Get Rid of Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1

I HOPE MY POST BELOW WILL HELP SOME PEOPLE. If you have an anterior pelvic tilt, get rid of it, you guys!!! So here it is:

I am a very, very happy guy right now. I am 21 years old right now. I have been experiencing a whole BUNCH of continually worsening HEALTH PROBLEMS since I was 13, which have had doctors scratching their heads. I have definitely lacked the proper guidance from health professionals, and having been a guy in my teens, I did not know what to do!

I will not go into all of the details but trust me it is BAD and it ruined many aspects of my life, no exaggerations there. I would like to just skip over the details for now; if you are interested you can message me. My health problems reached a climax last month when I had so much pain in my right shoulder that I could barely crawl into bed.

I just figured out my diagnosis last week. It is simple: I have an extreme case of an anterior pelvic tilt and short/tight pelvic floor muscles. There was period of time when I thought that opening up my tight hips would fix me. What I have realized now is that I can not really get at my hips if my pelvis is not healthy and aligned properly.

I have known for years that I have an anterior pelvic tilt, but I just saw it as one of the many health problems I was experiencing. I did not realize how devastating an anterior pelvic tilt could be to my health and I had NO idea how to fix it.

I have been practicing yoga for a long time, but I have only seen a little bit of an improvement in my healthy. The only poses I learned which dealt directly with this problem were bridge pose and wheel pose, and because they were too advanced for me, I did not get any benefit: just a strain in the lower back. I have also been doing tons of stretching, mobility drills, and myofascial release. Again, everything has helped, but not by that much.

I have been doing research on the internet for a long time now, because I really want to get healthy. Given some helpful vids as well as my experience from working with my body I believe I now know how to fix my anterior pelvic tilt. (It is going to be a lot of work, but at least I now know what direction I need to head towards…)

1)A regular yoga practice WITH my tailbone tucked and pelvis thrusted forward. This actually makes a huge difference.

2)Cheers to Ben Bruno! Split-Stance RDLs to activate my glutes: Split Stance RDL - YouTube

3)Cheers to KStar! Hip-flossing: New hip flossing tweaks for anterior chain muscle stiffness | Feat. Kelly Starrett | MobilityWOD - YouTube

4)Highly modified glute bridges, for highly tight muscles (I put a yoga block on the medium height side under each of my hands, could even use the tall side, to get a good juicy opening feeling) I may try this will a plate at some point: Effective Rectus Femoris Stretch - Fix tight Quads - Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt - YouTube

If the above doesn’t work I’ll see a physical therapist…

Cheers to Naudi Aguilar! I did not find the exercises in the following video helpful but it was instrumental to my realization that my anterior pelvic tilt was ruining my life: - YouTube

Really thankful for tnation too…it helped me get to this point of realization. I think a huge roadblock to my realization here was that I had a yoga teacher for a few months who was always super cautious that we would not thrust our hips forward TOO much so as to create ugly disalignment. I realize now that I probably do not even have the ability to create a posterior pelvic tilt condition, so I have decided to worry less about it. Another thing that she always told us was that it is not good to squeeze the glutes…

I HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS!!!

  1. Is it a GOOD thing or a BAD thing to squeeze my glutes when I thrust forward in glute bridges and in RDLS?

  2. Should I worried about overthrusting–is that a thing, and if it is, what does it look like? My guess is that given my anterior pelvic tilt, I do not even have the capacity to overthrust, but I would still like to ask this question just to be sure…

By the way, if someone replies to the post suggesting I use a foam roller I will throw up. THAT SHIT DONT WORK YO (at least for me)…if you are tight like me then you might want to consider replacing your foam roller with an abs pipe and lacrosse ball. I have used a wine bottle before as well…

2

  1. Yes. Squats too.

  2. There is such a thing. What happens is that the lower back will round and you end up under load in that position. Typicallly more a problem for those in posterior pelvic tilt. The pelvis end up at the wrong angle, the opposite wrong angle of APT.

Make a conscious attempt to keep your back arched but not sway-backed to avoid ending up in APT.

I’d like to add to your list. I hope you don’t mind because I think this is a really good subject and a problem that can be pretty common among athletes and those more active.

