Pelvic thrust is an awesome move on the dance floor. However, if your pelvic section is not aligned, the moves will become painful and cumbersome. The most common issue people have with the pelvic is APT.
What is APT? Well, it is an abbreviation for Anterior Pelvic Tilt. The tilt is a condition in which your pelvis tilts downward instead of being in a neutral position. It can be due to an anatomical characteristic or simply bad posture.
The anterior pelvic tilt is particularly common in women. However, men with a sedentary lifestyle also suffer from that issue. The main focus of this article is to explain the complications of this musculoskeletal tilt.
Furthermore, you will also get an idea of how APT can cause lower back pain, how long does it take to fix anterior pelvic tilt, and identify an anterior pelvic tilt remedy that may work for you.
Table of Content
What Causes Anterior Pelvic Tilt?
The anterior pelvic tilt is a body position alteration. When the front of the pelvis leans forward while the rear end of the pelvis goes up, it initiates APT.
Try placing your hands on your waist. Can you feel those bony ridges between your index and middle fingers? Those are called iliac crests. If they are pointed towards the ground rather than straight, you most likely have APT.
According to some studies, roughly 85% of men and 75% of women have an anterior pelvic tilt with no manifestations.
The anterior pelvic tilt is due to the shortening of hip flexors and the hip extensors broadening. APT is a condition that triggers an increase in the curving of the lower back and the upper spine.
Shortening and Broadening of Hip Muscles
The anterior pelvic tilt generates due to the shortening of hip flexors and the broadening of the hip extensors. The condition triggers an increase in the curving of the lower back and the upper spine.
The hip flexor muscles link the thigh bone to the hip and lumbar area. They are vital for running, motions like kicking, and bending from the hip.
The hip extensors, on the contrary, consists of four muscles. Three of them are the hamstring muscles, and the rest is the gluteus maximus. They support the extension of the hip. Additionally, the anterior pelvic tilt is also due to weak abdominal or core muscles.
Sedentary Lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is often blamed for the altering shape of the backbone and the accompanying muscle disparities.
Exorbitant sitting or insufficient physical activity can cause anterior pelvic tilt. The lifestyle also impacts posture and the form of the spine. It also enhances the manifestation of other clinical features.
When the hip flexors are rigid and dragging your pelvis down, your gluteal muscles and hamstrings are too sluggish to reverse that forward dragging.
Use of High Heels
Lumbar pain due to anterior pelvic tilt is triggered by sitting for long periods and wearing high heels regularly. Both factors add up to short, constricted hip flexors and frail glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles.
APT or anterior pelvic tilt triggers an upturn in lordosis or a lower back arc.
If you leave your anterior pelvic tilt unfixed, it will impair the lower spine at the lowest two levels—L4-5 and L5-S1. You may be more susceptible to disc problems in the lower lumbar discs.
These include a compressed degenerative disc, annular tears, disc bulges, and disk herniation.
Anterior Pelvic Tilt Symptoms
Someone having an anterior pelvic tilt may not notice any manifestations, but it can be triggered by a bad posture and a lumbar arc.
Often, there are no signs and symptoms linked with anterior pelvic tilt. However, some may face the following manifestations:
- Muscle rigidity in the pelvic and thigh region
- Faint gluteus maximus and core muscles
- Poor posture with the lower lumbar spine curving in
- Protuberant stomach
However, the pain of the lower lumbar region, hips, or knees is often recognized as a symptom; there is little proof to propose that this is due to an anterior pelvic tilt.
Related: Back Pain After Myomectomy: Any Blunder In The Surgery?
How Long Does It Take To Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt?
It is not easy to discern how long does it take to fix the anterior pelvic tilt. If it is a hereditary issue, you may not be able to alter it permanently.
However, various alterations in movement or motion can help to minimize the impact. The more you concentrate on altering the way you sit, stand, and perform key workouts, the quicker and more constantly you can counteract the effects of anterior pelvic tilt.
As a result, even if the anatomical modification is minor, you can make the anterior pelvic tilt dysfunctional and reduce the risk of injury.
