TL;DR
- Dead Butt Syndrome, or gluteal amnesia, is a term for a muscle imbalance where your glute muscles tend to be underutilized. As a result, your gluteal muscles become weak, forcing your body to overutilize other muscles. Those overutilized muscles (like your hips) can experience a lot of muscle tightness.
- People with a sedentary lifestyle are more prone to Dead Butt Syndrome.
- Dead Butt Syndrome can increase your risk of lower body injuries
- You can test to see if you have Dead Butt Syndrome with a variety of methods.
- You can remedy gluteal amnesia by adding more movement to your daily routine, strengthening your glute muscles, and stretching out overactive muscles. See below for exercise examples.
What is Dead Butt Syndrome?
This post’s topic is one that I love rhapsodizing about to anyone who will listen. Your butt. Not your butt specifically (oh my gosh, that would be so creepy!), just the importance of butts generally, including yours. There is little that highlights the importance of butts more clearly than Dead Butt Syndrome. You may or may not have heard the term “Dead Butt Syndrome” before. It sounds so dramatic! So click-bait-y!
However, Dead Butt Syndrome is a real thing. It’s also called gluteus medius tendinopathy if you want to sound fancier. Luckily, contrary to the name, if you have Dead Butt Syndrome (DBS), there is nothing permanently wrong with you. DBS is just an attention-grabbing headline for a specific kind of muscle imbalance. One in which your butt isn’t being used as much as it should.
Causes of Dead Butt Syndrome
For a lot of us this probably resonates. Many of us have a desk job that involves sitting for long periods of time. For those of us who work from home, our step count may largely involve walking from our desk to the bathroom and kitchen.
Even if we exercise regularly, our butts can get out of practice if we don’t engage them enough. We could spin all day on our bikes or toil away at that rower for hours. However, unless we’re actively squeezing our butts, they’re not getting that much of a workout. Our butt muscles would benefit more from strength training, a brisk walk or jog, or even getting up and walking down the hall for coffee a million times. Standing up and sitting down is, after all, like a squat with a rest in between. #lifehack
Walking or jogging a lot is also not a guarantee for a fire peach emoji booty. Studies have shown that even avid athletes like marathon runners and ballet dancers can have gluteal amnesia. In fact, these athletes may be more at risk of DBS if they work out intensely and then sit a lot on their off-hours.
This was true for myself and my lifestyle! When I partially tore my Achilles, a lot of the physical therapy involved strengthening my butt muscles. I wasn’t using them enough enough while I was running. Instead, I was relying on my calves (and Achilles!) to pick up the slack.
The Symptoms of Dead Butt Syndrome
That’s a key problem with a dead (or more accurately, underactive) butt. If one muscle is underworked it means that somewhere else there’s a muscle that’s overworked. This is because of reciprocal inhibition. Reciprocal inhibition basically means that when one muscle contracts, another has to lengthen to allow your muscle to do that. For example, when we sit, our hip flexors contract and our glute muscles lengthen. This is part of why sitting can lead to underworked glutes. As a result of all this, one of the primary symptoms of DBS and other muscle imbalances is muscle tightness and pain elsewhere in the body.
In the case of an underactive butt, that overworked muscle is often the hip flexors. Those are the muscles at the front of your hip joint that connect your thighs with your hips. Think about what’s holding you up while you’re sitting, those muscles on the front of your hips are a key player. Your lower back is also playing an important role. The muscles in these areas are working overtime, especially when you sit for long hours. This can lead to a lot of hip pain and lower back pain.
Likewise, you might experience knee pain or foot pain because your knees and feet are taking up some of the slack from your weak glutes.
Additionally, tight areas can lose range of motion and increase your risk of injury.
How Do I Know If I Have Dead Butt Syndrome?
Keep in mind that I am not a sports medicine physician or a physical therapist. The best way to figure out if you have underactive glutes is to ask a healthcare provider for a physical exam. However, there are some easy ways of getting a sense of whether you have overactive hip flexors and/or underactive glutes.
For example, try doing a lunge with your right knee on the ground and left knee bent at a 90-degree angle. Push your hips forward while keeping a straight back and engaging your glutes (for an example, see this article). Evaluate for tightness in your right hip. Switch sides with your left knee on the ground and right knee bent and check for tightness in your left hip. If you experience a lot of hip tightness, that’s a good sign you have overactive hips and, potentially by association, underactive glutes.
Pes Planus and Lower Cross Syndrome
You might also try standing in front of a mirror and doing an overhead squat. Place your feet hip-width apart. Raise your arms above your head and aligned with your ears. You want to create a straight line from your spine through your arms. Now notice, is your back arched and does your butt stick out? That’s your tight hip flexors pulling the front of your pelvis down and taking your underactive butt along for the ride.
This kind of posture is termed “Lower Crossed Syndrome,” when your glutes, hamstrings, and/or abs are underactive. In contrast, your hip flexors and lower back muscles are overactive. As a result, you tend to have an over-arched lower back.
Underactive glutes and overactive hip flexors can also lead to something called “Pes Planus Distortion Syndrome.” This is when your feet turn outwards (kind of like a duck). As a result, the arch of your foot collapses and your knees knock in (slightly or not so slightly).
Pes Planus posture is a sign that your glute and abductor muscles are underactive. Normally they would help pull your knees into alignment. In contrast, your hip muscles are tight. You can test this by standing up and squeezing your butt, you might notice your knees turn more to the center if they have otherwise been pointing inward.
