What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
So we're going to address a very important topic here.
We want to find out if you are an ass, or an ass not.
I'm serious because if you were to look at yourself in the mirror and be serious with
yourself and honest, would you be someone who has your butt sticking way out – and
therefore an ass – or are you sort of an ass not where everything is tucked underneath?
I've got to admit, I'm a little bit of an ass not.
It's because of the position of our pelvis.
I've covered this in a video on anterior pelvic tilt – which is a very common problem.
If you haven't seen it, you've got to watch that video right here.
It will tell you a lot about what to do to correct that.
However, hamstrings are going to be tight in people that have anterior pelvic tilt,
or posterior pelvic tilt.
Asses, or ass nots.
So we have to figure out a way to address that hamstring tightness.
Or do we?
Because in that video I said you're going to likely have tight hamstrings if you have
an anterior pelvic tilt, but it's not something you want to address.
As a matter of fact, you want to do the direct opposite.
You want to continue to strengthen them and not stretch them.
So first of all, how would you tell if you have an anterior, or posterior pelvic tilt?
Most of all, you want to look in the mirror, like I said.
If you were to look and just lift your shirt and look here, you want to focus on the waistline.
So whenever you're wearing your shorts, or your pants, what position is the waistline?
It's normal to have a little bit of a downward tilt to it.
A little bit.
About 3 or 4 degrees.
If you had this severe downward tilt, then you're dealing with that anterior pelvic tilt
here, and that's actually not a good thing to have.
I know it looks better, but it's not a good thing to have.
It's an adaptive shortening that you want to correct.
At the same time, if you have a posterior pelvic tilt you're going to likely see a level
line here of the pants, or worse; it could even be tucked under.
So it starts to tilt up at the top.
The second thing you can do is do an excursion test.
How much room do you get?
So let's say I am an anterior tilter.
If I tried to go into a more anterior tilt – in other words, if I try to tip my pelvis
down – I would only be able to get a few degrees because I'm already anteriorly tilted.
I have that much motion left to go in that direction, but if you asked an anterior tilter
to go posterior tilt, look what happens.
I've got all that extra room because I had a lot left in that direction.
Same thing.
If I'm already a posterior tilter.
If you tell me to tilt and tuck my butt under I'm not going to be able to get much further
because I'm already there.
That's where I walk around.
I'd be an anterior tilt.
I could probably get a lot more.
Of course, it would probably feel tight, but it's something I could actually move in.
so do that test and figure out what you are.
But now when you come over here, do you want to stretch, or not stretch?
Well, think about what's happening.
Again, I said tight hamstrings, regardless of whether you're anterior or posterior, if
you are anterior, look what's happening.
Your hamstring are attaching from the back here – of your pelvis – down to your knee.
To the outside of your knee, or behind your knee.
It may actually cross the knee.
If my pelvis was anteriorly tilted and pushing in this direction what's happening here to
the hamstrings at the origin?
They're getting longer, right?
Because as this is tilting forward it's coming up, and over, and it's causing my hamstrings
to be tight.
But guess what?
The hamstring tightness is not causing this anterior tilt.
The hamstrings are being stretched because of the anterior tilt.
So the tight hip flexors on the other side are pulling this down this way.
That's making the hamstrings feel tight, but you wouldn't want to stretch these because
all that's going to do is let the hip flexors on the front side do more damage, pulling
you more into anterior tilt and causing the problem to become worse.
What you'd want to do is relieve the hip flexors – which is what I made that video about
– that will show you then how to reset the pelvis back.
Guess what happens?
All of a sudden all this extra stretch goes back down nice, and there's no more tension
on the hamstrings.
On the other side though, if you're a posterior pelvic tilter you've got problems.
You've got really tight hamstrings because what's happening is, they're pulling down
from here and we're pulling down more, which is going to take our pelvis down into this
posterior pelvic tilt.
That 'no ass' look where it's going to tuck underneath here.
Your main problem is going to be tight hamstrings.
Guess what else?
Because it crosses the knee here it's going to shift the focus – I'll show you right
here – of your body to do this.
I tuck under, I start leaning a little bit more forward, my weight is going through my
toes, by pushing through my toes what's active as well?
My calves.
I start getting shortening in my calves and my Achilles.
So now I can't even get into dorsiflexion of my feet here because my calves are tight.
So you want to figure out a way to stretch your calves at the same time that you're stretching
your hamstrings, at the same time that you're not allowing yourself to be in posterior tilt.
You've got to go out of that.
So how can we do that?
Well, we can do what I'm showing you here.
We can get our foot up against anything.
Something that allows me to have elevation here.
Then the next thing I can do is, I want to get my knee straight, obviously.
So I'm getting stretched here, back through the hamstring, and then back through the calves.
Then I anteriorly tilt this way.
So now the big key is, I put one foot back which allows me to tilt more this way.
You can see, I can go more into anterior tilt right there.
I don’t even have to do anything.
I don’t have to do anything at all.
I actually can just stand right there and just feel the stretch, but then I want to
reach up in front of me.
Why am I reaching up if I'm trying to stretch my hamstring?
Because as I go down, I still want to be able to keep my upper back elongated here.
Because what happens when we get posterior tilt?
Everything rounds.
You walk around like this.
So we've got to get elongation through here.
So I'm here, and I'm leaning up as I go – I swear I must've ripped my fucking leg off
– I'm going up here.
I have tight hamstrings.
Going up here, and I could already feel the stretch.
Again, we're stretching all the issues all at one time.
But that's only if you're dealing with the 'ass not' condition because if you are an
ass, don't stretch them.
Do something else.
Worry about strengthening them.
Guys, I hope the differentiation was made here and made clearly.
Again, I made that other video about anterior pelvic tilt and a lot of guys found it helpful.
You're going to want to see it because there's a common problem, but this differentiates.
I kind of glanced over it and I wanted to make sure I went into it a little bit more
in depth so you understand it.
If you're looking for training programs that teach you how to do these things the right
way so you're not left guessing and you're figuring "Oh, I guess I should stretch because
the guy told me hamstring stretching is good.
My hamstrings are tight, stretch them."
Not all the time.
You stretch them when you're supposed to stretch them.
You can find that over at ATHLEANX.com in the ATHLEANX training system.
In the meantime, if you've found this video helpful leave your comments and thumbs up
below.
Let me know: ass, or ass not.
It doesn’t really matter.
You've got to figure out what the right thing for you is to do.
All right, guys.
I'll be back here again in a few days.
See you.