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If you came to this post you are probably wondering how to correct lateral pelvic tilt. You might be someone who has noticed that you have one hip higher than the other or you have one leg longer than the other. It is possible your longer leg is making you have uneven hips or you were just been born with uneven hips. In this post, we shall be considering how to correct lateral pelvic tilt.
The cases mentioned above are some of the causes that you may want to consider, but the most realistic option is that you have a lateral pelvic tilt where one “hip” is higher than the other due to certain muscle imbalances that exist in the body.
Our bodies are not all perfectly symmetrical and we all have some asymmetry to some extent due to the way we maintain and use them throughout our lives. This asymmetry is expected and perfectly normal.
However, there may be times when a slightly excessive asymmetry, such as in a lateral pelvic tilt, can make us more prone to injury, reduced mobility, and adversely affect our overall physical performance.
If you think you have a lateral pelvic tilt, you should take steps to correct it as soon as possible.
The good news is that, in most cases, how to correct lateral pelvic tilt is easy. It can be repaired by self-massage, stretching, and basic corrective exercises that anyone can do at home.
What Is Lateral Pelvic Tilt?
As the name suggests, a lateral pelvic tilt (LPT) is a common postural misalignment characterized by the tilt of the pelvis to one side.
People with this condition will appear to have unbalanced hips, with one side sitting lower than the other.
There are several known causes of lateral pelvic tilt, including scoliosis and a leg length gap, but one of the most common culprits for this postural gap is poor posture.
To understand how poor posture contributes to lateral pelvic tilt, it is important to consider the structure of the pelvis.
The pelvic bone is located at the top of the thigh bones (femurs) and is supported by a network of muscles that help stabilize the hips and allow for a full range of leg movements. These muscles and ligaments include abductors, gluteus medius, obliques, Quadratus lumborum (QL) and Tensor of fascia lata (TFL).
When a muscle imbalance occurs between these muscles, whether due to injury, tension, weakness, or overuse, a lateral pelvic tilt can develop.
We have a detailed post on lateral pelvic tilt. You can read all about Lateral pelvic tilt by just clicking on this link.
Symptoms of Lateral Pelvic Tilt
Before looking into how to correct lateral pelvic tilt, let us consider the symptoms associated with it.
In addition to one hip being higher than the other, the presence of a lateral pelvic tilt can cause a drastic chain effect which is reflected from top to bottom of the body.
These are some of the symptoms:
Uneven hips and gait
The most obvious symptom of a lateral pelvic tilt is irregular walking or walking because one hip falls lower than the other.
Uneven shoulder heights
The higher hip will usually result in one shoulder on the same side being lower than the other.
This can make someone believe that their shoulders are uneven when it is not really the shoulders that count, but the sloping pelvis.
Apparent leg length deviations
A lateral pelvic tilt is often confused with another condition known as difference in leg length.
Someone with a lateral pelvic tilt may think they have one leg longer than the other, or one leg shorter than the other. However, this is not true, because it is the tilt of the pelvis that gives the impression that the lower hip is longer because the other leg does not touch the ground when you get up.
While in some cases one leg may be longer than the other, most cases of difference in leg length are caused by muscle imbalance.
In fact, it is estimated that less than 30% of cases of leg length discrepancy can be attributed to an anatomical difference in leg length.
Most cases of leg length deviation are considered functional, which means that the difference in leg length is due to lifestyle factors such as walking, standing, running, or sitting improperly.
The best way to rule out a real leg length difference is to measure both legs. If you have a real difference in leg length, these exercises in this post are unlikely to be helpful and in this case, you should seek professional help.
Internal rotation of the leg
The leg bones usually rotate inward due to the lateral pelvic tilt.
What should not be excluded is that the internal rotation of the leg could also be the cause of the lateral pelvic tilt, rather than the result.
If that’s the cause, the problem starts with the foot.
Usually, one foot will be pronounced where the ankle wraps inward, it could be a flat foot or a collapsed arch. When a foot becomes pronounced, the shins and the femur rotate inward and the hip falls.
While mild to moderate cases of lateral pelvic tilt usually do not produce noticeable symptoms, severe or prolonged cases of lateral pelvic tilt can cause muscle tension and low back pain.
If left untreated, a lateral pelvic tilt can lead to more serious medical conditions, such as:
- Disc degeneration
- Herniated dis
- Pain in the sacroiliac joint
The good news is that lateral pelvic tilt can be corrected if diagnosed early enough.
In later sections, we will explore how to correct lateral pelvic tilt and give you some simple exercises that can be done at home to correct this common postural imbalance.
For you to know how to correct lateral pelvic tilt, you should at least know how to test for it. You can read our article “what is lateral pelvic tilt?” to know how to test for it.