How Long Does It Take To Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt With Exercises?
How long does it take to fix anterior pelvic tilt through workouts or anterior pelvic tilt exercises?
The most effective way to correct lumbopelvic posture is through muscle training.
Generally, hip flexor stretches are regarded as the primary treatment for anterior pelvic tilt. Conversely, it is not that effective in practice.
Then why shouldn’t you stretch your hip flexors if they’re short and stiff?
Extending those muscles does not address the underlying cause of their tightness. Contrarily, It can even worsen your back pain.
The best way to fix anterior pelvic tilt is to intensify posterior tilt in the reverse movement pattern.
The following anterior pelvic tilt exercise can help you to minimize the agony:
Squats
Strengthening the leg and gluteal muscles can help to improve posture.
Squatting strengthen the gluteal muscles, hamstrings, and other leg muscles. Squeezing the glutes is a brilliant cue for squats, as constricting the glutes will make the posterior tilt feel more normal.
How does squatting help with an anterior pelvic tilt? Squatting induces pelvic tilting. However, do not do it excessively to avoid back pain and triggering your APT further.
What is the proper way to do squats?
First, keep your feet about shoulder-width apart. Keeping the distance of your feet at that level is how you will assume your stance during squats. A good postural guide is to try to turn out somewhere between 5 and 30 degrees. So rather than facing straight upfront, your feet will turn out marginally.
Next, set your feet into the ground engages your muscle groups, improves alignment, and establishes stability with the ground.
Third, make sure to keep your chest up. Assume a stance as if you are proud. In this manner, your shoulders and the upper back area will prevent you from rounding. Applying a wrong upper body stance is where most people go wrong when it comes to performing squat movements. They tend to overstress their spines.
Fourth, when you are all set to do squats, start your movements by bending your knees and pushing your hips to the back.
Always remember to engage with your core muscles while keeping them braced throughout the movement.
Your position and stance during squats are very crucial. A study on the effect of knee position on the hips and knees stated that, although limiting forward knee motion may reduce stress on the knees, it is likely that forces are improperly transmitted to the hips and low-back region.
As a result, proper joint loading during this workout may necessitate the knees moving slightly past the toes.
Pelvic Tilt
This exercise helps to strengthen the abdominal or your core muscles. The lying down pelvic tilt is the best technique since pushing your lower back up from the ground is easy for most persons to execute.
Keep in mind that the issue is having an anterior pelvic tilt. Doing an exercise that tilts the pelvis in another direction is vital.
How do you do a pelvic tilt? First, lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor making sure that your hips are width apart. And then, squeeze your buttocks and raise your pelvis.
Reminder, your back should feel like it is flattening out to the ground. Your core muscles can assist you in pushing your back down. Afterward, return to the original pelvic position. Do this motion for 10–12 reps. Implementing this motion while standing up is also beneficial for stimulating gluteal muscles and enhancing pelvic mobility.
Kneeling Rear Leg Lifts
This exercise lengthens and strengthens the spine and gluteal muscles while also stretching and boosting the abdominal muscles.
Remember, it is important to strengthen the glutes and abdominal muscles to maintain a good posture and prevent anterior pelvic tilt from occurring.
Also, doing kneeling rear leg lifts aids in the anterior pelvic tilt by opening your hip flexors. How do we do this movement?
First, place your knee on a mat then bend forward and put your forearms on the ground. Lift the other off the ground then straighten it.
Next, raise your leg as high as you can. Gently lower the leg back down until your toes almost touch the ground and then repeat the movement by raising it again.
Moreover, do not forget to inhale as you lower down your leg and exhale while you are raising it. Ideally, you can perform 10 reps on each leg or any number of reps that may be precisely recommended to you.
Kneeling Hip Flexor Flex
Prolonged sitting can stiffen hip flexor muscles; however, stretching can help relax them again. This process will help you to relax and revitalize the muscles of your legs, waist, pelvic, and lower back.
