How to Find Neutral Spinal Alignment Through Pelvic Tilting
Welcome back!
Pelvic Tilt Measurement
A common email question I receive is about measuring pelvic tilt. The best way to measure pelvic tilt is with a specialized set of calipers that were developed by neuromuscular therapist Paul Chek. These can be quite pricey, and are only usually found in the offices of skilled therapists.
The other way to measure pelvic tilt, which is quick, cost-free, and easily done is home is by looking at your belt line in the mirror. Usually, the front of your belt line rests either slightly above, or slightly below the Anterior Superior Iliac Spine, which is the small bony protuberance just above your thigh. The backside of your belt line usually rests again just above or below the Posterior Superior Iliac Spine, which are found about 2 inches to the side of the spine.
When you look in the mirror at your side view, you will look at the angle of the belt line. For men, the line should be parallel to the ground, with neither the front or the backside higher than the other, with normal measuring 0-5 degrees. For women, the angle should be slighter lower on the front side than the backside within approximately 7-10 degrees being normal.
It is important to note, that these are the “textbook” normal values for pelvic tilt. It should not be the ONLY evaluation for normal function and balance of the core muscles. You should also evaluate the range of motion and strength of all the associated muscles in order to really test total function of this area. You do NOT have to be perfect, but close enough to be out of pain!
Sam Visnic–
How To Measure Anterior Pelvic Tilt and Posterior Pelvic Tilt
The 3 Major Body Centers That React To Pelvic Tilt
Excessive pelvic tilt, whether that be anterior or posterior, is by far the most destructive imbalances that can happen in the body. It can create imbalances as far down as the feet, and as far up as the neck and even eyes.
The cool part is, MOST of the time, correcting just the imbalances in the pelvis will improve other far reaching problems in your body, however, sometimes, you need to look elsewhere.
The 3 major body centers that exist include:
- The head-neck-jaw complex: These three structures are essential for human survival. Think about it, if you lived 10,000 years ago and could not keep your eyes or ears level with the horizon, you would not be very efficient at escaping predators. Just as important, if your jaw was out of alignment significantly, you would not be able to chew, and that would certainly lead to death.
- The pelvic complex: The pelvis and the hip joints work together to create stability and balance to the center of the body, as well as generating movement. Based on what the head-neck-jaw complex is doing, this area will reflexively coordinate with it. The pelvis is far lower on the survival needs list. With a dysfunctional pelvis, one could live to perform daily functions.
- The foot-ankle complex: This area provides essential information to the brain about ground forces, how to react, and other key reflex features. When the foot and ankle is imbalanced, ground forces cannot be distributed correctly throughout the body. It is well known in therapeutic circles that imbalances in the feet may contribute strongly to unresolved neck and pain.
Sam Visnic–
A Little Experiment…Assess Your Pelvic Tilt…
Let’s try a little exercise here. If you are in a place where you can stand up, then do so, if not, then try this exercise later.
First of all, take a few steps in place, then stop. This will set you in a natural standing posture for you. Keep your arms down to your sides. I want you to begin to notice where your weight is on your feet.
Is it on the front of your feet, or more toward your heels, or is it balanced?
Do you have more weight on the inside of your feet, or the outside, or is it balanced?
Do you have more weight on your left foot, or your right foot, or is it balanced?
Interesting, isn’t it? At any given time, you can notice what your unconscious postural tendencies are.
Now, make sure your feet are straight ahead, and without doing anything else, I want you to begin slowly contracting your butt muscles by squeezing them together. As you do this, notice what happens to your feet.
Did you notice what happens? We’re going to do it again, but this time, I want you to put your hands on the center of your thighs. Now, squeeze your butt muscles again, and watch and feel what happens to your hands.
Now, if you did this as instructed, you will have noticed that your hands move away from your mid-line as your thigh bone rotates outward. That is called external rotation of the thigh bone.
So, you are probably wondering what the heck that has to do with anything. What you just did was move your pelvis by activating your butt muscles! If you put enough tension in them to cause your thigh bones to externally rotate, then your pelvis went into posterior tilt. When this happens, it causes your lower spine to flatten.
What is the significance of this? Stand up again. If you are currently feeling discomfort in your lower back, then this will be an interesting test. Rank your level of discomfort on a 1 to 10 scale, with a 10 being the highest level of discomfort. Now, perform the posterior pelvic tilt again by gently squeezing your butt muscles until you have about a 75% of full contraction in them. Now while holding that position, rank your lower back discomfort.
What did you notice? Has it increased, stayed the same, or decreased? In my experience this motion creates at least some degree of reduced discomfort, and in many cases, almost complete reduction.
This resulting reduction in discomfort through movement of the pelvis communicates to us that perhaps your pelvic position is not ideal. Now, the opposite motion, tipping the pelvis forward into anterior tilt, may create relief if you have the opposite pelvic position.
These types of assessments can deliver an incredible amount of valuable information on what is currently happening in your body that may be contributing to your back pain, and also, HOW to reduce or eliminate it!
Sam Visnic–
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