Is your Butt Dead?
I don’t mean that it is sagging or not as shapely as it once was. Dead butt syndrome is not about how your butt looks; it’s about how it works, or doesn’t.
Your butt can forget how to do its job. If you sit a lot, either from driving, a desk job, or watching TV, the muscles in the front of your hip can shorten. This shortening of the front hip muscles causes the rear muscles to stretch in compensation. Once a muscle is stretched out, it starts to forget how to contract correctly when it gets a signal from the brain.
Dead butt syndrome can also cause pain in the rear, and because your butt is so central, problems with your butt migrate up as back pain or down as hip and knee pain.
Muscles tend to become too long or too tight. Any muscle imbalance in any joint will eventually cause problems. That is why we need to keep our joints moving and avoid sitting for extended periods. Do a lot of different activities and exercises to keep all your muscles engaged, strong, and flexible. Basically, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Repetitive overuse can also strain the butt muscles. The muscles in your rear, the gluteus maximums, but especially the gluteus medius, can get inflamed and very painful.
Also, as we age, our muscles lose some of their stretchiness. Lost muscle elasticity can cause the rear end muscle to become compact and stiffen from constant pressure.
Muscle weakness and stretching happens gradually, so the pain seems to come from nowhere.
The butt muscles hold the hips in position. If the hips are tilted forward or sway a lot when walking, that puts excess stress on the hip stabilizer muscles buried deep in your butt.
A quick way to check if your butt is activating is to lie flat on the floor and put your hands on your butt cheeks. Try to tense up one cheek and then the other. Try not to tense your leg; aim to tense up the butt only. If you have difficulty getting the butt muscles engaged, your butt could be getting forgetful.
Another check is to stand in front of a mirror, and lift one leg up. If your hip sags on the side that you lift your leg on, you might have a dead butt. If your hip sags on the right side when you lift, your left internal hip muscles are weak, and vice versa. This simple test goes by the fancy name of ‘the Trendelenburg sign.”
Good posture helps prevent dead butt syndrome. If you sit a lot during the day, try using a giant ball to sit on as that activates your core muscles and helps improve posture. Make sure you stand up and walk around for at least 5 minutes every 50 minutes. Also, while you are sitting, occasionally tense up your butt muscles to keep them awake!
An exercise that can help strengthen the inner butt muscles is the side hip spread. Lay on your side with both knees bent about 90 degrees and your feet in line with your back. Then straighten your top leg and point your toe forward. Lift that top leg up by spreading your hips.
