Continuing on from my last blog “Posture”, lets delve into one common postural position “Anterior Pelvic Tilt” or as I like to call it, “The Kim Kardashian”.
It is quite surprising to see the number of clients with anterior pelvic tilt. What is more interesting is how common an impairment it is with a range of musculoskeletal injuries. It does not only present with a lower back client… I have realised, anterior pelvic tilt is at times a “cause” or has “developed” from a shoulder/elbow/wrist, hip/knee/ankle injury. It seems, an injury to the extremities, at times, has a detrimental effect to our posture. Lets talk about that.
The pelvis/hip Is located right in the middle (or very close for some) of the upper and lower body. It is considered the base of the upper and lower body. If the base of any structure is out of whack, it will cause a ‘change’ to segments above and/or below. This ‘change’ can include instability, biomechanical changes, extra load on certain joints, compensatory changes due to inactivity causing over activity elsewhere and much more… Changes to the base can be a result of your pain. During treatment, whether it is upper or lower body, I ALWAYS assess and treat the base (ie pelvis) before the extremities. You cant build a building on poor foundation, which is why we employ geotechnical engineers to assess and determine the foundational structure before pouring concrete. Same thing with the body. Musculoskeletal speaking, a solid base is and should be achieved in rehab.
Lets talk about how an injury elsewhere can cause ant pelvic tilt to develop. Lets take a shoulder injury, subacromial bursitis, impingement syndrome, or in plain English “shoulder pain”. Anyone who has experienced pain should understand they don’t like it and the body doesn’t like it. What your body does to minimise that pain during a particular movement (eg shoulder press, putting something in the top shelf, swimming or simply an overhead movement) is compensate by doing another movement/s and/or involves other muscles to help you out. Shoulder pain and overhead movements don’t really mix well so we elevate the shoulder with our upper traps and arch the lower back to get the movement across. Overtime (if the injury not addressed), we develop overactive upper traps and lower back erector spinae muscles which can cause excessive anterior pelvic tilt.
Anterior pelvic tilt is simply defined as tightness/overactivity/shortening of the muscles at the front and lengthening/underactivity/weakness of the muscles at the back of the thigh. Also includes the opposite at the abdomen. Tightness/overactivity/shortening of the muscles at the back and lengthening/underactivity/weakness of the muscles around the abdomen. The key is to find neutral spine position with daily movements and exercise. These impairments first need to be overcome with proper rehab to minimise your pain and facilitate your training.
This blog isn’t about the intricate details of such impairment, my goal is to broaden your perspective of the human body. We were created with such finesse and precision beyond imaginable. Pain is not always where the problem lies, we need to look beyond that and analyse the body as a whole. Knowing this, we should believe that the body has the ability to heal, IF we let it!