*When just walking around wear a shoe with no heel lift. Better yet wear a minimalist shoe.

*Goblet squats everyday real light with a heavy focus on not being in APT.

3

I appreciate your suggestions, Fletch.

So, by yes, you mean it is good to squeeze glutes, right?

I’m liking the idea of a no heel-lift shoe.
And yes, exactly! Lightweight goblet squats with good pelvic placement are a great idea…

4

Various postural defects:

5

With number one that is a yes to squeezing your glutes. Although honestly, that’s not even how I cue myself. I just think keep my feet arched, keep my back arched/flat depending on the movement, stay tight all over, and focus on good pelvic position. For me, just doing that seems to fix any other problems.

I don’t have apt problems so much while working out because I’ve worked on my form so much, I have to focus more on these issues while I’m standing or sitting doing whatever.

6

I hate to bust your bubble, (and maybe this stuff only didn’t work for me), but I have been foam rolling the sh!t out of my hip flexors and quads, stretching the heck out of my erector spinae, hip flexors and quads, and doing tonnes of activation work and strengthening for my glutes, lower abs, hamstrings and external obliques. All this stuff has totaled I’d guess 2 hours per day (but I do it spread out throughout the day) - and I’ve kept it up for near enough 2 years solid with barely one single off day throughout all this time - and my APT has not reduced at all.

During this time I have also cut all knee-dominant lifts and upper body pressing out of my strength training routine. My strength work is all hip dominant and upper body pull.

For a while I also tried to squeeze my glutes as hard as possible for every second of every day, but I eventually burnt out of this habit as it made it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

Seriously, I’ve tried it all - I’m starting to think you just can’t change APT.

Or if you can, seriously, seriously, what the fvck did you do to make it go away? Tell me EXACTLY what you did!!

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[quote]lunk wrote:
I hate to bust your bubble, (and maybe this stuff only didn’t work for me), but I have been foam rolling the sh!t out of my hip flexors and quads, stretching the heck out of my erector spinae, hip flexors and quads, and doing tonnes of activation work and strengthening for my glutes, lower abs, hamstrings and external obliques. All this stuff has totaled I’d guess 2 hours per day (but I do it spread out throughout the day) - and I’ve kept it up for near enough 2 years solid with barely one single off day throughout all this time - and my APT has not reduced at all.

During this time I have also cut all knee-dominant lifts and upper body pressing out of my strength training routine. My strength work is all hip dominant and upper body pull.

For a while I also tried to squeeze my glutes as hard as possible for every second of every day, but I eventually burnt out of this habit as it made it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

Seriously, I’ve tried it all - I’m starting to think you just can’t change APT.

Or if you can, seriously, seriously, what the fvck did you do to make it go away? Tell me EXACTLY what you did!![/quote]

Man, I feel you. I’ve been foam rolling for over a year now almost daily, doing all kinds of corrective stuff, and I still have tights hips and yadayadayada. Physical Therapists are worthless when it comes to this.

I mean things I do make me feel a little better, but it’s taking a damn long time to correct.

End Rant

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www.yogaglo.com/online-class-1130-Free-Your-Hips-Power-Flow.html

www.yogaglo.com/online-class-1485-Retrain-the-Glutes.html

9

Dont forget to strengthen the abs, specifically the lower abs.

So many people throw in a zillion “corrective” exercises without addressing the actual problem, which is usually as simple as a strength imbalance.

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[quote]iVoodoo wrote:
Dont forget to strengthen the abs, specifically the lower abs.

So many people throw in a zillion “corrective” exercises without addressing the actual problem, which is usually as simple as a strength imbalance.

[/quote]

…and they make no effort to correct their actual posture!

All the strengthening, foam rolling etc won’t do shit if you don’t actually stand like you’re supposed to.

11

iVooDoo you mentioned abs. I’m glad for that…that’s a big one. I find that if I make sure my hips are thrusted forward just enough it makes whatever core exercise I’m doing more challenging and I get some glute activation from it too.

Sitting in a simple groin stretch should help with the hips too. It’s one of those stretches where if you relax you can go down a lot farther than you thought.