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Causes Of Lateral Pelvic Tilt
- Bad Posture
- Sitting too much With an Incorrect posture
- Injuries
- Structural Issues
- Pronated foot
How to Correct Lateral Pelvic Tilt
If detected early, a lateral pelvic tilt is a manageable condition that can usually be corrected with chiropractic care, massage, physiotherapy, or a personalized treatment plan made up of these three therapies.
Your doctor will decide which treatment is right for you based on the severity of your condition.
Chiropractic care
Chiropractors take a holistic approach to correct a lateral pelvic tilt, so as to treat pain and restore a full range of movement for the muscles, ligaments, and joints that surround the pelvis.
A chiropractic treatment plan can include chiropractic adjustment, massage therapy, physiotherapy, and stretching.
The goal of chiropractic treatment is to achieve better body balance without the need for drugs or injections.
Physiotherapy
A physiotherapist can not only suggest stretching and muscle-building exercises that can be done at home to alleviate the discomfort associated with a lateral pelvic tilt but will also offer advice on how to control your condition through changes in your lifestyle.
The goal of physiotherapy is to restore the symmetry of the pelvic girdle by strengthening the weak and/or elongated muscles while stretching the tense and contracted muscles.
Massage
A massage therapist will use a series of manual techniques to relax the muscles that support the pelvis.
Massage therapy also helps improve blood circulation in the affected area, which helps reduce inflammation and relieve pain.
Techniques used by professional masseurs include deep tissue massage, myofascial release, and Gua Sha, a traditional Chinese therapy that involves scraping the skin with a massage tool to increase circulation.
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How to Correct a Lateral Pelvic Tilt Caused by Bad Posture from Home
In this section, we will look at some simple exercises that can be done at home to correct mild to moderate lateral pelvic tilt.
It should be noted that these exercises are not intended to replace professional medical treatment.
If you experience severe pain or limited range of motion due to an asymmetric pelvis, it is important to consult your doctor to determine the exact cause of your condition and develop a treatment plan.
Steps on how to correct Lateral Pelvic Tilt Caused By Muscle Imbalances
There are a few key things that should be considered when you think of how to correct a lateral pelvic tilt.
The first is to repair the flat feet (if you have them) and the other is to correct the muscle imbalances that have developed and which keep your body in the laterally tilted position of the pelvis.
The last step is to remedy the bad posture that is causing the problem in the first place.
1. Correcting the flat foot
If you have flat feet, this could be the main cause of your uneven hips.
Fixing flat feet is a problem in itself, and if you have it, your priority should be to solve this problem rather than the lateral pelvic tilt, since the foot is the base of the body, and any foot problem will affect everything. By first fixing your flat feet, your shins, knees, thighs, and hips should start to line up properly.
In the case of a person with a lateral pelvic tilt, the problem is more likely to result from a problem with a flat foot rather than having two flat feet.
Here is a brief overview of what repairing your flat foot might look like.
Step 1. Massaging the Arch
If you have a flat foot, the arch of that foot can be tight. A simple solution is to roll a massage ball up and down the arch while applying pressure on the ball by standing on it.
Step 2.Strenghtening of the arch
The bow can be strengthened so that the muscles of the bow are activated and strong enough to pull the arch up.
Popular exercises to strengthen the arch include:
- Towel crunches: This is where you place a towel on the floor, then place the affected foot on the bottom edge of the towel. Then, you scrunch your toes and try to pull the top of the towel toward you without lifting your foot off the ground. Repeat this movement until you have lowered the entire towel.
- Pen Penny: This exercise is probably the best for strengthening the arch. This involves placing a coin under the base of the big toe of the affected foot. Then try to balance that foot while maintaining pressure on the coin at the same time.
Not everyone responds well to exercises, and the arch can remain flat even after a few months of arch strengthening exercises. If this is the case, you may need to opt for shoe soles to help support the arch.
Correcting a flat foot should help the ankle to stop rolling inward and hopefully restore the correct alignment of the above joints.
However, this is not a complete solution as there are probably other muscle imbalances that still exist in the legs, especially on the lower side of the hip.
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2. Stretch your tight Quadratus Lumborum
If you have uneven hips, your hip muscles are likely to be short and tense.
This chronic tightness will lift one side of the pelvis and at the same time push the shoulder down.
The muscle that you need to fix is the quadratus lumborum.
First, you need to release all the knots that cause tension, followed by tight side stretching techniques.
If you can start creating a length in the quadratus lumborum, this should help reduce the chronic tension that pulls your hip up and brings shoulder down.
Quadratus lumborum is a fairly easy muscle to stretch once you know where it is located. Any stretch that involves creating a length between the hip and the shoulder on the same side will work.
An additional solution concerning the quadratus lumborum could be to reinforce the opposite quadratus lumborum which could be too weak.
