What the heck is a neutral pelvis and why do I need to have one? This is a question I often get from my students and private clients. In Pilates reformer classes, teachers are constantly reminding students to bring their pelvis to “neutral”. Understanding and embodying a neutral pelvis is imperative not just for your Pilates or yoga practice, but for everything you do in life. This is because neutral is the most stable and shock absorbing position.
There are many ways to help students find a neutral pelvis with verbal cues. I have found that facilitating an embodied understanding of this concept happens best by palpating some crucial bony landmarks.
So go ahead and touch yourself! Palpate these bony landmarks and you will be on your way to finding a neutral pelvis whether you are sitting, lying down, or standing up:
Seated: You are sitting on your ischium (sits) bones and your sacrum (the triangular bone at the base of your spine) is in a vertical plane. Palpate: First touch your sits bones and feel them in contact with the ground. Then place the palm of your hand on your sacrum.
Palpate your bony landmarks and learn which way your tail tilts!
Lying down: The ASIS’s (frontal hip points) and the pubic symphysis (pubic bone) are in the same horizontal plane and parallel to the floor. Palpate: Place the heel s of your hands on the ASIS’s and your middle fingers on pubic symphysis)
Standing: The xiphoid process (bottom point of the sternum) and pubic symphysis (pubic bone) are in the same vertical plane. Palpate: Place one palm or finger on each bony landmark.
The sad tail situation:
Many of my students sit at a desk all day BEHIND their ischial tuberosities (sometimes called sits bones) in a posterior pelvic tilt (which I frequently call “sad tail”). As a result, their low back muscles often become weak and locked long. After work, they “work-out” by doing “core” exercises. During these “core” exercises done in spinal flexion with a posterior pelvic tilt, they utilize the superficial hip and neck flexors (the same muscles used to sit and look at their computer) in an attempt to lift their head, neck, and shoulders and legs off of the ground.
The result: Bypassing the engagement of the TA, pelvic floor, multifidii, and internal and external obliques , and solidifying the dysfunctional postural position they live in all day.
The happy tail situation:
The reverse happens when you have too much of an anterior pelvic tilt or “happy tail”. I was in this category as a former gymnast and super flexible yogi who loved her backbends but had no concept of the importance of strengthening and resourcing the local stabilizer muscles that support a neutral pelvis. Until I learned about the importance of maintaining a neutral pelvis, I would perform all of my daily activities in “happy tail” and then head off to yoga class and practice in the same pelvic position.
The result: Bypassing the engagement of the TA, pelvic floor, multifidii, and internal and external obliques, and creating a myriad of repetitive stress injuries, overuse, and joint instability.
As an embodied mover, make it your goal to enjoy the pleasures of all types of pelvic positions: Happy, Sad and Neutral. Just like our human emotions and our furry friends with tails, there is a time, a place, and a purpose for all types of tilts.
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Oh my god Trina,you have nailed it.What an incredible article and so very needed!I am going to share your fountain of knowledge with my own body and my students and honestly-I love your writing style!
It should our mission for all of us,movement educators,to find our way to most stable alignment of pelvis so we minimize the wear and tear of our bodies and tap into the highest moving and healing reservoir.
Great blog! I love the concise anatomy lesson and logical pointers. Finally, someone who can explain “neutral.”
Thanks. I will try finding neutral with my students tonight. The lower back is almost like the suspension on a bicycle. Alignement needs to be in order or the impact is extreme and compounded.
[...] that the external rotators of my shoulders were in a state of overuse at the time (see my blogs: “Happy Tail vs. Sad Tail: Which Way Do You Tilt?” and “Are Your Shoulders in Your Back Pockets?”). Was I a “bad student” if I didn’t open [...]
Trina, as I was reading this I was walking through the anatomy in my head and could being to think of how Yoga Tune Up can help with specific engagement. I am so happy to have this resource as I try to bring myself back into alignment. As you know I am working on my standing posture, which is harder than I thought. It takes conscious awareness at all time. I am also on this quest to figure out what exactly did my mom mean when she said “stand up straight?” For those who had parents like this who stated this throughout life like some military order or a gentle (frequent) reminder, or both it can be puzzling as you work your way through life trying to be embodied without the instructions. To me it’s like trying to putting something together knowing you have all the pieces, but you’re not even sure what the end result is supposed to look like. No one taught to to crawl I just did it, no one taught me to walk I just did it, no one taught me to stand I just did it, and turns out I have been doing it with poor form. Well I tip my pelvic bowl in alignment and a cheers and toast to you for helping me find it.
Thanks Trina for a great blog and explanation of a neutral spine. I need to practice all your recommendations in every position. This Uzis a very hard concept for many of my students to understand. I think that this is a great way for them to learn on their own bodies how to find a neutral spine. It is also a great teaching guide for me.
I like the term happy tail, sad tail. My tail was sad for a long, long time and will still fall into unfortunate bouts of depression. I either never understood the concept or it wasn’t effectively pointed out to me early on. I spent years of frustration in my forward bends ignoring the main driver of the pose. I admit, it’s an ego kill to realize your forward bend exist half way up from where you may think you are. But following that proper alignment WILL get you the results you seek AND keep your low back safe, supported and happy.