12

Check out these articles by Bret Contreras and Mike Robertson:

I personally found that anterior pelvic tilt is caused by dominant spinal erectors and weak lower abdominals and glutes, causing the postural imbalance (similar to overpowering pecs and anterior delts causing shoulder pain/impingement). Unfortunately most of the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, presses are performed with a hyperextended lumbar spine and therefore the imbalance will only get worse (sedentary people suffer back pain for the exact opposite reason - lack of extension).

Since dropping those lifts is not going to happen, I found that including hanging leg raises and planks as part of your warmup and at the end of your session (as well as throughout the day if possible) is a big help. But I still think the most important thing is to actively resist going into lumbar extension throughout the rest of the day.

13

[quote]Gorthaur wrote:
Unfortunately most of the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, presses are performed with a hyperextended lumbar spine and therefore the imbalance will only get worse (sedentary people suffer back pain for the exact opposite reason - lack of extension).[/quote]

front squats are a great alternative for people with APT for exactly that reason.

-more core involvement
-more thoracic extension
-better depth (from the increased core activation) = more glute involvement

deadlifts are great for APT as they teach hip extension from the hips (not from lumbar spine). Problem is most people with APT just muscle it up with their lower back which makes things worse.

14

Ha, my strength coach used to make fun of me when I’d ask about imbalances.

Coach: “so you’re hips are pulled up and back?”
Me: “Mhmm, Anterior Pelvic Tilt.”
Coach: “Maybe try pulling them the opposite direction.”
Me: “Like, a crunch?”
Coach: “Sacrilege, I know.”

He’s pretty awesome, always has a way of simplifying things to the point anyone could get it.

15

[quote]rds63799 wrote:

[quote]Gorthaur wrote:
Unfortunately most of the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, presses are performed with a hyperextended lumbar spine and therefore the imbalance will only get worse (sedentary people suffer back pain for the exact opposite reason - lack of extension).[/quote]

front squats are a great alternative for people with APT for exactly that reason.

-more core involvement
-more thoracic extension
-better depth (from the increased core activation) = more glute involvement

deadlifts are great for APT as they teach hip extension from the hips (not from lumbar spine). Problem is most people with APT just muscle it up with their lower back which makes things worse.
[/quote]

Yes that is a great point about front squats, whenever I use them as my main squatting movement I tend not to have any low back issues.

Ive never thought about that before for deadlifts, although it makes sense. Ive used the American deadlift that Bret Contreras has described, where you utilise hip extension and follow through at the top of the movement with posterior pelvic tilt.

16

[quote]ZJStrope wrote:

[quote]lunk wrote:
I hate to bust your bubble, (and maybe this stuff only didn’t work for me), but I have been foam rolling the sh!t out of my hip flexors and quads, stretching the heck out of my erector spinae, hip flexors and quads, and doing tonnes of activation work and strengthening for my glutes, lower abs, hamstrings and external obliques. All this stuff has totaled I’d guess 2 hours per day (but I do it spread out throughout the day) - and I’ve kept it up for near enough 2 years solid with barely one single off day throughout all this time - and my APT has not reduced at all.

During this time I have also cut all knee-dominant lifts and upper body pressing out of my strength training routine. My strength work is all hip dominant and upper body pull.

For a while I also tried to squeeze my glutes as hard as possible for every second of every day, but I eventually burnt out of this habit as it made it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

Seriously, I’ve tried it all - I’m starting to think you just can’t change APT.

Or if you can, seriously, seriously, what the fvck did you do to make it go away? Tell me EXACTLY what you did!![/quote]

Man, I feel you. I’ve been foam rolling for over a year now almost daily, doing all kinds of corrective stuff, and I still have tights hips and yadayadayada. Physical Therapists are worthless when it comes to this.

I mean things I do make me feel a little better, but it’s taking a damn long time to correct.

End Rant
[/quote]
did yall do anything to strengthen the lower back? just wondering…

17

Did you try the yoga classes I posted? Especially the second one, it’ll change your life.

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[quote]cliff45 wrote:
Did you try the yoga classes I posted? Especially the second one, it’ll change your life.[/quote]
Thanks for posting/, but you need to pay to watch the whole thing and it seems a bit hippy ish