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Episode 89: Inbetweenie - Is Dead Butt Syndrome Real?
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In this episode of the Movement Logic Podcast, host Laurel Beversdorf explores the concept of 'dead butt syndrome' or 'gluteal amnesia', debunking both as a non-evidence-based myths perpetuated in fitness and health discussions. Laurel discusses the misleading information in a recent New York Times article titled Sitting All Day Can Cause Dead Butt Syndrome, and emphasizes the importance of evidence-based terms and ideas in understanding pain and body function. She outlines the dangers of accepting unsupported medical terms, advises on better exercise practices, and stresses the significance of regular, whole-body strength training for overall health. Listener feedback is also addressed, touching on the podcast's approach to myth-busting and health education.
00:00 Introduction and Personal Check-In
01:17 Understanding Dead Butt Syndrome
03:03 Debunking the Myth: Evidence and Expert Opinions
06:10 Critique of the New York Times Article
09:12 Addressing Listener Feedback
12:51 The Problem with Sensationalism in Media
16:45 The Complexity of Pain and Misleading Diagnoses
32:28 Exploring Gluteus Maximus Firing Patterns
33:11 Factors Predicting Athletic Injuries
33:48 Critiquing the New York Times Article
34:18 Debunking Gluteal Amnesia Myths
36:02 The Problem with Pathologizing Normal
44:23 Understanding Muscle Cramping
56:45 Effective Movement and Pain Prevention
58:23 Upcoming Classes and Courses
Free offerings mentioned in this podcast:
Take a free class with Laurel and get the replay - Escape the Gride: A Multi-Planar Banded Flow
Get on the Waitlist for Bone Density Course and get the only discount for Spring 2025 cohort
Get the free Bone Density Mini-Course: Barbell 101
Resources mentioned in this podcast:
Greg Lehman on "Trojan horsing"
Conspirituality Podcast on Post-Truth America
Sitting All Day Can Cause Dead Butt Syndrome
Have the Butt Muscles of the World Gone Silent?
Muscle Recruitment Patterns During the Prone Leg Extension
Test showing more gm activity in presence of pain
People with low back pain do not have a delayed firing of GM
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic Podcast with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beaversdorf and physical therapist, Dr. Sarah Court. With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement, and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong opinions loosely held, which means we're not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we're here with up-to-date and cutting-edge tools, evidence, and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher.
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome to this in-betweeny episode of the Movement Logic podcast about your allegedly sleepy and forgetful hiney with me, your host, Laurel Beaversdorf. Is dead
Debunking Dead Butt Syndrome
00:00:52
Speaker
butt syndrome real? Before we get into it, let's have a little check-in. I am recording, I think for the first time in the wee hours of the morning here in Alabama before my daughter and husband wake up. Why, you ask? Because I did not work at all over the holidays and I have a lot of work to catch up on.
00:01:10
Speaker
So I'm kind of rushing to get this episode out by Wednesday. It is Sunday morning. I had a wonderful holiday break. We did have a bit of car trouble. ah The car got hit by a lug nut on the highway, smashed the windshield, wouldn't start at a gas station, went into quote limp mode on the highway. Three unrelated incidences that all happened to the car. We did make it back safe.
00:01:35
Speaker
There have been horrific fires raging in Los Angeles that I think are now brought under control. Sarah is safe, very grateful for that, as well as all my loved ones and friends in l LA that are safe. My heart goes out to everyone in Los Angeles who are likely to very extensive grieving from the losses, the losses of land, life, property.
00:01:59
Speaker
Alright, today we're taking a closer look at an article from the New York Times titled, Sitting All Day Can Cause Dead Butt Syndrome. so if you don't know dead butt syndrome also known as gluteal amnesia is this idea that the glute muscles become weak and then forget how to fire during normal daily activity or maybe it's the other way around they become forgetful and then as a result weak
00:02:30
Speaker
I'm not sure which comes first, the chicken or the egg, but these syndromes or amnesiatic states are then used often to explain why people have pain. Side note, if dead butt were an emoji, I picture a combination of the peach emoji and the zombie emoji. And if dead butt had its own movie, it would be a Pixar movie of a zombie peach and the title would be Dead Butt Walking.
