What is a Pelvic Curl®?

A Pelvic Curl® is when your pelvis rotates posteriorly into its neutral position under the rib cage. It restores vertebral body loading through the lumbar spine and ensures all lumbar spine vertebra are involved in support and load transfer. A Pelvic Curl® is one of the 4 Principles of Neutral Spine Alignment within the Healthy Posture System™. It is the foundation of the house that supports your Chest Lift®.

The muscles that suspend the pelvis into a pelvic curl are the lower abdominals, many other core muscles support maintaining neutral pelvis position dynamically. You know you are in an pelvic curl when you feel your lower abdominals suspending your pelvis; you will also feel a stretch sensation in the lower back. You will also feel a stretch in the muscle of the lower lumbar spine when your pelvis is in neutral position.

Why is it Important?

A Pelvic Curl® restores neutral lumbar spine alignment. It pulls us out of lumbar extension which overloads are facet and aligns weightbearing through the vertebral bodies of the lumbar spine. The consequences of excessive extension in the low back are joint misalignment and accelerated joint breakdown. To gain a better understanding of the importance of Pelvic Curl® posture it is important to understand its opposing posture, a collapsed pelvis posture.

Consequences of Collapsed Pelvis Posture:

A collapsed pelvis posture locks you into excessive lumbar extension and facet loading in the low back.  Similar to how forward head posture eventually progresses into head tilt posture; collapsed pelvis posture will eventually progress to rotated pelvis posture.  Rotated pelvis posture occurs when one pelvis collapses more than the other.  As you can see in the image above, this wreaks havoc on both sides of the low back; it in essence creates a functional lumbar scoliosis.

Lumbar Spine (low back):

• Collapsed Pelvis Posture. A collapsed pelvis posture locks you into excessive lumbar extension and facet loading in the low back. Your abdominals are not active so there is no anterior abdominal pressure to help support the low back. Additionally, collapsed pelvis posture forces only 2 of the 5 lumbar vertebrae to be involved in support and load transfer. The other 3 are on vacation. This places you at risk for a herniated disc, spinal stenosis and sciatica/piriformis syndrome.
• Rotated Pelvis Posture. The pelvis can only rotate so far forward on one side before it brings the sacrum and lower lumbar spine with it. Your pelvis rotates off it neutral axis with its attachment to the sacrum posteriorly (SI joint) and the opposite pelvis anteriorly at the symphysis pubis. The most common direction for rotational displacement is to the right pelvis collapsing anteriorly. Hand dominances are likely the main contributing factor to prevalence of right lumbar loading patterns. Most humans are right hand dominant and develop right lumbar spine loading patterns as a result. As a result, we tend to sit on our left sit bones more than our right; we stand with more weight on our left leg and flare out our right rib cage when lifting overhead.

Common Lumbar Spine Joint Misalignments.

• L4 and L5 Rotations. Collapsed pelvis posture places a significant amount of stress on the L4/L5 and L5/S1 spinal segments**.** The anteriorly collapsed pelvis pulls on the sacrum which can create a hypermobile L5 spinal segment in the direction toward the weight bearing bias. You will have likely have a constantly tight quadratus lumborum muscle and you are now at risk for a lower lumbar spine radiculopathy.
• T12/L1 Rotation. Whatever happens in the lower back often causes a rotational dysfunction in the upper lumbar spine. Those with a collapsed right pelvis and L5 rotation to the right often have hypermobility at the T12/L1 spinal segment to the left. Those with collapsed pelvis posture often flare their ribs when they lift overhead.

Common Symptoms: muscle strain, chronically tight QL, tight hamstring, pain down the legs.

Potential Diagnosis’s: lumbar sprain/strain, degenerative disc disease, spinal osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, cervical radiculopathy, spondylolisthesis, herniated or building disc, sciatica, piriformis syndrome.

Joint Clearing Techniques: (Xylophone): The  HPS teaches self-correction technique for misalignments in the lumbar spine  at level 5 of the HPS when a client reports symptoms consistent with these  misalignment or when a client is presenting with functional mobility deficits  consistent with these misalignments. There are 8 progressive levels of the  cervical counter rotation joint clearing series. within the HPS. These joint  clearing techniques require online coaching.

A collapsed pelvis and rotated pelvis posture changes alignments of the hips, knees and angles.  When a pelvis collapses forward more on one side than the other, the entire pelvis rotates that way.  The pelvis houses the socket of the hips.  So, the hip on the side opposite the collapse has a high risk of being put in a position of impingement.  The hip on the side of the collapse has a tendency to become hypermobile into external rotation, causing a lateral loading pattern on that side.

Common Symptoms: hip flexor strain, tight IT band, tight hamstring, hip snapping, lateral hip pain.

Potential Diagnosis’s: IT band syndrome, hip bursitis, hip impingement (femoroacetabular impingement), hip labral tear, hip flexor strain, hamstring strain, hip osteoarthritis, trochanteric bursitis, gluteus medius tendinopathy.

Knees: The lateral loading on the side of a collapsed pelvis throws off the patellar tracking of that knee due to excessive lateral pull from the IT band (tensor fascia lata).  The knee on the side opposite the collapse is prone to excessive stress medially.

Common Symptoms: pain below the kneecap, chronically tight hamstrings, pain down the legs.

Potential Diagnosis’s: patellofemoral pain syndrome, meniscal tear, quadriceps strain, hamstring strain, knee osteoarthritis, IT band syndrome (runner’s knee).

Summary:

Your posture is a key aspect to longer term injury prevention and healthy aging.  A complete posture restoration program must pull your out of collapsed upper back and forward head posture and condition you to function from that posture throughout a majority of your day.  Any rehabilitation program for neck pain, shoulder pain or back pain that does not restore access to neutral spine alignment before prescribing strengthening exercises may reinforce the faulty loading patterns that are causing the joint misalignments that are causing your pain.

The Healthy Posture System™ is a system of neutral based functional fitness exercises that condition you to apply the 4 principles of neutral spine alignment in every daily activity, exercise, sport and recreational activity to reduce your risk of injury.  Proprietary joint clearing techniques are built into each workout to ensure you strengthen the right muscles every workout for long-term injury prevention.

“You cannot unload the neck and low back until you stack your upper back.”

Video Resources

The Science of a Pelvic Curl° ǀ Why Collapsed Pelvis Posture is Such a Problem