Lifting heavy weights like deadlifts and squats can be incredibly rewarding and effective for building strength. However, it’s crucial to ensure that your body, especially your core and pelvic area, is properly prepared to handle these stresses. Here are some excellent exercises that focus on enhancing core stability, improving pelvic alignment, and alleviating discomfort in the sacroiliac (SI) joint. These exercises can be a game changer for your lifting routine, ensuring you perform at your best while keeping injuries at bay.
Why: Encourages deep core activation and helps reset pelvic alignment.
How: Lie on your back with feet elevated on a bench or wall at a 90-degree angle. Exhale fully, tilting the pelvis slightly into a posterior tilt, pressing heels into the bench. Inhale through the nose, feeling expansion in the sides and back. Perform 5 deep breaths.
Why: Strengthens deep core and stabilizes the pelvis.
How: Lie on your back with a resistance band anchored behind you, holding it with both hands. Engage the core and lower opposite arm and leg while keeping the spine neutral. Perform 10 reps per side.
Why: Activates the glutes to stabilize the pelvis and reduce SI joint stress.
How: Place a resistance band just above the knees. Perform a controlled glute bridge, ensuring a neutral pelvis. Hold at the top for 5 seconds, engaging glutes and deep core. Perform 10 reps.
Why: Strengthens the glute medius to improve hip and pelvic stability.
How: Lie on your side with knees bent at 90 degrees and a band around the thighs. Keeping feet together, open the knees while maintaining core engagement. Perform 15 reps per side.
Why: Trains core control, spinal stability, and pelvic alignment.
How: In a quadruped position, extend one arm and the opposite leg while maintaining a stable trunk. Hold for 3 – 10 seconds, ensuring no rotation or dipping of the pelvis. Perform 10 reps per side.
Why: Reinforces proper hip alignment and improves unilateral stability.
How: Stand near a rig and place a resistance band around your front knee, pulling it inward. Perform a slow and controlled split squat while resisting the inward pull, engaging the glutes and core. Perform 8-10 reps per side.
Why: Improves unilateral glute activation, core stability, and pelvic alignment while reducing SI joint strain.
How: Lie on your back with one foot planted on the floor and the other knee pressing lightly into a foam roller positioned against a wall. Engage your core and maintain a slight posterior pelvic tilt. Drive through the heel of the grounded foot to lift your hips while keeping the pelvis level. Maintain pressure against the roller with your knee to activate the adductors and stabilize the pelvis. Hold for a brief pause at the top, ensuring full glute engagement. Lower slowly and with control to the starting position.
Reps & Sets: Perform 8-12 reps per side, for 2-3 sets as part of your warm-up or accessory work.
I’ll also try to film some of these exercises, including favorites like hip airplanes, hinge with rotation, and flamingos, to give you a clearer idea of how to perform them correctly. Stay tuned for those videos!
By incorporating these exercises into your pre-lift routine, you can significantly enhance your performance and reduce the risk of injury, making your heavy lifting sessions more effective and enjoyable.
Ange Drake is a personal trainer, women’s empowerment coach and fitness blogger in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. She is the director of one of the few womens’ only strength training gyms in Melbourne, 23W. Ange helps women to learn how to use strength based training, nutritional strategies and a positive mindset to transform their bodies, relationship with food and mind.
