Squat/Deadlift Pelvic Alignment

[AFI82]

I was speaking with a coworker who used to be a personal trainer (she seems very knowledgeable) about squatting. She mentioned that I need to make sure to not tilt my pelvis forward while squatting. Doing so puts too much pressure on the lower back. Instead, make sure that your pelvis remains oriented in a fairly straight up position, while still retaining the natural arch in the back. All of this sounded pretty good, and I realized I probably was pushing my hips back to allow me to squat deeper, which leads to my real question.

After doing squats last night, I did deadlifts (just started NROL HT1). I got through my first 2 sets of deadlifts fairly well. But I was unable to finish the 3rd and 4th sets, even after taking 30lbs off the bar. My back was just too tight. My guess is that I was concentrating too much on a natural arch in my back, thus tilting my pelvis very far forward and creating lots of unneeded pressure in my lower back.

So assuming that standing straight up, your pelvis is perfectly vertical, about what degree of pelvic tilt to the front would be appropriate while deadlifting?

[Lisa~]

During squats and deadlifts the ideal is to maintain a neutral spine throughout the whole movement. Neutral spine includes a natural lumbar curve (so it's not perfectly straight), but you do not want an exaggerated lumbar curve.



That does not mean, however, that your torso will stay perpendicular to the floor. There will be hip bend (just not low back bending, either forward into anterior pelvic tilt or backward into posterior pelvic tilt). So it's correct to push your hips back during the squat. Bend the hips, but not the back.

The line from the crown of the head to the tailbone remains consistent even as the torso angles forward from hip bending. In a squat the line of the torso might be about a 45 degree angle relative to the floor. In a dead the hips are higher, there's more hip bend, so that angle (relative to the floor) will be even smaller. But in both lifts there should be no pelvic tilt at all, just natural lumbar curve at all times.

I hope that was clear and not confusing!

Hips Don't Lie: Fixing Your Force Couples by Mike Robertson might help your understanding of this topic.

[AFI82]

Thanks Lisa, that cleared it up very well. I can see that I was overexaggerating.