Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. In the past few years,
Speaker 1: it's become apparent that sitting at desks all day, followed
Speaker 1: by hours of sitting on couches while we binge watched
Speaker 1: The Great British Baking Show is slowly killing us. But
Speaker 1: what we didn't know is that it's killing us. But first,
Speaker 1: it's called dead butt syndrome. Well, officially it's called gluteal tendonopathy.
Speaker 1: It affects the gluteus medius and minimus, which are smaller
Speaker 1: muscles than the more well known gluotyus maximus. The glootyas
Speaker 1: medius is attached to the upper portion of the pelvis
Speaker 1: and the top of the femur, while the gluteus minimus
Speaker 1: is attached to the outer surface of the pelvis and
Speaker 1: the head of the femur. The two work with the
Speaker 1: gloodyus maximus to form your buttocks, So when the glootys
Speaker 1: minimus and medius are weak, it puts strain and pressure
Speaker 1: on other muscles in the hip area, including the hip
Speaker 1: flexors at the front of your pelvis, to pick up
Speaker 1: your butt slack. According to a study published in the
Speaker 1: Journal Sports med women are two to four times more
Speaker 1: likely to experience gluteal tendonopathy. A similar study published the
Speaker 1: same year in the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical
Speaker 1: Therapy noted that few risk factors have been validated by science,
Speaker 1: but to stand out, being a woman and being over
Speaker 1: the age of forty, distance runners of any gender who
Speaker 1: work desk jobs are also likely to experience dead but syndrome.
Speaker 1: Not only do they park their rear ends and chairs
Speaker 1: all day, but they're chosen sport also relies mostly on
Speaker 1: the quadriceps at the front of the thighs there but
Speaker 1: is just along for the ride on that Sunday long run.
Speaker 1: If you suspect your butt is dead, you'll often notice
Speaker 1: pain in your hip while in certain positions like sitting
Speaker 1: with your legs crossed at the knees, or sitting with
Speaker 1: your knees together but feet apart on the floor, standing
Speaker 1: with one hip jutting to the side, standing with an
Speaker 1: ankle crossed in front of the other, or lying on
Speaker 1: your side with your knees bent. But there is good news.
Speaker 1: You can resuscitate your butt. A few common glute exercises
Speaker 1: can bring that butt back from the dead. Even if
Speaker 1: you don't have a dead butt diagnosis, doing exercises while
Speaker 1: you binge watch other people baking can help undo the
Speaker 1: damage of sitting all day. Various stretches and exercises like
Speaker 1: dead lifts, the clamshell exercise, lateral bandwalks and bridges, or
Speaker 1: hip lifts can help. In those studies, most people found
Speaker 1: relief from these exercises, though it takes time In very
Speaker 1: painful cases, some people might need to go the extra
Speaker 1: step of getting cortico steroid injections or shockwave therapy. I
Speaker 1: want to know if your butt is dead, Just stand
Speaker 1: in front of a mirror and lift one leg. If
Speaker 1: you see your hip dip on the same side as
Speaker 1: your lifted foot, then the gluteus medius on the opposite
Speaker 1: side is weak. Today's episode was written by Kristen Hall
Speaker 1: Geisler and produced by Tyler Klein. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in
Speaker 1: this amounts of other topics, visit our home planet how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts from my
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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.