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I’ve already written a lot about why where you wear your pelvis is important, but I think you pregos out there could use a special visual showing why it’s even more important during this time of life.
The strain-related issues indicated by the arrows are often thought of as the “common side effects” of being pregnant and are rationalized using physiological arguments (relaxin is making you SOFT!). I offer a counter argument, a mechanical argument that suggests that how we feel while pregnant has more to do with how we carry and use our body before and during pregnancy.
When your hips shift forward you change where loads are being carried throughout the body. A forward pelvis can
- create forces that pull the right and left sides of the pelvis away from each other at the pubic ligaments (yellow arrows)
- press new abdominal mass extra hard into the linea alba, distorting the linea alba’s length and mass more than necessary (pink arrows; an effect compounded by also lifting the ribcage, as described in Diastasis Recti)
- compress your lumbar spine and push down on your sacrum more than necessary (orange arrows)
- place more weight on small tissues of the front of the foot than you need to (red arrows).
In short, a forward pelvis isn’t the result of pregnancy, it’s a result of weakness. The effects of weakness are worsened with the additional mass of pregnancy, so BACK UP THOSE HIPS (make sure that your footwear allows you to). This will take a load off the parts that are bugging you and place it on the parts that need to work more.