00:03:00
Speaker
because somehow people with dead butts are still able to stand and walk around. We'll get into it. Now, most of you are probably familiar with these terms, dead butt syndrome, gluteal amnesia, and maybe like me, you thought we were past this. We are not. This article was written a few short months ago. Here's the TLDR on this episode about this myth. In case you can't tell by the tone of my voice, I wish dead butt syndrome suffered from dead myth syndrome. But alas, here I am,
00:03:30
Speaker
creating an entire episode about this made-up condition. I want you to remember this above all, it's not an evidence-based term. I know that might be a shocker. Dead butt syndrome and gluteal amnesia are not scientific terms. What happened though is that, and I learned this from Greg Lehman, someone who we quote a lot on this
Trojan Horsing in Movement
00:03:53
Speaker
podcast. We share his work in the show notes often. He is a physiotherapist and chiropractor out of Canada.
00:04:00
Speaker
and a thought leader in the rehabilitation space. What I learned from Greg Lehman in one of his Instagram posts recently is this really helpful term called Trojan Horse to Trojan Horse. Terms like dead butt syndrome and gluteal amnesia have been Trojan Horst into broader discussions around pain, rehab, and exercise. So if you're not familiar with this very handy verb to trojan horse something, it means to sneak a smaller idea into an explanation of a larger idea and to then use this smaller idea to explain that larger idea. The smaller idea is unsupported by evidence. It is not
00:04:39
Speaker
a science-based idea, whereas the larger idea is often a a broader discussion taking place seemingly in an evidence-based way or being conducted by trusted science-based sources. So because we are presented with the non-scientific smaller idea within the context of of the evidence-based discussion taking place, we just assume that this smaller idea is true. We take it at face value. Turns out, and I'm gonna link Layman's post in the show notes because it does a really good job of explaining this phenomenon of Trojan horsing something into existence. This happens all the time in research with terms like, quote, stability exercises, which are often in reality when you take a closer look at what's being described in the research, just low load exercises that have nothing to do with stability as a capacity. Another term that's Trojan horse into research is quote faulty movement patterns, which is a value based term that implies almost inherently that there is some objective way not purely based an opinion for describing movement within a simplistic dichotomy of faulty and not faulty.
00:05:52
Speaker
Spoiler, there's not. Faulty movement patterns is implicitly ah opinion-based, and therefore not scientific. Yet these murky, non-science-based, non-evidence-based terms like stability exercises and faulty movement patterns are snuck into legitimate science, whole research papers, and are used then to explain the findings of the papers, the fact that they are not supported by science, and sometimes just nonsensical, is completely disguised so that they're legitimized by association. And what happens is they end up muddying the waters. They muddy a discussion around the bigger issue because they, as I said, are often used to explain the bigger issue to some extent. And of course, the idea gets passed down like a game of telephone. Other researchers continue to use the term. Clinicians start to adopt the idea and then movement teachers and the general public at large. Of course, this is all analogous to the Trojan Horse from Greek mythology, where soldiers hid inside a wooden horse to secretly infiltrate a city. So in the context of this New York Times article, terms like dead butt syndrome or gluteal amnesia are not evidence-based concepts, and yet they get Trojan-Horsed.
Critique of NYT Article
00:07:01
Speaker
or presented as such by experts quoted in the article, MDs and PTs. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to explain why we have pain and what we should do about it. So this is really problematic.
00:07:15
Speaker
Here's how I think this article could be rewritten to be more accurate. It needs an entirely different premise, but anywho, if we change that little problem, it could be that generally people are too sedentary and all muscles atrophy with sedentarism. The human body generally doesn't perform or function as well when someone is chronically sedentary. And so not moving or exercising enough can certainly cause pain and injury. Therefore, we should all try to move and exercise a little bit more.
00:07:42
Speaker
The article also mentions how athletes like runners and golfers are particularly susceptible to gluteal amnesia or dead butt syndrome, in which case I think the article could also add that it's entirely possible to experience pain because of exercise or athletic training. And when this is the case, the answer is often to reevaluate load management and ask if perhaps the athlete needs more time for recovery or needs to cross train their sport to support more recovery or well-rounded fitness.
