Anterior Pelvic Tilt

[Kyle Retan]

Hi everyone! This is my first post on the forum, but I have been doing the WOD regularly for about 5 months now and have seen excellent results. My problem, however, is that I think my bad posture and lack of flexibility are making many of the movements far more difficult than they should be, stalling my progress and even causing some minor pain in my hips and back.

I have known that my posture is bad for some time now and have tried many different corrective exercises and stretches, but have see little improvement. I still have a strong anterior pelvic tilt that just wont go away, despite the stretching and strengthening exercises I have been doing. I know that some of the members of the forum, most notably Slizzardman, study some form of exercise science or a related subject, and I would love to be able to get some input on this matter. Primarily, I am interested in having a body that functions optimally for years to come and not just gaining strength that leads ultimately to the breakdown of my body.

I am essentially looking for a comprehensive stretching and strengthening program that will improve my posture in this area, eliminating my anterior pelvic tilt and hopefully the painful symptoms that go along with it. I don't expect someone here to spend the time coming up with a comprehensive list, but I would love some basic information and possibly a list of the best sources of information on this topic. I would just like something that works, and I am willing to put in the time to fix posture. Some of my questions would be how often I can do these stretches, what is the best time of day, how do I warm up and how realistic is it to expect a full recovery?

Thanks so much for your time, and thanks to Coach Summer and all the other guys here that have helped me to enjoy this truly amazing form of exercise!

[Archbishop o balance]

I'm working on the same, with varying progress. I'm usually "fixed" after a PNF stretching session, but 10 minutes of stretching is hard pressed to change a day's worth of sitting on my ass reading articles and doing homework. It's a lifestyle change, I guess.

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/hips-dont-lie/

http://www.mobilitywod.com/?s=hip+extension

[toasty]

how much have you read? the article hips dont lie is a good place to start.

how strong is your hollow hold on floor? i have found working hollow holds greatly relieve tension on the lower back and subconsciously get the abs to fire a bit better.

Another thing i have found really useful is to do plenty of walking. like accumulating at least one hour, possibly more a day.

When you are walking you want to be walking with long strides and forcing your hips back into extension. Its painful watching fat people with ATP walk because they just kind of waddle around, all the time their lumbar spine is hyperextended and their hips never leave flexion.

When walking and running, you should completely relax every muscle that is not involved with moving. It might take a little while to properly get the stretch shortening cycles happening, as you need to basically re educate your muscles and CNS. Completely relaxed jaw, relaxed upper traps, scapula firmly help down on the back. Head should be high and slightly tilted down and neck should be long. Think of holding eggs in your hands (fingers neither clenched nor held out straight). Shoulder should remain stable in the socket when your arms swing.

If you have short/overactive hip flexors you need to think about bringing the femur back into hip extension and pressing the hip forward so that the hip flexors are lengthened. also think about pressing your leg down through the floor. I have found this second que to be really useful as it triggers the gluteus medius (i think). When it doesnt activate your hips will appear to move side to side when viewed from behind (think cat walk models). I have found sometimes i slip into doing this and i get terrible ITB pain.

The feet, knees and hips should be facing forwards the entire time. Otherwise you have imbalances between the medial and lateral quads/hams/calves and internal and external rotators of the hips.

all of this makes really good sense to me, ATP is mostly caused by sitting too much so the best way to restore correct movement patterns is by doing more of what naturally restores the correct lengths of the muscles.

[Tarun Suri]

Have you tried some of Kelly Starret's work?

Can you give details on what you have done so far that doesn't seem to be working?

[toasty]

if your hip flexors are really that tight, do 2-3x30s hip flexor stretch on each side. twice a day if needed. pre and post workout as well. pre workout will inhibit or 'switch off' your hip flexors so they not are contracting all the time. normally this is a bad thing . Post workout will stretch em out good so hopefully they dont heal in such a short position.

avoid all leg lifts and L sits, particularly straight leg versions as these make the hip flexors cramp even more. Add these back in once your better.

[Kyle Retan]

Thanks for the feedback!

Mostly I have tried different kinds of hip flexor stretches, ranging from the traditional kneeling stretch to the Egoscue supine groin stretch, which felt like it was having the same effect. When I do stretch, the pain is pretty intense, and it doesn't feel like the traditional "muscle stretch". The pain is a lot sharper than that, so I have been weary about stretching too aggressively. Do you think I might need to up the frequency of the stretching to have a noticable effect? Until now I have dont it about once a day.