Your Body’s Interconnectedness
All of these signs show just how important our butts are. To be honest, I long neglected so-called “booty” workouts because, for many years, I viewed their benefits as largely cosmetic. The term “booty workout” did not help me take them seriously. I wanted to be faster and stronger, but didn’t see what my butt had to do with that. It turns out it has a lot to do with that.
Your butt helps power your legs and support your posture. It keeps your knees engaged and protected and your back lengthened. Without a strong butt, your legs and hips may be misaligned and you may have extra strain on those muscles that have to pick up the slack. This puts you at a higher risk of bad posture and lower body injuries.
How Can You Fix a Dead Butt?
The good news it that, a lot of times, fixing DBS or gluteus medius syndrome is relatively straightforward. Because DBS is caused, in part, by a sedentary lifestyle, you first want to make sure you’re taking frequent breaks from sitting. Integrate regular walks into your day, even if it’s just around your apartment. You may also find it beneficial to use a standing desk or exercise ball chair for part or most of the day.
Glute Strengthening Exercises
Another answer to underactive glutes, as you might predict, is to strengthen that butt. In particular, you want to strengthen your gluteus medius, which is on the upper and outer part of your glute. However, it’s also valuable to strengthen all of the muscle groups that support it. The following exercises all help strengthen the main muscles in your glutes, including your gluteus medius. They also strengthen your gluteus maximus, which is what we more traditionally think of as our butt muscles.
Before starting, it’s important to note that if any exercise causes pain, stop immediately. You can expect discomfort with strength training, but not pain. Additionally, consult with a doctor before starting a new exercise routine.
For the exercises below, I would recommend completing 3 sets of 10 reps for a given exercise (except for the wall sits), but you may find more or fewer worthwhile depending on your fitness level.
Squat
Instructions: Stand with feet hip-width apart, feet slightly turned out. As you squat down, keep your back straight, eyes forward, and knees tracking your second and third toe. Make sure you keep your weight towards your heels rather than your toes. Lower slowly and then push firmly back to a standing position. Complete your desired number of reps.
Deadlift
Instructions: Deadlifts are a good move for working the entire body. Stand with your feet hip width apart, holding dumbbells or a barbell. You can also do this without weights. Keeping your back straight and abs and glutes engaged, lower the weights slowly and steadily so that they’re near and tracking your shins. Once you get to your mid shin, power up, thrusting your hips slightly forward. Complete your desired number of reps.
I recommend watching a video as deadlifts are relatively straightforward once you see them, but can be easy to get wrong at first.
Forward and Backward Lunge
Instructions: To do a backward lunge, start standing, feet hip-width apart. Step your left leg behind you, bending it at a roughly 90 degree angle. Then power back up to stand and repeat on the right side. To do a forward lunge, step forward with your left foot and sink your body until your left leg is at about a 90 degree angle, then power back up to stand. Complete your desired numbers of reps and then repeat on the opposite side.
Wall Sits
Instructions: Maintain a seated position against a wall for 30 seconds (or longer or shorter if needed/preferred). You can aim to sit so your legs are at about 90 degrees, but only go this far if it doesn’t cause any pain.
Glute Bridge
Instructions: Lie on the floor, hands by your sides, knees bent and feet on the floor. Lift your hips slowly, squeezing your glutes at the top of the bridge and then slowly return to start. Complete your desired number of reps.
Lying-Down Leg Lifts
Instructions: Lie down on your left side with your right leg lying on top of your left. Your body should be in a relatively straight line. Support your head in your hand. Lift your foot into the air until it’s at about a 45 degree angle with your bottom leg. Slowly lower. Complete your desired number of reps and repeat on the opposite side of the body.
Donkey Kicks
Instructions: Start on all fours, knees under hips and hands under shoulders. Kick your left foot up like you’re trying to stomp on the ceiling, maintaining a bent left knee. Try not to create a big arch with your low back while doing so. If your low back does overly arch, don’t kick your foot up as high. Complete your desired number of reps and then repeat with your right foot.
If you want to build intensity for any of these exercises, you can add extra resistance by using resistance bands, an ankle weight on each foot, or adding dumbbells to some exercises. You can check out my post on resistance band exercises and 10-minute full body workouts for more strengthening options.
Stretching Overactive Muscles
The other answer to underactive glutes is to stretch out those overactive hips. Some stretches that can be helpful include butterflies or the lunge stretch mentioned above. Those with tight quads may benefit from quad stretches as well.
Yoga is also filled with great poses like Pigeon, the froggy posture, or fire log that can help lengthen tight muscles. Yoga with Adriene also has an incredible, free yoga routine for stretching out your hips and lower back here.
Final Thoughts on Dead Butt Syndrome
I know strength training is not the most exciting thing ever. There was even a study of professional runners where basically all of the runners refused to do strength training. #Relatable. But I know from experience that it’s way worse to be sidelined by an injury or dealing with persistent lower-body pain than it is to throw in 5-10 minutes of strength training 2 or 3 times a week. You might be surprised to find that not just your butt, but your whole body will thank you.
And as always, before starting a new workout routine, consult with your doctor or physical therapist. Likewise, if you are experiencing any pain or injuries, seek out treatment options from a healthcare professional as soon as possible.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider liking, subscribing, or sharing with others. It’s always a big help! And if you want more guidance on working out, check out my articles on creating a workout routine you love, wedding diets and workout plans, getting started with running, marathon training, and so much more in the health section of my blog.