By strengthening the weak side (the side with the lower hip), the lumbar square can be reinforced and lift the lower hip slightly.
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3. Gluteus Medius and Adductor Muscle Check
In addition to the steps mentioned above, there are additional corrective exercises and stretches that may be worth a closer look if the above solutions don’t work.
These additional tips target the gluteus medius and adductor muscles.
First, the gluteus medius is a gluteal muscle that sits next to your main gluteus, the Gluteus Maximus. When you think of the gluteal muscles, you mainly think of the gluteus maximus and often forget or don’t realize that the middle gluteus exists.
The gluteus medius is an important muscle for staying healthy because it helps level the hips. When you have a lateral pelvic tilt caused by poor posture, there is a good chance that your middle gluteus muscles are out of balance, which means that one may be too tight and strong compared to the other which is too long. and weak.
The same goes for the adductor muscles, which are the muscles that go up and down inside the thigh. A similar imbalance in these muscles can also contribute to a lateral pelvic tilt.
In particular, on the side where the hip is highest, the gluteus medius is likely to be weak and the adductors too tight.
Below the hip, the gluteal muscle will be tight and the adductors too weak.
As a general rule, you will want to ensure good care of these muscles by appropriately stretching and strengthening the two muscles to keep them well balanced and to have healthy hips.
Below are several stretches and strengthening exercises for the gluteal muscle and abductors.
- Glute Medius Stretch
- Glute Medius Strengthening
- Adductor stretch
If you’ve identified your weak adductor, you can try the exercises above to strengthen it and hopefully balance your hips.
4. Correcting your bad posture habits
All these corrective exercises and stretches will be of no use if you do not eliminate the moments when you lift, intentionally or unintentionally, one hip higher than the other.
The tissues of your body will adapt to the positions which you maintain for long periods, so you must avoid placing the quadratus lumborum in a shortened position.
To start correcting your posture habits, you must first know the times of the day when you can lift one hip higher than the other and make efforts to improve your overall posture.
In addition to scoliosis, most cases of lateral pelvic tilt can be prevented by making a few simple lifestyle changes.
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Preventive Tips
Having known how to correct lateral pelvic tilt, it will be an added bonus if you know how to prevent it from developing or becoming worse. Here are some simple tips and things to keep in mind to prevent a lateral pelvic tilt from developing or getting worse.
- Do not sleep on your side: If you have a favorite side on which you like to sleep, then that side of the hip will be in a hiked up position throughout the night. To avoid this, it would be best to try to sleep on your back.
- Uneven sitting: it can happen that you tend to sit with one hip higher than the other. Maybe you rest your arm on the window while you drive thereby unknowingly tilting one of your hips. Or maybe when you use a computer mouse you tend to lean towards it. In either case, try to maintain a neutral level of the pelvis while seated.
- Standing posture: Often people tend to have a favorite side to lean on while standing. Another example of this could be when people hold heavy objects close to their bodies and tilt their hips to support the extra weight. A common example could be when a parent carries a young child or buys groceries against their chest.
- Consider buying a kneeling chair: Using a kneeling chair forces the body to maintain a straight spine. Kneeling chairs can also help stretch tight hip flexors. You can buy one for yourself on amazon by clicking on the image below.
- Swap your sitting desk for a standing desk: Sitting for long periods of time not only causes the hip flexors to contract but can also interfere with blood flow to the lower body muscles. If your work requires sitting for a long time at an office, consider moving to a standing workstation. You can get yourself a good standing desk on amazon by clicking on the image below.
- Use a lumbar support chair: an office chair with lumbar support will protect delicate structures of the lower back and promote better overall posture. If your chair does not have lumbar support, consider using a lumbar support cushion. Click on the image to buy a lumbar chair on amazon.
If you notice that you are used to tilting a hip upwards, you should correct it each time you notice it. By doing this, it gives you a greater chance of correcting your lateral pelvic tilt.
Seek Professional Help If Necessary
Mild to moderate cases of lateral pelvic tilt can usually be treated without invasive treatments such as medication, injections, or surgery.
As you have read these tips on how to correct lateral pelvic tilt, you should try incorporating these tips into your lifestyle to improve your lateral pelvic tilt and restore full range of motion on your hips and legs.
However, if you have questions, always consult a health care practitioner before attempting corrective exercises yourself.
Conclusion
This article on how to correct lateral pelvic tilt has been written with utmost care and delivered to help you achieve a good posture.
A lateral pelvic tilt can cause pain and discomfort, but daily exercise can help correct the problem. You can read our article on what is lateral pelvic tilt to see some home exercises that will help you.
Use the mirror test to track your progress. Continue to do these exercises even after realigning your pelvis. This will prevent the condition from developing again.
