Fixing Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Training Bodybuilding
1

Q: How long would it generally take before one sees any real improvement in their anterior pelvic tilt?

could you also suggest anything else i can be doing to help get back into a more neutral tilt?

background info below:

to sum it up real quick, been out the gym for 15 months (injury/surgery). i had a slight anterior tilt before but over the 15 months its become very excessive. when i attempt to squat my butt tucks underneath me, leaving a rounded lower back.~its similar to the video below but mine seems to round a fair bit more.

ive already read up on the general: strengthen abs/obliques/hams/glutes, stretch quads/hip flexors, to help re-align the pelvis- i do stretching daily and my workouts (although very light as ive just started again) are more geared towards hams/glutes/obliques.

workout/stretches as follows: (light weight as im just coming back into the gym)

(mon/fri)
GM/RDL 3x8-10
ghetto GHR 3x8
reverse hyperextensions/band pullthroughs 3x10-12

daily stretching is simply static stretches for quads, hip flexors, calves, 3 sets of 30 sec holds.

ANY help or advice would be appreciated! (sorry if this is in the wrong section, i wasnt really sure where to ask. feel free to move if needed!).

2

I think you should get “Magnificent Mobility” and a foam roller. Foam roll your hip flexors and then use a tennis ball on a hard surface to get trigger points out of your hamstrings, hips, and calves. I don’t think static stretches will do anything for you.

3

with regards to a foam roller/tennis ball, is it simply a case of just rolling it over the specified muscles? any indication of time/frequency?

ill go about ordering the foam roller and the dvd a little later. :slight_smile:

any other info or tips would be greatly appreciated!

4

[quote]eggywontgrow wrote:
with regards to a foam roller/tennis ball, is it simply a case of just rolling it over the specified muscles? any indication of time/frequency?

ill go about ordering the foam roller and the dvd a little later. :slight_smile:

any other info or tips would be greatly appreciated![/quote]

You might not have any trigger points in those muscles, you might just need dynamic flexibility, which comes from having good motor control over those muscles.

That’s where MM comes in. If you have trigger points, generally you’ll feel pain in those muscle groups at certain focal points. When you touch them, they’ll often twitch.

I think most people try to foam roll twice a day if needed on the quads and it band area. Hamstrings should be done at least twice a day also. Your problem is likely to be one of mobility, though. I had a bad myofascial pain problem which necessitated a lot of self myofascial release.

5

Cheers again for the comment. ive ordered both the foam roller and the MM dvd. im sure both will be very useful, regardless of my issues. thanks again for the help.

quick message in general, awesome site, awesome members, AWESOME articles. far better than other sites i used to visit :smiley:

6

yoga

7

I struggled with this for years. A couple of additional tips for you:

-be aware of your personal structure. If you have relatively long femurs (relative to your lower leg), squatting deep will be harder to achieve. The hips or the ankles will need to be very flexible, since longer femurs will push your center of gravity farther backwards (which in turn causes your torso to hunch forward).

-don’t forget that the squat involves rotation along 3 major areas: hips, knees, and ankles. Trying to squat deep with perpendicular shins (less ankle flexion), combined with relatively long femurs will be next to impossible. Approach your problem by looking at all three axes of rotation, not just the hips.

-practice squatting as often as possible. Pick a reasonable weight (for you), and squat, squat, squat. Tweak your form as necessary… note what happens when you use more ankle flexion, or when you narrow your stance, etc. Be deliberate in the supporting muscles you are contracting (upper back, lumbars, abdominals, etc).

-try olympic weightlifting shoes (the ones with the wooden heel). Some people hate them, some think they are dangerous… I love them. The slight heel allows me to have a more upright posture when I am deep in the hole.

-watch people squat, take note of what seems to work, and what looks awful. For example:

You’ll notice he’s a) squatting very deep and b) is making full use of all three axes of rotation (knees are over toes, ankles are fully flexed, as are his hips, etc).

Hope that helps.

8


Bill Starr squatting… He is an advocate of full squats. Notice the flexion in his knees, hips, and ankles (his knees are way past his toes, for example).

9

What type of surgery did you have?

Get Your Butt In Gear!:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=495189

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=497495

I think you will take away more from the second part.

