the-exercist:
davijane:
stephaniexwins:
the-exercist:
Let’s take a minute to talk about the anterior pelvic tilt, shall we?
An Anterior Pelvic Tilt is a posture problem that naturally occurs in many people when they sit for hours each day. It’s caused by a “shortening” and stiffening of our hip flexors, which causes our lumbar curvature to increase while our hips tilt forward. While some degree of poor posture is going to happen to anyone who spends time sitting at their computer, lots of us consciously exacerbate this problem without realizing that it’s hurting us.
Check out the image posted above – This pelvic tilt looks really odd when a man is photographed in profile with an anterior pelvic tilt, but when most of us see this posture, it’s presented in a slightly different context.
Scroll through #fitspo and you’ll see this everywhere:
That curved spine, with the chest pushed up and booty popped back? That’s poor posture. That’s an anterior pelvic lift that can eventually cause lower back pain, hip pain, flat feet, knee pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, headaches, weakened pelvic muscles and even permanent damage to your back. Making your butt look rounder and your waist look thinner is not worth the damage that repeatedly standing like this will cause.
We tend to associate healthy and “fit” women with this particular posture, which is messed up. It twists our perception of what healthy and muscular bodies should look like – Instead of actually displaying proper posture and a strong stance, women are instead taught to display their bodies in a way that’s more sexually appealing. The media teaches us that showing off a big, round butt and tiny waist is apparently more important than treating our bodies safely.
If you can help it, don’t emulate this style. Posture is something that we often take for granted, so it can be incredibly difficult to hold your body in a new way that feels unnatural or unflattering, but getting rid of this anterior pelvic tilt is worth it – We need to stop normalizing this posture and promoting it as fitness.
Is posing for a photo for like a minute going to actually do anything though? Just curious.
Exactly, these people don’t walk around like that?
It depends on what we each think “actually do anything” means.
Now, some people absolutely do just pose like this for photographs. But that doesn’t make the conversation here any less valid: I think that we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice by relegating this to just a pose.
The more often you move your body in a certain way, the more it becomes a habit. Someone who frequently strikes this pose for photos will likely also be standing this way when they want to show off their assets, or look at their body in the mirror, or when they’re feeling particularly “fit” and strong, or they’ll simply find that their body eventually falls into this position naturally. What starts as just a pose can eventually turn into a habit, a permanent posture affliction and/or a spinal injury. You don’t have to stand this way all the time in order to get injured: Striking this posture on any occasion will help to make you feel more accustomed to it, which can lead to you standing this way more often, which can lead to quite a lot of medical issues.
But what I really want everyone to remember here is that this pose is ingrained in fitness media: Everywhere that girls look, this pose is linked to healthy and active bodies. It’s associated with female strength and athletics, to the point where it’s practically the trademark of fitspo. That’s a problem, to say the least – We’re teaching viewers that this particular posture, which is specifically known to cause physical damage to our bodies, is what a healthy woman looks like.
Having this posture consistently saturate women’s health and fitness culture is harmful. It prioritizes a woman’s sexual appeal over her strength and safety. After all, we learn from the media that we’re constantly exposed to – Considering that a huge number of users turn to #fitspo as a means of inspiring them and teaching them how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, this style of posture is consciously being mimicked by young girls who just want to be healthier, happier and more athletic. In an effort to improve their body, this pose teaches them how to slowly destroy it.
Consistently adopting an anterior pelvic tilt as the epitome of female strength and fitness is irresponsible.