My tail was also sad for a long time due to bulging discs at L4/L5 and a cranky right SI joint. I love the description of using the bony landmarks to help determine a body’s neutral.
Like Donna, I have had a very sad tail with bulgy discs for quite some time and so I really appreciate your explanations and visualizations on how to find a neutral spine. I also appreciate your references to the major postural (core) muscles necessary to tap into in order to find spinal stability and good posture. I have read that the TA is the body’s natural corset– well worth discovering!
Finding neutral is such a foundation for everything we do and your article will help so many students build the proprioception needed to call it up in so many yoga poses and in life. When you call out that this is the most shock absorbing and stable position it really highlights the negative impacts on your body over time by simply walking through life with a sad or happy tail!
Thanks for this! We should be bringing this to our students’ attention and remind them that the “ballerina tailbone tuck” is not a healthy position.
Sad tails and happy tails!
love it! I have found that the placement of the pelvis is really hard for students to understand. I find that sometimes students will over correct and those with happy tails become sad tails and vice versa. With what I’ve learned in my YTU level 1 teacher training and the helpful information in this article, I have new ways to talk about the pelvis (and the whole body for that matter!) that I’m excited to share with my students!
I keep thinking about what Jill says in almost every pose “Find Tadasana” I love my backbends too and it takes a lot of effort to not make everything into one. I think for many people the challenge comes in keeping the neutral spine throughout day to day activities like waiting in line at the bank. How badly do you want to elevate that right hip just thinking about waiting in line? I believe if we can find Tadasana repeatedly in our daily life, our pelvis would truly feel as though it were being addressed fully in all axis.
Short comment on another great article, Trina.
For me, because I work at a computer a lot, moving from sitting while I work (and the locking long), I went to setting up a computer station where I stand, although I sometimes find my tail goes ‘happy’ here, so I do need to be mindful and stay neutral.
[...] Learn how to re-align your pelvis by clicking here. [...]
I don’t think i will ever look at a body the same way after learning about posterior, anterior and neutral pelvis – the power of being aware of its rippling effects on your posture, walking – gosh just about every move – its quite mind boggling.
OMG! I think you may have solved my unsolvable issue that has been plaguing me the last couple of years. I was diagnosed about a year ago with a chronic inflammatory issue that likes to hide out in my sacral area and gluts. I know that some of it is caused from food intolerances but that added strain I have be putting on my poor anterior backside might be the key to releasing tension I’ve feeling. Thank you so much for you insight!
Great article! One of the many excellent points made is that modern chairs are ruining people’s bodies. I believe that modern chairs were invented by the devil to cause back problems. Ok, maybe that is being a bit too dramatic… But on serious note: The fact is humans were NOT designed to sit in chairs! We evolved to squat! For thousands of years humans squatted while preparing food or making tools. They also squatted while eating, pooping, and giving birth. But today’s average modern homosapien can barely approach a healthy squat for more than a few seconds. That is why I try to squat whenever possible. I even squat in my computer chair! When attempting such a feat first make sure you are able to squat on the floor with your heels down. Second, make sure your chair is stable! (Seriously.) Then squat with feet a little bit apart and as parallel as possible. Take the knees wide and try to lift the heart forward, broadening the chest, taking the head of the arm bones (shoulders) back, and work on lengthening the spine rather than flexing it. With regular practice that should help alleviate a lot of chronic “sitting problems” such as back & shoulder pain, core weakness, and indigestion.
This was so helpful. I don’t always know how to have a neutral pelvis and I am also breaking a lot of bad habits with the help of yoga. One of my yoga teachers calls it “the sorority girl” (sticking the butt out- “happy”) and the “old man” (the “sad pelvis”) and finding the middle between those two extremes as neutral. The back bend “happy tilt” can find its way unnecessarily into some of my poses, and I also used to “cheat” when doing an abdominal work by not having a neutral pelvis. Thank you for explaining in such clear, simple language how to find a neutral pelvis and the benefits of doing so!
The visual of happy vs sad tail is helpful for me as I relearn neutral spine. I had too much posterior tilt based on some cues I learned in other classes. It is also a great way for me to think about proper alignment in my desk chair. Palpatating the bony landmarks is also a great way to get in touch with the ishium, ASIS, pubic bone and visualize their correct alignment throughout the day.
I appreciate the cures for each orientation. Neutral spine, core work etc are all terms that confuse most people and our daily lives don’t ask us to really tune into a healthy posture.
I will use these cues for my own health and the health of students I work with.
Trina, Thanks again for sharing your wealth of knowledge in such a clear format. The education will lead to awareness in what I do and how I teach. Look forward to discussing with you!
I love this post. Neutral pelvis has always been a slightly mysterious concept to me – a personal blindspot of which I am becoming more and more aware (thanks YTU!). This post is so helpful – concrete ways to identify what neutral means! Thank you!!
Would you recommend non-posterior tilt ab exercises for sad tail? I find that I feel an inch taller when I do the Coregeous routines. Thanks for the cues as to how to access neutral pelvis.
Amalea: Yes, if your client is already in a posterior tilt, then doing some neuromuscular re-education with corrective exercises to get them back to neutral should be the first priority. Help them to propriocept a balanced posture by giving them exercises that take them there. Teaching them how to sit and stand with a neutral pelvis is a crucial fist step!
My comment above should say “first” not “fist”
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