Fixing Anterior Pelvic Tilt: Posture tricks

to make your butt and gut smaller

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Anterior pelvic tilt is a posture problem that affects almost anyone who sits a
lot. Practically, your butt sticks out and your gut protrudes. Because this is a
musculoskeletal issue, no amount of fat loss will get rid of that gut.
To save the day, we've written this handy guide to stretches, exercises and
strategies that correct anterior pelvic tilt. And even if you don't have a
serious case, learning these moves can help hip alignment, knee issues and
improve fitness overall. Keep reading!
Anterior pelvic tilt is a fancy term that means your hip is tilted forward. The
most common cause is sedentariness and lack of activity. Lets take a look at
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why your hip is tilted forward.
Quick note with regards anterior pelvic tilt:
Rotate hip forward = bad
Rotate hip backward = good
Weakened/Inactive Muscles
Glutes: These are your main hip muscles which basically make up your
butt.
Hamstrings: The muscles on the back of your thigh.
Abdominals and obliques: Part of your core, they aid in stabilizing the
torso and hip
Scroll to "How I fix" to skip the anatomy lesson!
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All these muscles work on rotating your hip backward:
The glutes - which sit on your hip - pull on your thigh bone. So when
the thigh bone is fixed/immobile, the hip gets pulled back/rotated
backward. We're focusing on the gluteus maximus pictured above.
The abs pull upward on your hip upward from the front, which rotates
your hip upward/backward.
The hamstrings can pull down on the hip, which will rotate it
backward.
Since these muscles all rotate your hip backward, when they become
weak/inactive your hip rotates forward, and your butt sticks out.
Now you might wondering, if these muscles are rotating your hip backward,
surely there are muscles that rotate the hips forward! And you would be
correct. When those muscles become tight and overactive, they exert an
unequal pull on the hip forcing it out of alignment.
Overactive/Tight Muscles
Before we move on a bit, a quick primer on muscles. Muscles are elastic
tissue that stretch and contract to generate force. Muscles often work in
opposite pairs, for example: the bicep works to pull the forearm, while the
tricep works to extend it.
So when the bicep is contracting, flexing and becoming short the tricep is
extending, stretching and becoming long. If said tricep was really tight and
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couldn't stretch all the way, then we couldn't flex our bicep all the way. This
doesn't just affect movement, but passive posture. For example, if your
bicep was really tight while your tricep was really weak you would end up
with a slightly flexed elbow, at rest.
So onto the muscles that are overactive/tight in the case of
anterior pelvic tilt:
Hip Flexor: a mysterious muscle group that does most of the work
when you do situps. The main player here is the psoas which connects
from your spine to your thigh.
Rectus femoris (quads): the muscle on the front of your thigh - part
of the quadricep group.
Spinal Erectors: a bundle of muscles and tendons running the length
of your spine -- not advisable to stretch.
The main ones we're going to focus on to stretch are the hip flexors and
quads. The lower back we don't want to stretch since that can create
instability and lead to injury, read more about the spine here.
Deeper Insight
Muscles often become tight and short either from being overactive or from
being kept in the flexed/short position frequently. For example, when you sit
down, your hip flexors are flexed and short. Keep them in that position long
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How do I fix anterior pelvic tilt, Mike!
Okay, so we got all that messy anatomy out of the way, let's get to the meat
and potatoes of this guide. Here is the outline of our Anterior Pelvic Tilt
solution:
1. Muscles to Stretch
Psoas
Quads
2. Muscles to Strengthen
Glutes
Hamstrings
3. Daily Activity
4. Mental Cues that eliminates Anterior Pelvic Tilt (advanced)
Anterior Pelvic Tilt Stretches
Stretch that Psoas & Hip Flexor
So we talked about the psoas in the anatomy section - if you skipped that,
it's the muscle that connects your spine to your thigh. To stretch it, you
want to 'separate' the thigh from the hip and move it behind you, like the
picture shows below. You should hold the stretch for 30-60 seconds per side
and repeat several times. I personally prefer to start out with some shorter
holds just to get into the stretch. But however you start out, you'll need to
get into the longer holds in order to see lasting change.
enough, as in a typical work day, and they lose their flexibility, become tight
and you get anterior pelvic tilt (APT)
What causes muscle overactivity and anterior pelvic tilt?
Muscle overactivity commonly comes about as a compensation for other
weak muscles. When one muscle group is weak and underactive, the other
tends to pick up the slack and become overactive. The resulting imbalance
often leads to pain and even injury. A great example of this is the
relationship between the glutes and lower back: the glutes play an important
role in stabilizing the hip and core. When they become weak, the lower back
has to compensate and take on a role it wasn't meant for. Lower back
overactivity resulting from weak glutes is a major cause of back pain and
tightness.
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Advanced Psoas & Hip flexor stretch
To make it harder, raise your arms straight up and strut your chest. From
there you can lean to the side to stretch it even more.