I have not heard of Kelly Starret, but I could definitely check that out.

You know, I have a kinda weirdly structured right foot and really poor dorsiflexion of the ankle. Is it possible that this was the original cause of my hips getting out of wack?

[Archbishop o balance]

Thanks for the feedback!

Mostly I have tried different kinds of hip flexor stretches, ranging from the traditional kneeling stretch to the Egoscue supine groin stretch, which felt like it was having the same effect. When I do stretch, the pain is pretty intense, and it doesn't feel like the traditional "muscle stretch". The pain is a lot sharper than that, so I have been weary about stretching too aggressively. Do you think I might need to up the frequency of the stretching to have a noticable effect? Until now I have dont it about once a day.

I have not heard of Kelly Starret, but I could definitely check that out.

You know, I have a kinda weirdly structured right foot and really poor dorsiflexion of the ankle. Is it possible that this was the original cause of my hips getting out of wack?

Has your ankle always been like that?

This is Kelly Starrett.. http://www.mobilitywod.com/2011/04/epis ... -evil.html

The last stretch in this video is the first one that made me understand how it REALLY feels to stay neutral in the lumbar spine while stretching the hip flexors.. It was painful =P Recommend you check out more of his video. He posts daily mobility workouts.

[Tarun Suri]

I think its more the other way around, your ankle is out of whack because there's something wrong with your hips. But it's hard to say without more details on what your "whack" is.

Start following Kelly Starret's Mobility WODs. he treats the human body in a more holistic, complete approach. Even if you think what your stretching today has nothing to do with where your pain is located, you might be surprised to find that it was quite effective anyways.

Have you tried releasing your psoas? I don't think upping your stretching volume is needed personally. I think it's just the quality of work you put in. Stretching is but a small facet of what your body may need to to rid you of your pain. Try laying on a lacrosse ball placed right under your psoas.Take a deep breath, contract and after 5 seconds relax and immediately push deeper into the ball. Rinse and repeat. This isn't stretching, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't rid you of your pain at least temporarily. Long term, you want to re-educate your body what it means to be in a neutral position. And to do that, you need to practice that position as often as you can.

[Daniel Jorgensen]

Well, first of all - how bad is your tilt? Have anyone examined you?

Apparently sometimes the curve vary from person to person without necessarily having anything to do with tight hip flexors. In this case, maybe try to strengthen your midsection while maintaining your natural lordose (beeing a bit anterior tilted or not).

Or see an ART therapist, if his treatment doesn't solve anything, you can be quite sure hipflexors is not your problem :wink:

[Alex Dienaar]

1. Work hollow holds daily, up to 3 minutes total time spent.

2. Use the search function on mobilitywod.com for the word "couch" and do what he recommends there (basically, for every 30 minutes you sit, you spend 2 minutes PNF stretching your hip floors (per side).)

3. Foam roll the top of your Quads, tennisballing also works. And use a ball to hit your psoas.

4. Work on that perfect posture described up by RandomHavoc

Another thing that would be great to do is to do a mobility wod focusing on your anterior chain every day (again, requires some searching on Kelly's site)

[Quick Start Test Smith]

1. Work hollow holds daily, up to 3 minutes total time spent.

2. Use the search function on mobilitywod.com for the word "couch" and do what he recommends there (basically, for every 30 minutes you sit, you spend 2 minutes PNF stretching your hip floors (per side).)

3. Foam roll the top of your Quads, tennisballing also works. And use a ball to hit your psoas.

4. Work on that perfect posture described up by RandomHavoc

Another thing that would be great to do is to do a mobility wod focusing on your anterior chain every day (again, requires some searching on Kelly's site)

My back hurts sometimes when I do hollow holds. I'm going to increase my mobility work (as well as follow the MWod), so do you think I should stick with my current routine (FSP 4x/week) and wait for the condition to improve? I can't get my lower back to press against the floor no matter how hard I try, even though I can keep my upper back off the floor.

I work on soft tissue stuff every day with my foam roller (need to eventually get a PVC pipe) and a lacrosse ball for about 15 minutes. I'll restart the MWOD. Is any warm up required for doing the contract/relax stuff found in it?