Some good exercises in this article:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=473323

I know that is quite a bit to read. If there is one thing I would recommend that is unilateral exercises. I also am a fan of dynamically stretching hip flexors as well as everything (except hamstrings).

It really depends on how much of a tilt you have. You could visibly see improvements in a week if you really hammered away at everything. Good luck, this is usually very fixable.

10

stretch and some deads. because deadlifts cure cancer

11

Are you capable of aligning your hips? If so, then just do it, and walk that way. There’s no stretching, or strengthening that will magically change the way you walk. You have to do that, and you can do it right now.

12

[quote]sandiego wrote:
I struggled with this for years. A couple of additional tips for you:

-be aware of your personal structure. If you have relatively long femurs (relative to your lower leg), squatting deep will be harder to achieve. The hips or the ankles will need to be very flexible, since longer femurs will push your center of gravity farther backwards (which in turn causes your torso to hunch forward).

-don’t forget that the squat involves rotation along 3 major areas: hips, knees, and ankles. Trying to squat deep with perpendicular shins (less ankle flexion), combined with relatively long femurs will be next to impossible. Approach your problem by looking at all three axes of rotation, not just the hips.

-practice squatting as often as possible. Pick a reasonable weight (for you), and squat, squat, squat. Tweak your form as necessary… note what happens when you use more ankle flexion, or when you narrow your stance, etc. Be deliberate in the supporting muscles you are contracting (upper back, lumbars, abdominals, etc).

-try olympic weightlifting shoes (the ones with the wooden heel). Some people hate them, some think they are dangerous… I love them. The slight heel allows me to have a more upright posture when I am deep in the hole.

-watch people squat, take note of what seems to work, and what looks awful. For example:

You’ll notice he’s a) squatting very deep and b) is making full use of all three axes of rotation (knees are over toes, ankles are fully flexed, as are his hips, etc).

Hope that helps.[/quote]

Good post, I’m in the process of reworking my squat form and will keep that in mind.

13

I also am trying to fix anterior tilt. I don’t know much about foam rolling/tennis ball rolling. What types of things can I use a tennis ball for?

14

This is what worked for me; nothing else really did:

But you also need to reinforce the pattern of contracting/shortening the lower abs so that the overactive/arched lower back (erectors) can normalize. Until the APT pattern is corrected, I would avoid doing anything that encourages the erectors to contract too much, like GMs, probably RDLs. It does no good to try to work the hamstrings if the lower back takes over anyway. You have to get the hams to lengthen and contract with the lower back neutral and stable the whole time. Try goblet squats, trap bar deadlifts, even wide/high stance leg press, making sure your spine is neutral in the whole ROM and MAKE YOUR hams and hips open up.

I think tight adductors can contribute. A seated inner thigh machine can do wonders for those. I don’t care how girlie the machine may seem; making the short muscle contract against resistance in the limits of its ROM increases ROM a million times more effectively than just stretching.

1 Like
15

[quote]andersons wrote:
This is what worked for me; nothing else really did:

But you also need to reinforce the pattern of contracting/shortening the lower abs so that the overactive/arched lower back (erectors) can normalize. Until the APT pattern is corrected, I would avoid doing anything that encourages the erectors to contract too much, like GMs, probably RDLs. It does no good to try to work the hamstrings if the lower back takes over anyway. You have to get the hams to lengthen and contract with the lower back neutral and stable the whole time. Try goblet squats, trap bar deadlifts, even wide/high stance leg press, making sure your spine is neutral in the whole ROM and MAKE YOUR hams and hips open up.

I think tight adductors can contribute. A seated inner thigh machine can do wonders for those. I don’t care how girlie the machine may seem; making the short muscle contract against resistance in the limits of its ROM increases ROM a million times more effectively than just stretching.
[/quote]

Thanks for the feedback, I hear you on the adductor machine too! It just doesn’t get enough respect.

Basically you’re suggesting to address the lower back arches/lorosis before the ATP. That makes sense, and yeah I can’t deadlift or GMs without arching my back hard, I’ll keep that in mind. I haven’t used the trap-bar for anything besides farmers walks, but maybe I’ll give it a whirl.