00:08:12
Speaker
I think it would be good, frankly, if the Times removed this article and published one with this premise that I just described. Instead, because advice and encouragement to exercise or exercise and allow enough time for recovery is more proactive and helpful. Scare tactics that invent a false pathology and cause people to believe they are dysfunctional. This, on the other hand, really misses the mark on helping people understand what to do about their pain.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yet from a profit-driven perspective, which let's be honest, we all have in at least some of what we do because of capitalism, this this approach, my approach, wouldn't necessarily help the company get more clicks, I don't think. If it bleeds, it leads, right?
00:08:57
Speaker
If you haven't heard this expression, it is a well-known saying in journalism and media, meaning that news stories that involve violence, accidents, disasters, or some other sensational event, especially those that cause harm or bloodshed, are more likely to grab attention and be featured prominently, often on the front page or at the top of the news broadcasts. We're just more likely to pay attention to stuff.
00:09:19
Speaker
we interpret as a threat to our survival. This is what's known as the negativity bias, which I believe we all suffer from just by being mammals. And this might explain why we see so much pathologizing of normal. It's attention grabbing and attention in this economy is money.
00:09:40
Speaker
So we're gonna take a closer look at this paper because it's rich in opportunities to think critically and
Responding to Criticism
00:09:47
Speaker
logically. And there's lots of nerd out opportunities to learn about the body. And this is all sort of our jam at movement logic. Before we get into it though, I wanna share a recent review we got on Apple Podcasts. It's two stars from Cleverist Cat.
00:10:02
Speaker
Cleverus Cat writes, I really wanted to like this podcast, but the hosts spend so much time tearing down others and what they think other instructors or professionals are doing quote wrong that by the end I still can't tell what I should be doing or how to think about things differently. With one exception, they make it very clear you should take their bone class, which I don't begrudge them the hustle, but still.
00:10:29
Speaker
I'm all for, quote, myth-busting, but there's very little left by the time they finish letting you know how bad, parentheses, dumb, other people's advices. Okay, so Clever's Cat is not a fan, but Clever's Cat, just in case you're a hate lurker and you're listening to this episode, even though you gave it two stars, I have a disclaimer for you before we get into the contents of this article. Warning.
00:10:59
Speaker
I'm about to become highly critical of this New York Times article titled, Sitting All Day Can Cause Dead Butt Syndrome. I'm going to tear it to shreds, clever as cat. I will point out where the article goes wrong and cite evidence showing why it's wrong. I won't tell you what or how to think necessarily, perhaps at least not in the ways that we tend to find most satisfying. I'm not gonna give you black and white directives.
00:11:27
Speaker
But I will hopefully help you be more skeptical, less gullible, more critically minded of the information you consume, especially information that makes you feel like your body is broken, faulty, dysfunctional, and you're encountering that message in a widely read and generally well-respected publication with an enormous budget that frankly should just fucking do better, like the New York Times.
00:11:54
Speaker
I will also make it clear that you should take our bone density course, Lift for Longevity, because it's fucking fantastic. It's fairly priced, it's helped hundreds of people, but thank you for not begrudging us the fact that we have to, quote, hustle and promote that offering with our podcasts. That's so nice of you.
00:12:15
Speaker
I'm sure you're aware, Cleverist Cat, that neither Sarah nor I are independently wealthy and therefore cannot afford to make this podcast purely for free. So while we aren't directly paid for producing this podcast, we do leverage it in every way we can to help get the word out about our work.
00:12:34
Speaker
which is helping women who've been marginalized within the fitness community to reclaim their strength and get strong as fuck. And by our work, I mean we get paid to do that, yes. And by get paid, I mean we are two women who independently own this business while operating it within a fitness culture, the one where people lift heavy weights that is dominated by men.
00:12:58
Speaker
I hope that by the end of this podcast, Cleverus Cat, if you're still with me, you are left with the understanding that dead butt syndrome and or gluteal amnesia are not real. So that anytime you hear these terms presented uncritically, or as if they are real, no matter whose mouth they come out of or whose article they're discussed within, your hackles go up. And you immediately start wondering about how up to date the person giving you advices on research, current scientific findings on the subject, or rehabilitative best practices.
