The dangers of prolonged sitting have been well known, established. It can increase your chances of developing all sorts of illnesses, from heart disease to cancer and diabetes, and can even cause you to lose years of your life. But there’s a side effect you might not have realized: It’s linked to parking your butt in an office chair all day.
Americans sit so long that their butts literally fall asleep. “Dead butt syndrome,” or gluteal amnesia, is a condition that occurs when your gluteus medius becomes inflamed and forgets to function normally.
“Sitting too long can restrict blood flow, causing gluteal amnesia, which can lead to hip pain, back pain and ankle problems. The glutes will not work properly even when performing exercises targeting the glutes,” said Donovan Green, famous fitness trainer and author of Fitness without excuses: the 30-day plan to tone your body and boost your health.
Kelly Starrett, physical therapist and founder of Stand Up Kids, added that your glutes aren’t designed to hold weight for long periods of time. Spending so much time on your butt diminishes your body’s ability to use your incredibly powerful gluteal muscles when they’re needed.
“If you imagine making a panini sandwich where you take high pressure and high temperature and make a grilled cheese, sitting on your glutes all day is kind of like that,” Starrett said.
“The sustained flexed hip position and tissue compression prepares us for the perfect storm of arrested gluteal function, or in people’s common parlance, ‘dead buttocks,'” he added.
People suffering from dead butt syndrome may experience the familiar sensation of a part of the body “falling asleep.”
“The technical term for this is ‘paresthesia,’ an abnormal sensation felt in your body due to compression or irritation of nerves,” said Mark Benden, director of the Ergonomics Center at Texas A&M University. . He added that paresthesia symptoms can range from mild to severe and can be fleeting or long-lasting.
How to know if you are developing the disease
The main source of this disease is inactivity, so if you sit in your office chair for hours every day, you are likely increasing your risk.
“It has been shown in numerous studies that sitting for long periods of time has a major impact on how effectively we can contract and use our glutes,” Green said.
He noted that when your glutes shut down due to lack of activity and stimulus, it causes strain on other muscles and joints and produces an effect where the weaker muscles have to do the work of the big one. stronger glutes. If left untreated, this can lead to what is called “synergistic dominance”, where the smaller auxiliary muscles of the hip and leg now take over the movement and control the forces exerted on the hips , spine and lower back.
Muscle tension in the hips is also one of the main causes of dead butt syndrome. If you don’t have adequate flexibility, you are literally “squeezing the juice or ‘power’ out of the gluteus maximus because the movement is so difficult that the (gluteus maximus) cannot access enough force to fully engage ” Green said. “Remember that the gluteus maximus is the largest and needs a wide range of motion to activate and do its job as intended.”
Choosing the wrong exercises or not performing them correctly can also contribute to this condition.
“When we try to activate the glutes…we often see trainers and fitness enthusiasts repeating exercises that don’t make the gluteus maximus more responsive than before,” Green said.
He added that when an exercise fails to activate the targeted muscle, the smaller muscles mentioned earlier end up taking over the movement. This makes these small muscles stronger, thus depriving the gluteus maximus of the stimulus it is now hungry for.
“For example, let’s say you’ve been sitting in your office for eight hours and now you want to go to the gym to do some serious deadlifting and squats,” Green said. “You load the bar and hit set after set, trying to squeeze the gluteus maximus all the way, but, instead of your glutes hurting the next day, you have a tight lower back, tight hamstrings, and sore quads. .”
Green revealed that injuries and arthritic conditions can also stop muscle activation in order to “protect” a joint from further damage by immobilizing the damaged joint or bone.
How to ward off “dead butt”
According to Jeff Bell, co-founder and master trainer of Belleon Body NYC, “the gluteus maximus was built for power and speed and needs to be nourished regularly with a regimen of climbing, squatting, running, lunging and walking.” if he wants to be maintained. in perfect condition, or at least appear to be in great shape.
The best way to prevent dead butt syndrome is to stay active and healthy. If you sit for long periods of time, Bell recommends taking frequent breaks to stand, stretch, and walk to keep the posterior muscles active throughout the day.
“A good rule to remember is that for every hour you spend sitting, you should take 10 minutes of standing and moving to reactivate and keep those butt muscles from falling asleep,” he said.
Stretching before and after exercise is also key to avoiding gluteal amnesia, especially for long-distance runners and cyclists who need to pay special attention to stretching their hip flexors, said chiropractor Lily Friedman.
“This will allow the gluteus medius, one of the three gluteal muscles, to strengthen properly and thus undo the reciprocal inhibition,” she said.
According to Green, performing regular exercises targeting the three muscles related to the glutes can reverse dead butt syndrome. Here are his five movements to activate the glutes:
Wide stance jump squat: Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Squat down at a 90-degree angle. Use your glutes and quads to jump as high as possible and land gently in your squat position.
Side steps with strips: Take an exercise band and tie it across the tops of your ankles. Bend your knees and start walking sideways to the left for 10 steps and repeat in the other direction. According to Green, this will strengthen your gluteus medius and minimus while also activating most of your glutes.
Side lunge: This is a great lower body exercise that strengthens your quads, glutes, and hamstrings while targeting your inner and outer thighs. Stand with your feet together, then step out as wide as possible to the left while bending your left knee 90 degrees. Keep your right leg straight. Repeat on the other side.
Kettlebell squat: Grasp a kettlebell by the handles and bring it in front of your chest and keep your elbows tight against your body. Place your feet in a squat position so that the heels are hip-width apart or slightly wider. To squat, sit your hips back on your heels, bringing your body back to 90 degrees or more. As you descend, be sure to support the weight so that it stays above your chest line to protect your lower back from strain.
Lateral climb: Find a stable surface, strong enough to support your weight and at least as high as your knees. Stand with your body facing the object. Place your right foot on the surface and use your glutes, quads, and core to move forward. Repeat 10 times before switching to the other side.
For a bonus maneuver, Green said flexing your butt muscles every so often throughout the day might help. “It’s going to stimulate those glutes and get them moving again,” he added.
There are also products on the market that can help your butt avoid falling asleep and can work wonders if you sit for too long. For example, there are seat cushions specifically designed to relax under pressure while supporting your weight evenly.
According to Starrett, the bottom line to combating dead butt syndrome is that if you start to feel tingling, you need to get up and move.
“A quick climb up a few stairs or a brisk walk (in general) will get your glutes back into functional mode,” Starrett said.
This article was originally published on HuffPost.
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