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An often unnoticed cause of the emergence of a lower belly pooch after the age of 45 is the anterior pelvic tilt. This condition is primarily a result of tight hip flexors alongside weakened abdominal muscles and glutes. While the abdominals and glutes are responsible for rotating the pelvis posteriorly, the hip flexors rotate it anteriorly.
Imagine your pelvis as a bowl holding water. When the bowl is level, indicating a posterior tilt, the water remains inside; however, in an anterior tilt, the bowl tips, causing the water to potentially spill out the front. Ideally, a small degree (about 5-10 degrees) of anterior tilt is optimal. Other factors contributing to the appearance of a pooch after the age of 45 can include hormonal changes, insufficient sleep, and an increase in belly fat due to poor diet and lack of physical activity.
The four exercises I’m about to introduce go beyond just reducing the appearance of a pooch. They assist in altering the alignment of your pelvis. Adjusting the pelvic angle also impacts the position of the organs, thanks to their fascial and ligamentous connections to the pelvis. This adjustment can reduce torsion or compression of these organs and enhance the movement of fluids in and out, improving overall organ health and, consequently, systemic well-being.
Why Wall Exercises Work Better Than Floor Exercises After 45
A wall provides stability, so that you can engage the correct muscles without the strain. This means safer and smarter exercises to help with your pooch. The wall also acts as a transcendental reference. This means your brain knows that the wall is straight; therefore, the wall allows you to know if your spine is straight. By using the wall, you can ensure minimal strain and proper alignment as you strengthen your pelvic floor and lower core muscles to help improve your organ health and reduce your pooch.
4 Wall Exercises to Flatten Lower Pooch After 45
Supine Feet on Wall TVA Draw In
This exercise helps activate the TVA, also known as the transverse abdominis. This is the deepest of all the abdominal muscles. More importantly, the TVA is fascially linked to all of the pelvic floor and abdominal organs—that means that the connective tissue of all your abdominal and pelvic floor organs attach into the transverse abdominis. By learning to contract your TVA properly, you are able to create more stability of the spine while creating a gentle compression and pumping of the abdominal and pelvic floor organs. Keep in mind that the transverse abdominis also attaches directly into the spine, leading to greater spinal stability and can greatly reduce your chances of a low back injury.
How to perform:
- Lie on your back and put your feet on the wall with a 90° angle at your ankles, knees, and hips
- Gently tuck your chin so that the back of your neck is long
- Take a big inhale and let your belly get as big as possible (this is the stretch phase for the TVA)
- While you exhale, gently pull your belly button toward your spine as far as you can without rounding your back any further
- Hold your belly in for around 10 to 15 seconds—that is one repetition
- Repeat for three sets of around 10 repetitions
Common mistakes include rounding the back too much, which activates the rectus abdominis. Another common mistake is contracting too hard, so that all of your abdominal muscles contract as opposed to just the transverse abdominis.
Feet on the Wall, TVA Draw in With Spinal Roll Ups
This takes the TVA draw in to the next level. Now, not only are you working the transverse abdominis, but you are working the lower fibers of the rectus abdominis, which is responsible for helping compress the pooch. This exercise also creates strength for the abs and the glutes to help combat your anterior tilt. Lastly, this exercise is great for spinal mobility.
How to perform:
- Set up identical to the previous exercise
- Once you’ve got your TVA drawn in, imagine you are laying in sand
- Tuck your pelvis—imagine that you’re wearing a belt buckle and you’re going to rotate the belt buckle toward your chin
- Continue to rotate your pelvis toward your chin until you feel each vertebra come up off the ground one by one, leaving an indentation in the imaginary sand as you come out of it
- Come up as high as you can without losing your posterior pelvic tilt and without putting pressure into your neck
- Pause for 3 to 5 seconds
- Lower yourself down slowly, imagining that you’re putting each vertebra back into that imaginary indentation in the sand
- Focus on inhaling at the very bottom and very top of the movement and exhaling while you’re rolling either up or down
Common mistakes include letting your back arch, holding your breath, and getting too much pressure into the neck.
L4/L5 ELDOA
This exercise is beneficial for the pooch, largely due to its effects on the ilio-lumbar ligaments. These ligaments come from the fourth lumbar vertebra and attach to the top back side of the pelvis. When these ligaments are tight, it will create a larger anterior pelvic tilt, making your pooch look bigger. This exercise also helps improve your systemic posture, which helps limit the amount you slouch and therefore also limits the amount your belly pooch sticks out. Lastly, this exercise can provide a decompression of the nerves between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae. These are the nerves that innervate some of the pelvic floor organs as well as the glute and leg muscles.
How to perform:
- Sit on the floor with your feet about hip-width apart
- Bend your knees as far up as you feel comfortable, and then bend your ankles back, pulling your toes toward your shin
- Push your pinky toes and your knees toward the floor
- Keeping your ears, shoulders, and hips all in line, bring your arms out in front of you
- Spread your fingers, bend your wrists back, and externally rotate your shoulders with your elbows straight (think about Spider-Man shooting a web—that’s how your arms should look)
- Without changing your spine or head position, gently reach the arms up as high as you can and reach your shoulder blades up toward your ears
- Once in the full posture, hold for 60 seconds
Common mistakes include holding your belly tight. During the ELDOA, we actually want to let the belly relax and breathe. Another mistake is clenching your jaw and pushing your head forward.
Wall Scarecrow
The wall scarecrow is great for your general posture. It helps strengthen all of your spinal muscles while providing a stretch of your trunk flexor muscles. It also helps stretch tight pec muscles. Lastly, it can help correct rib flare. This is where your ribs flare open and make your pooch look even bigger.
How to perform:
- Stand with your feet about 6 to 8 inches away from the wall
- Try to get the back of your head against the wall while gently tucking your chin so the back of your neck is long
- Tuck your pelvis underneath—imagine if you had a tail, you would be tucking your tail
- Do this until your low back is completely flat against the wall
- Bend your arms and bend your elbows to a 90° angle and raise them up to shoulder height
- Try to put the back of your hands against the wall
- Once you’re in the full posture, hold it for three sets of 60 seconds, all while holding your transverse abdominis in during the exhale
- When that is easy, start slowly walking your feet back until your heels are flush with the wall
Common mistakes include trying to get your feet too close to the wall as a beginner, holding your breath, and arching your neck.
What Results Can You Expect After 30 Days
My favorite way to structure these into a 30-day plan is to do the exercises every day. Don’t worry about doing them all at one time—in fact, it’s better to spread them out throughout the day. If you do three sets of each exercise, you’re generally only looking at about three minutes total. If you do all four exercises, that’s a mere 12 minutes a day.
After 30 days, you should have vastly improved posture, far better neuromuscular control of your core, a flatter appearing pooch area, and of course, healthier pelvic floor and abdominal organs.
TJ Pierce, BS, LMT, CHEK III, ELDOA
