What do you need to do to fix anterior tilt?

As personal trainers, we see anterior pelvic tilt a lot. As a result of our YouTube videos on different approaches and techniques relevant to training, we get a lot of questions about what’s really necessary to get stronger, fitter, and more mobile when you have anterior pelvic tilt. 

One of the big questions we get is about squatting and deadlifting and how they relate to anterior tilt. Specifically, people want to know whether squatting and deadlifting are actually necessary components of fixing anterior tilt!

What do squatting and deadlifting have to do with anterior tilt?

For people with anterior pelvic tilt, exercise selection is really important. If you do the wrong exercises, you can easily make your pelvic tilt worse. If you pick the right exercises, things get better.

A lot of guys and gals who squat and deadlift have anterior pelvic tilt. When you do those exercises and maintain a strong back arch, informed people will point out that you’re obviously training muscles that make anterior tilt worse. You use the spinal erectors to keep the spine extended. You use your quads and hip flexors to dump the pelvis into anterior tilt.

In our program for anterior tilt, we DO include the squat and the deadlift. Why? In this video we answered a viewer question about whether squatting and deadlifting are really a necessary component in a training program that helps you with anterior pelvic tilt.

The main takeaway is that for people who like to live their lives in the real world, squatting and deadlifting are a regular activity. When you pick things up off the floor, you’re going to squat or deadlift.

If you don’t learn how to squat and deadlift properly, then every time you have to squat and deadlift in real life, you’re going to go back into an anterior tilt movement pattern. That’s not what you want.

How do you use squatting and deadlifting to fix anterior tilt?

The reason the Fix Anterior Tilt program progresses people to squatting and deadlifting is because:

• Athletes often squat and deadlift and need to know how to do both exercises properly with respect to their habitual anterior tilt to minimize risk of exacerbation and injury.
• Non-athletes who want to pick stuff up off the floor or get out of chairs need to know how to do both movements properly so they can get through life with lower risk of injury/muscle strain.

Conclusions on Anterior Pelvic Tilt in relationship to squatting and deadlifting

Imagine you were a bicyclist who never learned how to reliably balance on two wheels. You develop elbow and shoulder pain from falling down all the time. So you look for a coach to help you solve your problems.

What is success in that situation? Just getting rid of the shoulder and elbow pain? No. You can solve those if you just stop biking. If the coach can teach you how to bicycle without falling, s/he will have REALLY solved your problem.

The goal of the Fix Anterior Tilt program is to make sure you learn how to do big movements without losing form and causing yourself to be in pain. That’s why proper squatting and deadlifting are part of a good program to help combat anterior pelvic tilt!