The quadriceps muscles are overactive and tight in people who have anterior pelvic tilt. Attempting to stretch these muscles will keep them from tugging on the pelvis.
This stretch will also help extend your hip flexors. To perform a kneeling hip flexor flex, start by kneeling on the floor.
Next, take your left leg onward while keeping your knee bent. Then, place your left foot on the ground.
Remember, your front thigh should be analogous to the floor and at a 90-degree angle. Drive your pelvis forward by squeezing the gluteal muscles. Try holding the stance for 30 seconds before repeating the movements on the opposite side.
Lastly, lean deeper into the flex to hit the hip flexors more precisely. It is critical to try to tuck your pelvis inwards. This stretch will primarily affect the quadriceps and hip flexor muscles.
Related: Why did I get lower back pain on one side after doing a deadlift?
Glute Bridges
This method works on the buttocks and hamstrings. It is one of the most beneficial exercises ever, but poor form can diminish all your effort. The glute bridge is an excellent way to build the gluteal muscles, and the movement also teaches you how to amplify the hip.
The most important thing to watch out for is utilizing your lower spine and/or hamstrings rather than your glutes. Since most individuals have dormant glutes, enabling lower spine and hamstring will require effort.
How to perform the glute bridge correctly? Start by lying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground about hip-width apart.
Then, squeeze in your buttocks while making sure you tuck the pelvis toward the roof or ceiling. Next, roll upward until the back is off the floor. Your shoulders must now be sustaining your body weight.
Remember to keep and hold the stance for 5 seconds while centering your mind on squeezing your gluteal muscles. The next move is to roll back down gently.
You must focus on letting each of your vertebras touch and feel the ground in turn until your back is lying fully, flat on the floor again. Finally, you may repeat the glute bridges 12–15 times and build up the movements up to 3 sets.
Planks
It may be tough to keep a plank initially, but you should attempt to maintain the pose for as long as necessary, ultimately up to 1 minute. The plank exercise works the abdomen and postural muscles.
Related: Are Planks Effective as Mons Pubis Fat Loss Exercise?
When performing a plank, your body should be straight and in a balanced position. Elbows under shoulders, head down, back wide and long, hips not drooping down or up in the air. Legs and knees should remain horizontally. If someone puts a plastic pipe down your spine, then you should be able to link up with your head, spine, and hips all at once.
Doing planks will improve your core muscles. Your core must be constantly tight and clenched in toward the lumbar area. Tightening your buttocks will also help stabilize the body.
How should you perform planks properly? Begin on all fours. Follow it up with extending your legs straight back, employing your toes to support your body weight.
Place your remaining body weight on the elbows and forearms at rest. Then, your body should now be assuming and placed in one long line.
Next, your hips should not be higher or lower than the shoulders. Just at the same level. How do you hold down the plank correctly? Clench both your glutes and your core muscles. Or hold your belly button inwards.
Tuck your pelvis slightly to aid in engaging your abdominal muscles. Lastly, hold your plank for 30–60 seconds.
Sets and Repetitions of Exercises
While working on complex movements like squats and deadlifts, you need to use fewer repetitions. And this is particularly true for individuals with anterior pelvic tilt.
The smaller number of reps you do, the less stress you will put on your pelvic.
You will achieve a great outcome if you do two to four sets, resting at least 30 seconds between them. The overall workout volume is entirely dependent on your physical conditions.
You would not want to pursue any motion when fatigued. Otherwise, it will challenge spinal alignment. However, if these exercises are programmed sooner in the workout, you can accomplish with less technically challenging movement patterns that produce the desired training effect.
How to Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt While Walking
Walking is the most fundamental movement sequence, and it is the one that we frequently do. As a result, our bodies are adapted to and reliant on walking to function optimally.
But, how long does it take to fix anterior pelvic tilt by walking?
Walking, in addition to making you feel well, will boost your core muscles, obliques, hamstrings, and glutes. It also extends the quad, hip flexor and delicately lengthening the lower spine if you walk with an erect posture.
