05.26.17

The Perfect Standing Exercise (How to Stand)

So far in our series about reducing anterior pelvic tilt, you’ve learned:
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·         What is anterior pelvic tilt
·         How to test for it
·         How to sit properly
 
Can you stand properly to get out of anterior pelvic tilt?  Absolutely.  However, there is no one perfect way of standing for everyone.  This is why you need to individualize the way you stand.  We’re going to find the perfect standing exercise for you to get out of anterior pelvic tilt. Here’s how:      

Section 1:  Flatten the back

We are going to do a posterior pelvic tilt which is basically flattening your low back. 
We need to see how much you can do a posterior pelvic tilt. To do this, you’ll need a broom handle, dowel stick, long ruler, or whatever straight thing you can get to put on your back.

1. Make sure the stick touches the back of your head, mid back, and sacrum.
2. Place your thumb on the stick behind the biggest gap behind your low back.
3. Perform a posterior pelvic tilt by flattening your back so your thumb is touching both the dowel stick and your low back.

If you can touch, awesome!  You can proceed onto section 2 below.

If your thumb can’t quite touch or your thumb is really far away from touching your low back, you need to work on getting your thumb closer to your low back. Whenever you stand, practice flattening your low back as much as possible.

Now that we’ve assessed quantity, we need to look at quality. Quality in our assessment is measured by which muscles you use to accomplish your posterior pelvic tilt. Let’s test this below. 

Section 2:  Activation Test

While standing up, I want you to press into your obliques and glutes.  Now, flatten your back like just like we did with the stick. 

Did you feel a significant contraction, protrusion, or hardness in both of the muscles?  If you did, that’s great!  If not, you need to focus on the one(s) which didn’t activate as much.  For example, let’s assume you didn’t feel it in the obliques, but your glutes activated a lot. This means that whenever you stand, you should try to perform a posterior pelvic tilt with mostly your obliques. 

If you didn’t feel much activation in your obliques and your glutes, you should try to activate both them while standing. 

Some of my clients get discouraged because when they exclusively try to use the deactivated muscle, their range of motion is small.  Don’t worry about your range of motion when practicing with your weaker muscle.  As you practice, your range of motion will get better.  You will also notice that your weaker muscle will get stronger and more activated too.

Congratulations!  You’ve now found the perfect standing exercise to get out of anterior pelvic tilt.  Remember, focus on quality first by using your weaker muscle. Don’t worry about your range of motion.  However, once your weaker muscles get stronger, go for full range of motion. How do you know if what you are doing is working?  If your thumb gets closer and closer to your low back, you are making progress. Eventually, you will find your thumb can touch behind your low back and your glutes and obliques are activating sufficiently.