00:13:29
Speaker
Here's another thing, cleverestcat. Are you aware that following the 2024 US presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, decided to stop using outside fact checkers to check if posts on that platform are true or false and instead to rely on comments from users to determine this? So basically truth is whatever the most amount of people say it is.
00:13:51
Speaker
For those of you listening and who are concerned about this post-truth America we increasingly find ourselves in, our friends over at Conspirituality Pod have been doing an excellent job of reporting on this phenomenon. So I'm going to link some episodes for you to take a look at in the show notes. Clever as cat, we're all for helping you understand what to do over here at Movement Logic, and we have a lot of episodes that do just that.
00:14:19
Speaker
however Like many movement pros, PTs, doctors, and even folks in the nutrition space, you know, folks just trying to help people be healthier, we notice that very often the general masses have been woefully miseducated about what to believe on things like pain, exercise, and diet.
00:14:36
Speaker
So oftentimes, the first thing we need to do before we help them know what to do is manage these faulty and harmful beliefs. That is, we need to get them to stop believing the stuff that is not true and preventing positive progress so that they can make space for ideas and advice that are actually evidence-based. And spoiler, this evidence-based advice born out of evidence-based ideas is usually pretty nuanced. It's usually not so black and white. It's usually not a hack.
00:15:04
Speaker
not a protocol, not a trademarked method, and is usually really quite difficult to market because it's based on each individual and their unique characteristics and needs. But you want us to tell you what to do. Sure, I get that. Wanting it to be a simple doable hack or protocol is human and also a human trait. Wanting quick fixes is marketing gold. And it goes like this. Name the problem. It's some rendition of you're broken somehow or you're doing it all wrong and you're putting your health at risk. And what you need is our product or service. And this cleverest cat is what we at Movement Logic have precious little tolerance for. And this
00:15:47
Speaker
is why you'll often hear us tear the fuck into bad ideas because they are getting in our way and yours of making positive change. So, Clevver's Cat, this episode will likely upset you and you should probably consider turning it off right now.
00:16:04
Speaker
Okay, before we finally get into the details of this article, full disclosure, I am a subscriber to the New York Times. I pay them money monthly, and I also read their articles with a highly critical lens. Also, I've linked the article in the show notes. If you are not a New York Times subscriber, you typically are allowed one free read per day, last I checked, so if you've already read an article from the Times today, you may have to wait until tomorrow to read the article we're discussing in this episode.
00:16:34
Speaker
You're going to hear in this article about an MD from Mayo Clinic and a PT from Ohio State University falsely legitimize dead butt syndrome and gluteal amnesia as if they are legitimate pathologies.
Origins of Dead Butt Syndrome
00:16:49
Speaker
These experts are quoted throughout the article written by Jen Murphy, a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colorado.
00:16:56
Speaker
And just knowing that, I mean, it's no wonder dead butt syndrome and gluteal amnesia end up in the minds of the masses. Myself, I used to warn my students about dead butt syndrome while teaching glute bridges and yoga. We'd be rolling out our glutes on therapy balls and I'd start waxing poetical about gluteal amnesia. Everyone would chuckle. And then we'd do some glute bridges and I'd explain that unless they feel their glutes working, they probably weren't. And, you know, of course that just means we need more rolling in glute bridges.
00:17:26
Speaker
Here's a little thought experiment. Many of you are yoga practitioners. And even if you're not, I think you can understand this analogy. So yoga asana, modern postural yoga, is mostly a movement format that involves pushing because we're using our body weight and usually not other equipment. So we don't get to pull.
00:17:45
Speaker
We would need equipment attaching into the wall for things like that, right? So some yoga practitioners, because of a long time yoga practice in which they've really only done yoga as their sole form of physical activity or exercise, start to feel some shoulder and neck pain that becomes kind of persistent or chronic.
00:18:04
Speaker
and then eventually realize that this shoulder and neck pain might stem from the fact that they're really only pushing and never really pulling. So then when they start doing some pulling, voila, their pain is resolved. And this definitely happened to me.
00:18:21
Speaker
Now here's the thought experiment. What if in this scenario, instead of being recommended to add in some pulling to our movement routine, we were instead told that we had latissimus dorsi amnesia or dead shoulder pulling muscle syndrome. For those of you who have experienced this form of yoga related pain, would that have been helpful for you? I'm going to guess no. And here's why.
