Is anterior pelvic tilt a problem in sprinting? it can hurt my progress?
how can i resolve it?
i’m working on quad flexibility (is very thigh, ican’t put my toe to my butt) and harmstring strenght. but it seems to be very difficoult to resolve. any advice?
Are you experiencing a specific problem other than flexibility issues?
Anterior pelvic tilt have been a problem for me too lately. :mad:
Anterior pelvic tilt will most likely put the hamstrings in a longer resting length. There is an advantage and a disadvantage to this. A muscle that is slightly stretch in the resting position would fire more easily. However there is a very thin line between this and an hamstring pull during dynamic motion (such as sprint). The Issue of hamstring pull is a more complicated subject than that, but we will leave It to this for now…
I have a HUGE quads/hams imbalance. Even if I can do 450 pounds squat ass to grass and Stiff leg deadlift with 405 pounds. It seems that my glutes and lower back take the majority of the load. Be aware of such imbalance.
The way to test this would be a leg curl with feet in plantar flexion and pelvis kept on bench during the set. In the hips extension fonction, maybe stiff led good morning would be one of the best. Instead of looking only for numbers, I would only look at form and recruitment. I think that we somehow know when a muscle don’t fire properly or is too weak in relation to the antagonist. It is often useful too look at your training history. Follow your intuition on this.
One of my friends, who is a 450pounds deadlifter can’t do low cable hips extension with more than 50pd without cheating…
I will show you what I do myself to help me with this problem.
First give room to change pelvis position…then work weak muscles…the reverse may be catastrophic…
Stretch-PNF (Before training If needed then more emphasis on more flexibility post-training) (psoas/rectus femoris/adductors magnus/TFL)+massage
some also want you to stretch your lower back…be careful If you want to try, start slowly and evaluate If It’s helping you. If not, stop, don’t be dogmatic about It.
Increase strength of hamstrings/glutes.
Often all quadriceps training could be in a hips dominant mode (for exemple more lunges instead of squat)
This would be a simple set-up
2x6xBackward lunges
4x6-8xStiff leg Deadlift (with emphasis on anterior pelvic tilt during the eccentric portion(hamstrings) + maximal hips extension at the end with the hips pushing the bar front(glutes)).
Finish this with 2-3 sets of leg curl that won’t change the world but would help a bit…
Also I had great results with no PNF/STATIC stretching on hamstrings at all (see Stuart McGill on this). Only do Ballistic normally (front-back) and (side to side).
If others have experienced injuries like myself (2 hamstrings pull) and are now healthy, feel free to add your own tips!
Rather than look at numbers you can use some pretty simple tests for this…
Lay with back flat on ground, legs perpendicular in the air, if you can’t lower your legs to the floor without your lower back curving upward, your lower abs are weak.
Lay on your back, pull one knee into your chest with other leg straight, if leg opposite the one being pulled to your chest rises or the foot turns outward, your hip flexors/rectus femoris is/are tight.
If you pass these your spinal erectors are stiff and hamstrings/glutes are possibly weak.
Combination of these can obviously be the culprit as well.
Overall, best remedy for any kind of pelvic tilt is to stop walking around with a pelvic tilt ala be conscious of your walking posture and make sure to get up during the day from sitting, walk around, sit in a squat position, etc. through out the day.
Yeah, the Thomas Test to determine If there is tension In the rectus fem/psoas/TFL. It just doesn’t test recruitment pattern, only short muscles. But still is a very good tool that I use often.
The Leg lowering/pelvic tilt strength test is also a good test. But not so much for athletes with bigger legs. Ask Charlie about It. On the forum he said that this test wasn’t so valuable. Regardless you are right about the implication of weak abs in anterior pelvic tilt.
Overall, best remedy for any kind of pelvic tilt is to stop walking around with a pelvic tilt ala be conscious of your walking posture and make sure to get up during the day from sitting, walk around, sit in a squat position, etc. through out the day.
Do you have had any experience with this? There is also huge difference between static and dynamic posture. I have a neutral pelvis at rest. But my dynamic pattern just Isn’t that way.
Thank you for bringing simplification to the subject, I often which It was that simple…
yes, neck pain, harmstring pain,
so I must stretch the thight muscle before to work on the strenght of the other?
and EMS on the weak muscle can be used?
however i have:
thight spinal erector, quad (the most thight).
weak harmstring (but i think glutes is good)
You have normal posture while standing statically but not while you walk/run?? How have you measured this? This seems very unusual to me and if you have no problems while standing statically (are you making sure you are perfectly relaxed and not cheating yourself?) then I don’t see how you could have many issues related to your posture. That just wouldn’t add up in my mind, it’s hard for me to picture you have all the symptoms of anterior pelvic tilt yet have no tilt while standing. If you have no tilt standing up, then really are your hamstrings in a chronic lengthened position, erectors chronically shortened, etc? It wouldn’t seem so.
As far as my experience, I’m just conscious to stand straight up when I walk around. Basically try to make my ankles, hips, shoulders, ears form a vertical line. I also will just sit in a squat position for small periods of time (like everyone used to do while they were a kid) as I have the belief if you can sit in a full squat position, you have the majority of all the mobility you will ever need.
Well to make things short:
1-Yes, you must stretch (PNF+Static/Micro) + Massage/Trigger the strong muscles and build strength for weak muscle in that order. Stretching for the strong muscles should be done at the start of the weight training. Failure to do that will may results in bad ROM during lifting exercises. (for an example imagine tight pec minor+elevator during row will causes incorrect movement).
2-I have no experiences with EMS with postural modification. The nervous system proprioceptive system is very important too. If you do EMS keep in mind that weight training should be done too.
3-Neck pain might be the results of thoracic kyphosis which may be a result of the body trying to keep in line with the anterior pelvic tilt.
4-Internet tips are limited, take them for what they are (suggestion of possible protocol to take for an issue that we have only some information about) . Always use your own common sense.
Good luck will all that!
Well, If you can’t tell me that there is a difference between standing doing nothing and a 100m, then we are in trouble…No offense, just a simple observation.
Static posture is very easy to influence only by stretching tight muscles. Dynamic posture modification require strength output balance too, in addiction to the mobility. We are talking about athletes here, not every day clinical patient. Different population, different issues.
I think that the major thing to look at, Is making the glutes to contract well during the sprint, not only neutral pelvis in between sets rest. If you get to the point that you are feeling your glutes more than your hamstrings, than I think that you running pattern is right. Gluteus Maximus is the largest and more powerful muscle in the human body, use It! Trying to reproduce perfect technique will fail each time without the required level of strength, It just won’t be possible, just like a full triple extension out of the blocks for kids.
Running tall require a lot of strength in the hips extensors (glutes+hamstrings), individuals with anterior pelvic tilt during dynamic/explosive activity will rely more on quads strength to run, they are push runners. During the upright phase they use lower backs and hamstrings to do the hips extension, a very dangerous compensation that will bring back tensions/even possibly nerve+disc damage and hamstrings pulls.
The thing must be more clear now…