Quad Stretch
The video below shows the basic stretch. Be careful with this one if you
have knee pain since it can aggravate it. To make the stretch harder, pull
your hip upward as you do the stretch.
Anterior Pelvic Tilt Buster: The Brettzel Stretch
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Hip Strengthening
Glute Bridges
Probably one of the most useful exercises ever, but all too often the benefit
is cut down by poor form. The glute bridge is a great butt builder and will
teach you how to activate the hip. The main thing to watch for is using your
lower back and/or hamstrings instead of your glutes. Most people have
dormant glutes so activating them will take work. Here's a useful progression
to get started:
1. Lay on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground.
From there practice just flexing and releasing the glutes (yes). You
should feel the glutes and make sure they are flexing, while at the
same time your lower back/hamstrings should be relaxed.
2. For the second progression you're going to do the same thing but
now focus on levitating your butt an inch off the ground. Basically,
keep flexing those glutes until your hip pops up.
3. Keep repeating 1 and 2 until you can isolate the glutes really well and
can bring them up pretty high.
Planks for less back pain
Planks are both the best and worst exercise. They are the best exercise
because they target so many muscles in your body from your abs, obliques,
to your glutes and hamstrings - to name a few. They are the worst exercise
because almost everyone chooses a progression that's way too difficult, does
poor form and holds for way too long.
When you plank, your body is supposed to be straight, in a neutral position.
Elbows under your shoulders, head looking down, back elongated and
straight, hips not sagging or up in the air. Legs and knees straight. If
someone lay a PVC pipe down your back, they should be able to make
contact with your head, upper back and hips all at the same time.
Before you go ahead and start planking, I recommend starting with the half-
plank. It's a lot easier to start, get the form straight and then increase
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difficulty and slowly build up to the full plank and all it's wonderful/tortuous
variations.
Half Plank
Advanced: Full Plank
Reverse Crunch
The video below does a great job explaining the movement.
Walk your anterior pelvic tilt away
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Walking is our most basic movement pattern and one that we evolved doing
with great frequency. As such, our body is adapted and dependent upon
walking to perform optimally. Beyond making you feel better, walking will
strengthen your abdominals, obliques, hamstrings, glutes while at the same
time stretching the quad, hip flexor and gently lengthen the lower back if
you walk with an upright posture.
Walking isn't a magical cure for anterior pelvic tilt but seeing how this
condition mainly is a result of being sedentary, it would be obvious that the
main cure is reducing sedentariness. Breaking up sedentary times with brief
periods of movement is a great way to lessen the impact all that sitting has
on your body, without losing productivity.
Mental Cues for better hip alignment
Beyond increasing your activity, stretching, and strengthening, there is one
more thing you can do: strengthen the mind-muscle connection. We already
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discussed that a bit in the glute bridge explanation but basically you want to
learn how to passively tilt your hip back/bring your butt in.
Before you start messing with your hips let's do a quick run-through from
the top down. Posture is not really about isolating a single body part, since
it's all connected.
Anti-Anterior Pelvic Tilt Posture
1. Chest up like a rooster
2. Shoulders back
3. Arms by your side, palms facing forward
4. Back tall and straight
5. Feet shoulder width apart
6. Weight distributed on the arches of your feet
Okay, got all that? No? Well, start practicing! It's a great way to cue good
posture.
So having done that, how do we get the hip to unstick
itself?
1. Flex your glutes, we practiced that a lot already!
2. Flex your abs and pull your stomach in. Imaging your abs connected
to your hip and your hip pulling upward as you flex and suck them in.
3. Flex your glutes and hamstrings some more: you should feel your
thighs slightly turn outwards and your pelvis coming a bit more
forward.
Those are the basics. You don't have to
do everything prescribed here as this is a
comprehensive solution for dealing with
anterior pelvic tilt.
If you feel overwhelmed: pick 1 stretch, 1
strengthening movement, do daily walks
and you'll see a ton of improvement just
from that.
Over time you can add more and more,
perfect your posture and move one step
closer to becoming Frank Zane pictured
to the right.
If you're interested in learning more
about the bio-mechanics behind the
pelvic tilt, check out Mike Robertson's
article on t-nation about it.
I know a lot of people have this problem
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and I've been promising to write about it

for a while, so I hope you find it helpful!
Please ask any questions in the comments below!
New Anterior Pelvic Tilt Solution
Did you find this article helpful? You'll love the new update we're working
on.
Free Resources for Anterior Pelvic Tilt Free Resources for Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Mike Kabbani
Co-Founder of SwolePT and awesome lifestyle specialist. I'm a self-taught personal
trainer, Ruby programmer, graphic designer, and Flamenco guitar player. Let me share
with you what I learned.
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