt in the first place.
Key points:
- Maintain the neutral position of the pelvis throughout movements.
- Remember to lightly engage the gluteals and abdominals as you are performing any movement/exercise.
- Avoid quadriceps and lower back dominant exercises until you can maintain a neutral pelvis.
- Remember your body’s default setting is to go back into your anterior pelvic tilt. MAINTAIN A NEUTRAL PELVIS! You need to train your brain as much as you need to work on your body to fix this.
Be persistent with your exercises!
Please note these are just general guidelines to address your anterior pelvic tilt position. You may find some exercises very helpful, and others not so helpful. As with any rehabilitation program, it needs to be individualised to cater for your unique presentation.All the best!
// few more exercises
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| Hold for 30 seconds, release, and repeat up to 5 times |
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| Hold for 2 seconds, lower down slowly, and repeat 8 to 12 times |
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| Hold this position for up to 5 seconds, lower the leg, and repeat up to 10 times. |
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