Continuing from my last blog post about fixing rounded shoulders, this time I will teach you how to correct another postural problem (pelvic tilt) or lordosis.
Similarly to rounded shoulders, pelvic tilt is also caused by excessive periods of sitting down.
When you sit down for long periods of time, your psoas muscles and hamstrings become tight.
This results in your pelvis tilting and thereby creating the lordotic curve.
The solution to correct this is to stretch out the psoas muscles and hamstrings and to strengthen the glutes and abs.
As long as you’re training on a decent program that includes some kind of squat or deadlift movement and one ab exercise, you most likely have strong enough glutes and abs (it really doesn’t take much muscle mass to maintain great posture).
In this case, your weak points are most likely tight psoas muscles and hamstrings therefore you should focus more on stretching these out.
A basic standing hamstring stretch is enough for the hamstrings. Hold for 30-60 seconds each leg.
For the psoas muscle there are many stretches you can do.
My favorite psoas stretch is shown below:
You hold these for 30-60 seconds on each leg a few times per day.
Within just a week you should start feeling a great difference in your lower body mobility and back posture.
I personally stretch out my hamstrings and hip flexors every morning when I wake up for around 15 minutes and then again after training (after training you will be able to get a deeper stretch).
Be proud but stay hungry!
Oskar Faarkrog, ISSA Certified Trainer
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