00:18:48
Speaker
a reliable predictor of pain, we can use this observation to predict you know whether or not someone's gonna have pain or how difficult that pain is going to be for them is a person's relationship to the pain and whether or not they catastrophize it. And guess what the term dead butt syndrome does or gluteal amnesia does? It catastrophizes. I mean, death is pretty catastrophic, you know.
00:19:16
Speaker
So let's get through the article and pull out some of the most egregiously wrong statements and rip them to shreds, shall we? Okay, first sentence of the article, quote, the name might make you snicker, but addressing gluteal amnesia can help you avoid chronic pain. All right. I want to just pop in my edit here, my edit for this sentence. If I were the editor, I would say, how about we change the sentence to this?
00:19:41
Speaker
You might have heard this a thousand times, and it might go in one ear and out the other, but I want you to listen real closely. Exercising more can help you avoid chronic pain. All right, the first paragraph opens with this sentence. After a long work day at your desk or hours in a car, it's normal to feel a little stiff.
00:20:01
Speaker
It may just be that your hip flexors and lower back are tight, but you could also be experiencing a debilitating condition called gluteal amnesia or dead butt syndrome. So here's my interpretation of the emotional subtext of this sentence. okay I'm going to draw on my my acting training, my BFA that I got in college. Do y'all know I'm a BFA in acting? okay So here's my interpretation of the emotional subtext of the sentence.
00:20:31
Speaker
What you think is just innocent normal stiffness could actually be a debilitating condition. So don't be so laissez-faire about how your body feels. You should be very worried. How's that for an opening that scares the pants off of people? All right.
00:20:51
Speaker
You know, this is akin to saying something like, you know, after a dinner party, everyone's kind of hanging out in the living room. This is akin to saying um to your friend who ate burritos for dinner and now is experiencing a little gas. It'd be like saying this. After eating bean burritos for dinner, it's normal to have a little gas, but you could also be experiencing a life-threatening food poisoning.
00:21:16
Speaker
Why would you do that? Why would you do that? It's unkind and it's completely made up. For a great counter to this article in The Times, check out Greg Lehman's blog. We've linked it in the show notes. Its title is, Have the Butt Muscles of the World Gone Silent? It's in Greg's blog that I learned that our good friend and researcher, he's not really our friend, But we've we've talked about him a lot on this podcast. Researcher Vladimir Yanda, who conducted research from the 50s through the 90s, is probably the originator of this idea of dead butt syndrome and gluteal amnesia, although he did not give these conditions, if we could even call them that.
00:21:56
Speaker
Those names but it's likely that these made up conditions come from the theory of lower cross syndrome which was developed by Vladimir yunda and lower cross syndrome is an outdated theory on dysfunctional posture that later was found to have little to no evidence to support it.
00:22:16
Speaker
but it goes like this lower cross syndrome posits that many people have a combination of tight hip flexors so those are the muscles that cross the front of the hip and by tight we mean they won't stretch to longer lengths so another phrase that's used to describe tight is locked short so we have a combination of tight hip flexors and then on the other side of the hip joint we have weak glutes and by weak we mean muscles that are unable to generate enough force to overcome the tension of their antagonists the hip flexors on the front of the hip and are locked long okay and so we are ending up in this perpetual state of
00:22:55
Speaker
postural hip flexion, right? Which leads to an anteriorly tilted pelvis when standing, but probably in many people's minds also dead butt syndrome, right? The glutes are weak, locked long. So in the blog, Lehman points out that our glutes are no more likely to become inhibited than any other muscle. And this is a really key point that he makes and one that I think we should always remember, which is that the glutes are not special.
00:23:20
Speaker
They're no more important than the other 600 plus muscles of the body. They're no more important than any other hip extensor muscle. And therefore, there is no need to create imaginary pathologies about the glute or any muscle for people who likely already feel broken.
00:23:38
Speaker
The article
Questioning Expert Claims
00:23:39
Speaker
then goes on to quote, Jane Canitis. I think I'm pronouncing her name correctly. I hope that I am. Jane Canitis. I'm assuming she's Dr. Canitis, but to my knowledge, she's just quoted as Jane Canitis is a specialist in physical medicine and re rehabilitation at Mayo Clinic. Impressive credentials. She says, quote, the name sounds silly, but side effects are serious. So here's my emotional subtext and interpretation of this. Enough with the jokes. Let's get down to brass tacks that you are about to to sit on.
