If I had to choose a single shift that’s made the biggest impact in my performance, strength gains, and overall movement competency, it would be this:
Learning how to stack my ribcage over my pelvis.
More specifically, learning how to actually get my ribs down, posteriorly tilt my pelvis, and maintain anterior core engagement . Not just during a plank or a core circuit, but while lifting, hinging, and bracing. In other words: figuring out how to find and hold a truly neutral spine where my body is balanced, stacked, and ready to generate force efficiently — where I can access both tension and movement without defaulting into the only strategy I used to know: extension.
My Default: Living in Extension
For most of my life as a gymnast, I lived in an extended position. My lower back was arched, my ribs were flared, and my pelvis was tilted forward. It felt neutral to me because it was my normal. But it wasn’t optimal — and it wasn’t neutral.
Looking back now, it’s so painfully obvious. But this was a missing piece in both my gymnastics and early strength training years.
If you’ve been around the gymnastics world, you’ve probably seen a pattern: most gymnasts fall into one of two buckets — either they’re super flexible but lack strength, or they’re strong and explosive but struggle with mobility. I was firmly in the first camp. Bendy, mobile, and always getting praised for it, but seriously underpowered.
That extension-based posture or constant arch was my home base. But it wasn’t helping me produce power. It wasn’t helping me learn to absorb force, or load my hips, or get stronger where I needed to. And despite all the core work I did, I’m not sure I ever truly understood what a hollow body position actually felt like. I wasn’t accessing my deep core musculature in a meaningful way.
Relearning How to Move
It wasn’t until the last few years — almost two decades since my competitive gymnastics days — that I started to understand what a stacked ribcage and pelvis actually felt like. Learning to create that stacked position felt awkward at first. I had to unlearn old habits and rewire deeply ingrained movement patterns.
Sometimes, it felt like I was starting over.
But the payoff was massive.
Once I started to own a more neutral position, not just in static postures but through dynamic movement, I saw huge improvements:
Better strength output: I could finally use my glutes and hamstrings efficiently, rather than defaulting to lumbar extension and quad dominance.
Improved gymnastics skills: My movements felt more controlled and powerful. Transitions became smoother. I could actuall tap in a ta-swing.
Visible muscle growth: Especially in my posterior chain. Areas that seemed stubborn before (hi, glutes) finally started to grow.
Extension Isn’t Bad — Being Stuck There Is
Anterior pelvic tilt and spinal extension aren’t inherently bad. I trained for years in that posture without injury or pain. But was it my most effective position? No sir.
The issue isn’t one posture or the other. It’s being stuck in one strategy.
True movement competency means being able to move fluidly between postures and positions. It means having access to both flexion and extension. Anterior tilt and posterior tilt. Mobility and tension. Relaxation and bracing.
I don’t want to live at either end of the spectrum — I want to own the full spectrum.
That’s what athleticism is. That’s what resilience is. And that’s what I wish I had learned sooner.