Pelvic Tilt
Have you heard of pelvic tilt?
Did you know that your pelvic position matters?
Let us give you the scoop.
Today we’re talking about pelvic tilt and how it affects the body when sitting, standing, or moving in any way! Did you ever think it mattered the position of your pelvis when standing or sitting? Well as you can probably guess, it does! It is especially important when we’re picking things up, lifting and twisting, or squatting.
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A lot of people I see with low back pain come in with some sort of pelvic tilt. In this video, you will see that when standing neutral, your pelvis can either be tilted down forward or backward. If you have a belt on while looking in the mirror, it is easy to see. If you can imagine that your pelvis is a bowl of water, when you have anterior pelvic tilt the bowl of water will spill in front of you. As you can guess, posterior pelvic tilt is the complete opposite and the bowl of water would spill behind you. The goal is to keep the bowl of water from spilling over in any direction!
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When someone is in anterior pelvic tilt, the ribs are flared and not centered over the pelvis - this is a disaster for our core stabilization! When picking something up, we’ll be pulling with the low back muscles which is definitely not ideal. Cue the low back pain. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying ‘lift with your legs, not your back’. This is absolutely correct (but we want to lift with our GLUTES as well! More on that below..). On the other hand, when someone has posterior pelvic tilt, they lose the normal curve of the lumbar spine (low back), and in turn it can also cause too much rounding in the upper back.
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As mentioned about, we want to lift with our glutes (our butt muscles). They are big strong muscles known as the KING of the pelvic floor, and they should definitely be doing the lifting/moving. If our pelvis is in the correct position, our ribs will be centered over the pelvis. This puts our diaphragm in the optimal position to have 365 degrees of core stabilization when we belly breath. Additionally, the glutes will be properly loaded to assist in squatting. If we have this, all things are possible! To properly stabilize our core is the key foundational component for all other movements of the body - and to do this we need a neutral pelvis. No matter if we’re looking to get on the ground to play with our grandchildren or pitch in the World Series, neutral pelvic tilt with proper core engagement is crucial if we want to perform without pain.
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In the video I challenge you to first stand at your side in front of a mirror. If you notice that your pelvis is tilted either forward or backwards, try to make your pelvis parallel with the floor (throw on a belt and it’ll make it much easier - you should aim to have your belt in line with the floor). The kicker is, try to correct your pelvic position just using your abdominal muscles. We don’t want to over-recruit the glutes - we need those to move the weight!
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Once you master this, watch yourself in the mirror hinge at the hips. Make sure to keep the back straight as can be and only hinge at the hips! If you notice an anterior or posterior pelvic tilt, correct your pelvic position again using the abdominal muscles. Once you do, hinge a little bit more forward, and do the same thing. Be sure not to over-correct too far forward or backward! We just want our pelvis at neutral.
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Finally, once you get good at correcting your pelvic position in the different hinge positions, transition to working on your pelvic position while squatting. This should be the last one you progress to because it’s the hardest one to do when you possess an anterior or posterior pelvic tilt. As you slowly squat down, keep an eye on your pelvis in the mirror. Keeping it neutral for the entire descent and ascent is the goal.
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These are a few good exercises to see what kind of pelvic tilt you have and will help you start to correct it to neutral! In office we do a lot of functional rehab to obtain and maintain a neutral pelvis at all times!