00:24:09
Speaker
So here's our expert from a respected institution giving credence to this completely unsupported non-evidence based and wholly unscientific term. This is a powerful appeal to authority. But regardless, we need to be asking, are these claims actually supported by research? I'll remind you again that they are not. Canitis goes on to say, gluteus maximus is one of the strongest muscles in the body and biggest shock absorbers.
00:24:37
Speaker
Okay, a couple of things. Sure, the gluteus maximus is a strong muscle, relatively speaking, but that doesn't make dead butt syndrome or gluteal amnesia real. These statements are unrelated.
00:24:48
Speaker
Whether or not it is a big shock absorber, I think that's a misleading statement because it really depends on the activity or task. It is not a big shock absorber in walking or running. Muscles and tissues like the calves and the Achilles tendon of the lower limb are much more involved with shock absorption in those activities.
00:25:09
Speaker
And some more good info from Lehman's blog. Research shows that the glutes are minimally involved in walking and running, but more so in sprinting. He also writes, the glutes aren't really involved in a vast majority of tasks. They work during heavy loads and end ranges, sprinting, climbing, heavy lifting, not really that much glute activity in walking and running. And he cites research.
00:25:35
Speaker
Here's a fun fact. The masseter muscle, that's a jaw muscle, is considered the strongest muscle in the human body relative to its size. Because relative to its size, it can generate the most force, primarily due to its function in chewing. So you can find your masseter muscle if you put your finger on your cheek where your back molars touch, the top and bottom, and then bite down. It'll pop up into your finger.
00:26:01
Speaker
So if you find this fact underwhelming, then please don't also be overwhelmed with fear when you hear that the glutes are the strongest muscle of the body and that they might be dead. These two statements bear no relationship to each other. Okay, back to the New York Times article and the dead butt.
00:26:20
Speaker
quote, if it's not working properly, I think it is the butt, right? If it's not working properly, it can cause a domino chain of issues from hamstring tears and sciatica to shin splints and arthritic knees. I'd like to propose an edit here. How about this? If you exercise without proper load management, this can cause a domino chain of issues from hamstring tears and sciatica to shin splints.
00:26:47
Speaker
or here's another edit. If you don't exercise or if you don't exercise enough, you are more likely to experience arthritis than people who do. I really wish that there was research cited here in the article because actually, to my knowledge,
00:27:03
Speaker
A not properly working gluteus maximus is not the main factor involved in any of the conditions or injuries named. And if it were, it might be good news. It might be a good thing if it were that simple because then we'd have a very clear solution to what are typically complex, hard to solve problems. You know what it sounds like to me? Sounds like the good old post hoc fallacy.
00:27:26
Speaker
This is the assumption that because two things are true at the same time, for example, weak glutes, or glutes you can't, quote, feel firing, and you have pain that one must have caused the other. Just because weak glutes might be seen in people with knee pain, hamstring injuries, or even arthritis, doesn't mean weak glutes are the cause of those problems. Here's a question that I'm sitting with. Is your glute max weak? Or is your whole body weak?
00:27:55
Speaker
I'm gonna guess it's your whole body. It's possible. It's just your glute max, sure. I'm thinking, let's say you are a rower. Your sport is rowing. I don't see how the glutes would get a whole lot of stimulus with rowing. Upper body, sure, not so much the glutes. Or let's say that you have a movement pattern where every time you bend down to pick something up off the floor, you do it within more of a squat pattern rather than a hinge pattern. You might in that case chronically be biasing your quads instead of your glutes. It's possible that your glutes relative to the other muscles of your body could be weaker, definitely. But what is a more plausible explanation for why someone might have
00:28:41
Speaker
pain. Pain, specifically, while also having a lifestyle where they're sitting for long periods of time. Is it that just their glutes are weak and that's the problem? Or is it that they're generally very sedentary and their whole body is in a fairly deconditioned state?