Walking is not a magic solution for anterior pelvic tilt. Still, since sedentary actions primarily cause this situation, it seems like the main cure to reduce the APT and break sedentary behavior.
Does having APT affect your height?
Since anterior pelvic tilt is due to the reduction of hip flexors and the hip extensors broadening, this condition triggers an increase in the curving of the lower back and the upper spine.
Does having APT affect your height? Yes, it might have. There is indeed a noticeable impact.
Those who are suffering from APT have a height loss of about .5 to 2.5 inches. You can confirm this by measuring your height before doing the recommended ways to address your anterior pelvic tilt versus post-correcting the condition. APT causes you to bend your back or to be in a stance that decreases your vertebral height.
FAQs
Is Anterior Pelvic Tilt Fixable?
Fortunately, APT is easily remedied. Walking more often and avoiding high heels, many anterior pelvic tilt remedial activities can help you relax your hip flexors and boost your core and posterior system. So focus on exercise if you want to avoid asking how long does it take to fix anterior pelvic tilt.
How Do You Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt Fast?
Concentrate on the hip flexors. Stiffness in the erector spine is the result, not a cause, of the forward-tilted pelvis. Operating on the iliopsoas muscles, which cause hip flexion, is therefore critical.
If you have anterior pelvic tilt, your hamstrings may feel stiff as well. Stiffness in this group of muscles is also a result of, rather than a reason for, the unusual pelvic tilt.
Though stretching the hamstrings is helpful, it will not resolve the issue. Why is that? Since an anterior pelvic tilt position of the pelvis pre-stretches the hamstrings. This creates the sense that they are tight.
Stretching them often causes more damage than good. As previously stated, the abdominal group of muscles and glutes are the main two muscles that can relieve the anterior pelvic tilt.
People who have anterior pelvic tilt frequently have difficulty activating the glutes and relaxing the hip flexors.
Having said that, the source of the weakness is clear. Given this proclivity, exercising caution when reinforcing the underactive musculature around the pelvic ring is advised.
How Do You Fix Anterior Pelvic Tilt Overnight?
Sleeping in bed does not neutralize the pelvic area. This is because the bed is letting your pelvis go into a more anterior pelvic tilt position. What you can do when lying in a supine position, or face up or when sleeping on your back is to take a pillow or blanket and stick it under your knees.
Lifting the knees relaxes your back muscles and puts your pelvis in a neutral position.
When you are sleeping on your stomach, move the blanket or pillow a little under your pelvis. This way, you will get a more posterior tilt, let your lower back relax, and get your pelvis in a neutral position.
Can Genetic Anterior Pelvic Tilt Be Fixed?
Collaborating with a chiropractor, reflexology or physiotherapist can help to optimize the misalignments that play a role and stem from excessive anterior pelvic tilt. It also handles soft tissue to help release taut and shortened muscular tissue and tendons that add more agony.
What Should You Not Do With Anterior Pelvic Tilt?
Weak stomach muscles also cause the anterior pelvic tilt. Extended periods of sitting are frequently responsible for the reshaping of the spine and the linked muscle disparities. Inadequate stretching and strengthening exercises also play a role in an anterior pelvic tilt. It is also advisable to avoid wearing heels.
Conclusion
When it comes to amending anterior pelvic tilt, regularity and thoroughness are the key factors that will define your success in altering your pelvic tilt. There are exercises which you can do at home.
Try your best to do these regularly. If you do so, you will swiftly begin to see substantial improvements.
Another thing to remember is that you should constantly be mindful of your stance throughout the day and while in the gym. When you sit or stand for long periods throughout the day, then maintain your pelvis in more of a neutral position.
This is what will save your anterior pelvic tilt from worsening or recurring after it has been corrected. And you don’t have to worry about how long does it take to fix anterior pelvic tilt.
Likewise, when executing activities in the gym such as squatting and deadlifts, you must educate yourself on maintaining a neutral pelvis. Avoid arching your back. This will help you develop your muscle, mainly in your leg exercises.
