Dom McKay musculoskeletal therapist this video is all about correcting an
anterior pelvic tilt I made it because so many athletes that come into my
clinic suffer from this issue and it affects their lower back their
hamstrings they find it difficult to squat and they get all sorts of injuries
related to having an anterior pelvic tilt so in this video I'm going to be showing
you some really practical means of correcting it you can just slot into
your gym workout so stay tuned an anterior pelvic tilt is where your hip
flexors are shortened and your butt sticks out now I'm going to give you a
demonstration of exactly why this happens
most people sit in a seat all day long which is really the number one reason
for developing an anterior pelvic tilt this is because whatever you do a lot of
your body is going to get good at so in this position
my hips are in flexion over time my body's going to compensate by shortening
the front of my hip, shortening the hip flexors and then you watch what happens
when I stand up if my hip flexors are short and tight my body is going to tilt
forward now in order to compensate for the tilt in my pelvis I'm going to have
to engage the muscles of my back to stand up straight and there I am up with
a severe anterior pelvic tilt as you can imagine performing any sort of complex
exercise with a posture like I've just demonstrated it's bound to cause
problems you see every movement you make should emanate from a posture of balance
and relaxation so let's have a look at some exercises to start correcting an
anterior pelvic tilt so we're going to begin with a fantastic hip flexor
stretch for this you'll need a power band and something really strong to
attach it to so begin by placing the leg through the power band
and then stepping back with it now the leg that you've got the power band
around is the one that you put back now it's pretty much just under the crease
of my butt so just where the glutes end and in this position I'm going to engage
my rectus abdominus and try and get that pelvis to tilt posteriorly so we're not
going into this sort of position we're actually trying to focus the stretch
into the hip flexors you'll feel this really strongly in the iliopsoas
to increase the stretch you can lift this arm up and touch the back of your
neck and just get a stretch all the way through there so this stretch is really
for me the most powerful hip flexor stretch I've tried hold it for up to two
minutes or three minutes if you're brave
so the next exercise we're going to do is an activation exercise you'll also
need the power band for this one so placing the feet about hip-width apart
into the power band and then just lift up now the knees are slightly bent as
you do this and we're going to start by walking sideways this is called the crab
walk so just walking sideways there and then you want to go back in the opposite
direction and you want to count about ten to fifteen steps in either direction
before reversing the movement the second one we're going to do is called a monster
walk and again we place the feet into the band lift up here but in this
situation we're going to be walking forwards and then backwards so the idea
is not to sort of swoop the feet as you do this it's to keep your feet as if
they're on railway lines and it won't take long to really start
feel the burn in the side of the hips if you do this correctly so glute bridges
are designed to activate your glutes and your hamstrings but also the rectus
abdominus which I'll explain briefly so place the hands by the body lying flat
on the back with the feet on the floor and you're going to have your hands palm
down as you do this now basically just engage abs and engage glutes and fire up
now we're not going for this kind of situation where we we've got a backwards
arch we're actually trying to keep the abs on in order to keep a fairly neutral
spine position so coming back down again fire up and come back down
fire up come back down you can also do this with the toes raised which starts
to engage other muscles like your tibialis anterior which in a roundabout
way is kind of connected with this anterior pelvic tilt but that's another
story so breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out
and you can do around 10 to 15 of these again as an activation exercises for the
next exercises that we're going to do remember this cells that fire together
wire together what does this mean it means that whenever you engage muscles
within the various regions of your body simultaneously you're teaching your
brain and your body that these regions are connected because a lot of issues
within the body come from a kind of disconnect it is essential that we use
full body exercises in order to make permanent changes within the body so
let's break down two movements of deadlifts and squats
so now I'm going to show you a few principles with deadlifting that are
going to help you correct your anterior pelvic tilt
now I'm certainly not saying that the way I'm showing you is the only way to
deadlift but from the perspective of somebody that's used to correcting
people's postural issues and muscular imbalances I'm going to just give you
some cues that are going to help you perhaps slot this into your own form and start
correcting your amperior pelvic tilt as part of your workout regime so
essentially what we're trying to do with our deadlift is to reinforce a posture
that is open at the front of our back body and sort of straighter at the back
so we're not going for this you know opposing situation where we've got a
posterior pelvic tilt then we're just causing another issue what we're trying
to do is reinforce a posture that is symmetrical and sound and a posture upon
which we can place our sport and place all of our movements so begin with the
feet roughly hip-width or a little further apart and now I don't mind if
you're doing a mixed grip or just an overhand grip whatever you're doing
these clues that I'm giving you you can slot into that so I'm going to
take an over hand grip I'm going to roll the bar towards my shins now from here
I'm going to retract the scapula both scaps
and I'm going to lock that upper back in place in order to set the core and the
lower back now the problem a lot of people have from this position is that
they don't really know what the abs are meant to do so when we think abs we
think of crunches we think of sit-ups and what does it do well it put
the spine into flexion which is kind of the opposite movement of what we're trying
to do with a deadlift so essentially what your abs do if you
picture this while your glutes are straightening you up and pulling you're
pulling you up right and pushing your hips forwards you're abs a fixed and
strong in a sense that they are pulling your hips forwards so if you picture
your hips being pushed from behind and pulled from the front and joined to your
ribcage by your abs this is essentially a cue that's going to help you to use
your rectus abdominus in a fashion that will correct your anterior pelvic tilt
so I'm going to demonstrate that now so grasping the bar setting the back abs
are on now at the top a lot of people tend to hyperextend the lower back it's
not what we're trying to do at all we're trying to learn to correct our posture
by engaging glutes and rectus abdominus at the top
now that's also why it's important to stretch iliopsoas your hip flexors
before doing this because when you lock out at the top you want this to be open
and the glutes to be strong and reinforce that position now when it
comes to squats I perceive a lot of the same confusion as with deadlifts in that a
lot of people don't really know what the role of the rectus abdominus is so I'll
demonstrate a squat and keep those same principles in mind so I'm going to rack
take the bar off the rack I'm just going to turn sideways for the
sake of the video now from here I've got my my feet positioned in the way that I
know my hips like to work and I'm going to squat down and now as I fire up I'm
going to think abs and glutes and they're going to thrust my pelvis as I did in
the deadlift so those couple of moves are really what's going to permanently
change your anterior pelvic tilt so in terms of frequency for these exercises
all the activation and the stretching can be done several times a week or even
daily if you like the deadlifts and squats however should just be fitted in
with your normal gym routine and if you're not already doing them then just
once a week is fine let me know how you go in the comments section below I'm
also happy to answer questions in that section subscribe for more great videos
and tips thanks for watching