00:29:00
Speaker
The article goes on, quote, gluteal amnesia is when muscles in your rear become so weak from inactivity, they seem to forget how to function. They fail or become slow to activate. You might feel a dull ache when you sit, or you might feel it when you go for a walk or run. You might feel it. Let's remember this always. Pain is complex.
00:29:29
Speaker
it'd be really tough to isolate this single variable of a muscle being slow to activate as the cause, the single cause of pain. Pain, especially that is amorphously described as a, quote, dull ache or, quote, you might feel it.
00:29:49
Speaker
Both pain and injury are complex. They are influenced by a wide range of factors, including history of injury, load management, overall physical conditioning, psychological stress, and so much more. It's
Beyond the Biomedical Model
00:30:03
Speaker
just not as simple as blaming the glutes, although I know we would like it to be.
00:30:08
Speaker
Linking pain solely to glute activation reinforces an outdated idea based on the biomedical model of pain, which fails to capture the full picture and has since been replaced by the biopsychosocial model of pain, according to scientific consensus. Arbitrarily blaming, then, glute maximus and crafting a scary narrative to support this premise causes confusion where we desperately need more clarity.
00:30:39
Speaker
Yet the article goes on, quote, sluggish glutes can result in other muscles and joints, especially in the low back and knees, picking up the slack. It can impact runners, golfers, tennis players, Tiger Woods had to bow out because of it. We got another appeal to authority here, name dropping, Tiger Woods no less. I'm assuming that this was reported on and then the clinician is just quoting what they heard.
00:31:03
Speaker
and not guessing that Tiger Woods backed out because of gluten amnesia or dead butt syndrome, but I don't know. And so we have a whole big assumption to contend with here. Okay, so here are my questions.
00:31:15
Speaker
Did Tiger Woods specifically bow out because of a diagnosis of gluteal amnesia, which is not a diagnosis. It's not a scientific thing. ah Did he bow out because of weak glutes? Was that the diagnosis? Or did he bow out because he needed better training load management, more recovery? Did he have a history of injury? Was he going through a particularly stressful time in his life?
00:31:41
Speaker
Like, was there a test that he underwent that completely ruled out all of this and then pointed directly to inhibition of his glutes? I don't know, but there are tests, okay? There are muscle tests. There's one in particular we could talk about that might be relevant to this discussion, which is called the prone leg lift test. The prone leg lift test was developed by our friend, Vladimir Yanda. And so this test, like other tests like it, attempt to rule in or out certain muscles and their involvement in pain. and motor control. And so there's this one exercise, the prone leg lift test, which is used to diagnose low back pain as being the result of of ah delay in muscle firing. I'm really not super up on this test, but
00:32:28
Speaker
According to research conducted by Greg Lehman, the prone leg lift test appears to show that gluteus maximus involvement is always delayed. Here's a quote from the paper. I'll link it in the show notes, along with all the other papers. quote, no consistent recruitment patterns were detected for prone leg extension among the hamstring muscle group and the erector spinae. So no consistent recruitment patterns were detected. In other words, everyone's different. Did I mention that this shit is complex? Okay, back to the quote. However, a consistent delay in the gluteus maximus firing of approximately 370 milliseconds after the first muscle activated was found
00:33:10
Speaker
Wow, so everyone's different, but we all tend to have a delay in gluteus maximus firing during the prone leg test. that that that I mean, according to this paper, that's what's suggested. That's kind of cool. Five out of 14 asymptomatic subjects showed a delay in gluteus maximus firing exceeding the average delay.
00:33:27
Speaker
found in previous research of subjects considered to have a dysfunctional firing pattern. So five out of 14, small sample size, but five out of 14 showed a delay in gluteus maximus firing exceeding the average delay found in previous research of subjects considered to have a dysfunctional firing pattern. So maybe it's normal. Maybe delayed glute max firing is normal. All right, so back to Tiger Woods.
Predicting Athletic Injuries
00:33:55
Speaker
I think it's worth mentioning that when it comes to athletic injuries, here's what can more accurately predict pain. It is load management issues, history of injury, and also environmental factors like if the athlete is, for example, playing on a slippery surface. Maybe there's some precipitation. If the athlete is playing just on a different type of surface, like in tennis, they go from grass to clay. These are all factors that could predict athletic injury.
