Coach Camm: Tuck Your Butt

Maybe the most often used cue I have with clients is to “Tuck your butt”. This is the sensation of having your pelvis (hips) underneath you instead of behind you. Or even better, the movement you would make if I told you to bring your belly button up towards your chin.

Go ahead and do it right now, I know you want to. Weirdo.

This motion is what’s referred to as a Posterior Pelvic Tilt, or a backwards tilting of your pelvis. Your pelvis is shaped like a bowl, so if you tilt it backwards, the front of the bowl comes up (think about your how your belt buckle would move up towards your face if you tucked your butt.)

Most people need to master this move because they live in the opposite direction, or an Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT). This is where the pelvis is tilted forward and the back of the bowl (your butt) sticks up in the air.  In sedentary folk, sitting for long stretches contributes to this and for more active people the effects of heavy strength training can contribute to this issue.

While an APT is not inherently bad, if it is the dominant pattern you spend time in there could be some negative effects, such as low back pain, poor squat mechanics, and a bad case of Instagram butt.

What about tight hamstrings? Anybody got those? You’ve probably tried “stretching” them and they’re still tight, huh?

Our muscles have two attachment points – an origin and an insertion. The origin point is proximal (closest to the center of our body) and the insertion is distal (further away from the center). When a muscle is stretched, the origin and insertion move further away from each other, kind of like two ends of a rope – simple enough, right?

Well the hamstring group’s origin is on the Ishial Tuberosity which is at the bottom of your pelvis. The insertion point is just below the knee.

So if you’re walking around all day every day with a forward tilted pelvis that rises from the back, you’re constantly lengthening the hamstrings because the origin and insertion are being pulled apart (remember our rope analogy).

Your hamstrings are pulled taut and don’t need to be stretched even further – they need you to cut them slack.

We can do this by getting into a more neutral pelvic position, primarily by tucking your butt.

Next week I’ll go through my favorite movements to help correct this issue.

Until then,

Coach

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