The Hips Don't Lie!

Hello folks! It’s Tuesday which means we spend some time focusing on good form when working out. Today we look at the hips/pelvic region.

"Would you help me with my pelvic tilt?"

--Phil Conners a la Groundhog Day

Okay, for the record I am NOT trying to hit on Andie MacDowell.

Your pelvis consists of your hip bones, sacrum and coccyx. A common way to cue for your pelvis is to imagine it as a bowl. Depending on how you tip your pelvis, water will “pour out” to the front or back.

For an anterior pelvic tilt, you would imagine tipping your pelvis forward so that the water falls out in front of you. This also results in your butt sticking out, as you can see on the left. For a posterior pelvic tilt (on the right), you would tuck your hips under you…the water in the bowl would fall behind you and you make your back flatter than necessary. Your neutral pelvis is in-between (see the middle photo). Note that I still have curvature in my spine.

Another cue for your hips is to think of them as having headlights attached to them. This can be helpful when trying to keep your hips square. For many moves (lateral leg lifts being a good example), we have a tendency to rotate the hips out to get better range of motion in the lift. On the left, you can imagine the headbeams on my hips swinging out to the side.

Instead, keep the headlights facing forward, ie keep the hips square. This will reduce your range of motion but result in better muscle isolation for that movement.

So keep your pelvis neutral and those hips pointing forward! And don’t forget to shake them every once in a while, too!

Want to see more? Check out my YouTube video below!