Safety first!

First, learn more about why it mat­ters to keep your pel­vis mobile…

1. Pelvic tilt, sit­ting

• Sit tall on a kit­chen chair, feet hip-​width apart
• Keeping your back still, gently tuck your bot­tom under you, so you feel your lower back length­en­ing
• Relax your bot­tom back to its start­ing place
• Now gently push your bot­tom back­wards and slightly upwards (though still firmly on the chair), until you feel your lower back tight­en­ing a bit
• Relax back to your start­ing pos­i­tion

Aim to do 10 pel­vic tilts a day, using this gentle rolling action

TIPS
♦ Sitting sideways-​on to a mir­ror can help you to see how your pel­vis is mov­ing and whether you are keep­ing your back still or not
♦ Try to think of your front hips pulling your pel­vis up towards your eye­brows when you tuck under, rather than just squeez­ing your bot­tom
♦ Don’t push your bot­tom back too far, just enough to feel a slight tight­en­ing through the back
♦ Aim for a slow, steady rolling action

Cannot do this at all? If you are find­ing this impossible, or if it just doesn’t feel any­thing like what’s described here, try the next ver­sion below.

2. Pelvic tilt, stand­ing

• Stand with your back against a wall, feet a short dis­tance away, bot­tom, shoulders and head touch­ing the wall (if your head won’t go there, put a small cush­ion behind it)
• Slide one hand into the small of your back – the nat­ural gap in your lower back – palm to the wall
• Keeping head and shoulders in pos­i­tion, gently pull your front hips up to your eye­brows, tuck­ing your bot­tom under you as your pel­vis slides up at the front. This will cause your back to start squash­ing your hand to the wall as the nat­ural gap closes
• Slide your bot­tom back to restore the gap
• Now slide your bot­tom gently up the wall behind you, so that your hand feels as though the gap is open­ing up
• When you can feel a slight extra tight­ness in your lower back, stop and slide the bot­tom back to your start point.

Aim to do 10 pel­vic tilts a day, using this gentle rolling action up and down the wall.

TIPS
♦ Keep your knees soft but don’t let your knees bend and straighten as you move your pel­vis
♦ If it’s uncom­fort­able to take your hand to the small of your back, ask a friend to put their hand there instead! Or slide a thick house­hold sponge in the gap

Cannot do this at all? If you are find­ing this impossible, or if it just doesn’t feel any­thing like what’s described here, try the next ver­sion below.

3. Pelvic tilt, lying face up

• Lie face up, with knees bent and feet flat – not too close to your bot­tom
• Gently draw your front hips up towards your eye­brows, which will slide your bot­tom away and tuck it under­neath. You should feel your low back flat­ten­ing to the mat
• Slide your bot­tom back to the start point
• Now push your bot­tom gently upwards behind you, to cre­ate a big­ger hole in your back, until your lower back feels a bit tighter
• Slide the bot­tom back to its start point

Aim to do 10 pel­vic tilts a day using this gentle rolling action up and down against the floor

TIPS
♦ Keep look­ing straight up to the ceil­ing, don’t let your neck tip back
♦ Try to keep your knees still – a rolled up towel between them might help
♦ Try pla­cing one hand in the small of your back, and feel the effect of the pel­vis mov­ing: squash­ing your hand and then releas­ing, mak­ing the gap big­ger and then return­ing to nor­mal

Now take a look at Pelvic floor con­di­tion­ing – another invalu­able Body MOT exer­cise