How Tight Hips Can Mess With Your Back Health

If you’re over 25, your low back probably hurts.

No shade, speaking from experience!! This could be due to a number of factors, like shallow breathing, outright injury or disc issues, but the often overlooked problem is rather simple: your posture. 

Despite my classical dance training, I myself melt into a slumped position each time my butt hits the chair. Why? Because it requires core strength to support yourself upright and sometimes we are LE TIRED. Before we go any further, I want to disavow the myth that there is any “perfect” posture. As human beings, we are required to move in a number of ways from rotation, flexion, extension, and awkward combos of all of those to go about our daily lives doing human things. I would also like to add that that over exaggerated “military” type posture is not any better for you than slouching.The reason fit pros get on you about your posture, is because a neutral spine is the most efficient way to move strength and stability, but the fact remains that we still need access to all of those other positions as we move through life. 

There are a lot of things to be said about posture, but I want to zero in on the hips, as we’re extra focused on hip work this month on Helen Phelan Studio.  A postural archetype I see pop up a LOT as a pilates instructor, (and in the reflection of the window when I realized I’ve been doing the same while focusing on washing the dishes etc) is the sway back. 

What is sway back posture and how do I know if I have it?

Sway back, or anterior pelvic tilt as we like to call it in pilates land, is when you consistently arch or hyperextend too far into the low back, and the front tips of your pelvis, the anterior superior iliac crest (ASIS for fun), gets pulled forward as a result. Done habitually this over-stretches the hamstring muscles and simultaneously weaken and tighten your hip flexors. Because your weight is being pulled forward, my swayback crew and I may lean most of our weight into the toes (and probably squinch them up to keep your balance, rather than using the muscles of your arch), as well as feel their abdominals jutting out. A lot of people complain about this looking like “mom gut” or “beer belly” - and I’ll be like “HELLO YOU LITERALLY HAVE ORGANS HERE  AND THAT’S WHAT MAKES OUR LOW ABS PROTRUDE. STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP AND ALSO LET’S UNPACK OUR DEEP SOCIETAL CONDITIONING THAT MAKES US HATE FAT PEOPLE AND OURSELVES WHEN WE FEEL WE ARE PART OF THAT POPULATION”  Phew, sorry for yelling. Had to get that off my chest. 

But also- it could literally be a lack of core, hip, and hamstring strength required to support your bodyweight, whatever beautiful size you are, that makes it appear like that. Like I said, our bellies are not meant to be rock hard and perfectly flat, or even look the same from one day to the next (lookin at you, people who menstruate, with infradian clocks that make our bodies change drastically throughout our cycle)- so if yours isn’t congrats on being a human person! Instead, what I do think is worth addressing is that living constantly in a swayback posture, puts stress on the facets joints of the spine- and more important than adhering to a made up body “ideal” (ugh)- is having the body awareness and strength to do life without pain (or even worse, eventual arthritis or stenosis (narrowing of the lumbar spine- which sucks just as much as it sounds). 

SHOOT! THAT’S ME! So, how do I correct have swayback posture?

BODY AWARENESS. Ding ding ding— this is my answer to everything and you’re probably sick of hearing me talk about it but deal. Our bodies are prettttty smart, but we’re also genius experts at disconnecting and ignoring their signals. Drawing attention to what neutral pelvis can and should feel like in all plans, but especially standing. 

In a standing position, try to create an equal distribution union of weight between both legs, but also between the ball and heel of each foot. ( I like to imagine a triangle connecting from big toe to pinky toe to heel, and evenly disperse my weight through all 3 points).There should be a slight engagement of the core (not bracing or holding your breathe, but a subtle activation and lift of belly button towards the sternum, as if your ribs were being lifted off your pelvis).

1) CORE ACTIVATION

If you are unfamiliar with the plumb line concept in pilates, imagine there is an invisible energetic line from your earlobes running straight down to your ankle (did you just press the back of your skull back and realize how far out of alignment it is as you huddle over your screen, or was that just me??). If you feel yourself leaning too far forward ( or back) readjust and bring your body back into alignment with that plumb line- which will require your abs to click back on and take SO MUCH PRESSURE off your poor lil low back. Using your Transverse abdominals as well as your diaphragm properly can make a huge impact- check out this blog on how to really breathe if that doesn’t make sense! 

2) RELEASE TENSION AND STRENGTHEN YOUR HIPS

As overstretched as the hamstrings get, our hip flexors get the opposite short end of the stick- they can get locked and tight and ultimately weak. Most people rely on just stretching as a “Quick fix” and it’s true it feels SO GOOD— check out the Release and Restore collection on HPS for more foam rolling videos, or this psoas stretch on IGTV I posted, if you’re actively achey and need relief. I wanna stress though, the real, long term goods come from building strength in the hips and pelvis that you can functionally USE. During Happy Hips month we are building strength in all aspects of the hips- front, back, inner thigh and groin, and outer hip! Don’t sleep on taking care of your hip health because due to the nature of how we are engineered- when one body part starts compensating, it sets of a (kinetic) chain reaction to the rest of the body. You don’t know it if you’re not a fit pro, but that was a pretty funny biomechanics pun, if I do say so myself- but also true!!

Join me on HPS for Healthy Hips and full body workouts all month long here- and try it out for 10 days totally free if you’re not a member yet!