How to know if you suffer from ‘Dead Butt Syndrome’
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Do you sit in front of a computer all day, spend your evenings on the couch in front of the TV, or maybe you have a really long daily commute? If so, you could be setting yourself up for something called dead butt syndrome.
The condition may have a funny name, but it can be a serious problem. Josh Hayes, a physical therapist with Banner Physical Therapy, said it’s becoming increasingly prevalent.
“It really can be kind of categorized into two subsets,” Hayes said. “One, sitting for extended periods of time and basically think of it like your butt falling asleep. Then the other thing is an inability to engage or activate the glutes, and both of those things can be really pretty common with so many jobs being sedentary at this point.”
He said the second condition subset can lead to longer health effects.
“That can actually set us up for anterior knee pain,” Hayes said. “It can also set us up for back pain, can set us up for problems as runners, in particular. They commonly will demonstrate this kind of dead butt syndrome. We also call it Gluteal Amnesia.”
He said there are things you can do to help decrease your chances of being affected by this condition.
“So number one is getting up, standing up,” he said. “Those Apple Watch reminders that we have are really good to get up, walk around, get moving. But for the activation, we can do things as simple as standing up and just trying to squeeze our glutes. We can also do more focused exercises like squats, deadlifts and...using weight. Resistance is gonna be effective as far as getting back the the control of those muscles.”
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