A balanced pelvis is key to a healthy body. Every once in a while I hit a certain spot in Headstand and all effort goes away—it will feel as if I am floating. In an ideal world we would have this same feeling when standing upright—the alignment of the pelvis determines whether or not this can happen.
The pelvis is never static, nothing in the body is, but when it is in the right place every body part above and below the pelvis would be free to live in harmony with one another. The slightest deviation from center and the balance of the trunk and extremities are thrown into disarray.
A balanced pelvis, or neutral pelvis, has the top of the bowl perfectly parallel to the ground. The balance I refer to is both at the top and bottom, as well as side to side. If the top of the pelvis is not level to the earth the legs will not be able to live directly under the hips. If the pelvis is out of whack side to side the spine will twist by necessity and the arms and legs with be forced out of any equilibrium that might have had.
I have worked with many individuals and I have not met more than five that don’t tuck their pelvis ( all right, maybe a few more than five but not many). When people ask me why everyone does something that is not good for them, I reply, “Because they can.”
Our upright posture and the curve in our lower backs allow for many deviations in the pelvis that weren’t available to our four legged ancestors. Man has only been standing for a few hundred thousand years. We need to learn what to do with our relatively new upright posture.