00:34:25
Speaker
and gluteal amnesia and dead bud syndrome are not on the list. All right, the New York Times article goes on. Just like, quote, learning to engage your core, learning to engage your core is hyperlinked to another article to help us learn how to engage our core. I did not click on this link. I know, my loss. Learning to fire your glutes is also hyperlinked can prevent this. All right, can we just take a step back for a second and really appreciate what is being communicated to us here. Here's what I'm hearing. I'm hearing that we all must learn to fire our glutes.
00:35:12
Speaker
What this suggests to me is that we don't already know how to do this and our nervous system specifically doesn't already know how to do this.
00:35:27
Speaker
Huh? I feel like either this is some absurd counter reality we should now believe we live in, that, or I should feel like my body's intelligence has just been gravely insulted. You don't really believe people don't know how to fire their glutes, do you?
00:35:51
Speaker
I think it's really quite arrogant just at baseline to assume that we need basic exercises like the glute bridge to learn to fire our glutes or at one point in this article they recommend standing up every 30 to 50 minutes and tapping our behind with our fingers to help our nervous system know where the glutes are.
00:36:13
Speaker
that we need to do these things, that they're suggesting that we need to do these things because our magnificently complex beyond current human understanding and also highly functioning nervous systems don't already know how to do this is absurd. Really, give me a break. Are you serious?
00:36:36
Speaker
But wait, there's more, because according to the article, quote, it doesn't come naturally to most people, it being engaging the glutes, it doesn't come naturally to most people, even those who have a strong butt. So here we have some top tier bullshit.
00:36:58
Speaker
this is ah you see This is a sleeper cell problem, folks. It's even scarier than we thought. This this silent condition, it it doesn't cause immediate pain. you know It can lead unbeknownst to you to issues like back pain, knee pain, injuries, and Here's what's really scary. No one is safe. Even if you do heavy deadlifts, sprint, do hip thrusts, these are all evidence-based exercises for getting a strong rear end, despite having what is likely an above average strong ass, you also, you also do not know how to fire your glutes probably. No one is safe. This article now has universal relevance. Literally everyone is susceptible to dead butt syndrome. Literally everyone needs to read this article and share it widely with everyone they know because no one is safe. Please remember, I'll say it again, there is no evidence for dead butt syndrome and gluteal amnesia anywhere in research. In fact, and I'm going to cite some more articles in the show notes, plenty of evidence shows more.
00:38:01
Speaker
gluteus maximus activity in the presence of pain and injury, not less. People with low back pain do not have a delayed firing in their gluteus maximus. But no, we are going to invent a pathology and become worried about it. Here's a headline. Here's the first headline in the article.
00:38:23
Speaker
What causes the butt to shut down? That is the headline. So now my butt is a teenager who spends too much time on Instagram and is getting bullied at school. The article goes on to give us a little anatomy lesson by naming the three glutes, medius, minimus, and maximus, and how these quote, act as a base to the spine, keeping the pelvis and core stable. Let's go ahead and remember that many other tissues do this as well.
00:38:50
Speaker
The article, however, makes it sound like our spine is built on the quicksand of our snoozy glutes and hanging by the unstable thread of our amnesiac ass. Canitis is quoted again, quote, if the glutes were really dead, we wouldn't be able to stand.
00:39:08
Speaker
Thank you, Canitis. Thank you, New York Times, for this brief moment of sanity. I really needed it. What a relief. More like this please, but no. She goes on, quote, when you take a step forward, the glutes should activate first. Okay, this is sort of on par with ah information like the glutes are a relatively strong muscle. Yes, perhaps, but that is not supporting evidence for the existence of gluteal amnesia or dead butt syndrome. That fact, if it is a fact, does not make gluteal amnesia or dead butt syndrome legitimate pathologies.
00:39:45
Speaker
Next, they quote a physical therapist, Chris Colba from Ohio State University, who is quoted saying, repeated eight-hour desk days can cause a delay in the neurons that signal them to activate. Them, I think, being the glutes, the three glutes, mean min and max.
00:40:02
Speaker
Okay, so let's read this again. Repeated eight-hour desk days can cause a delay in the neurons that signal them to activate. A delay in the neurons that signal them to activate. Okay, repeated eight-hour desk days specifically cause a delay in the neurons that signal the glutes to activate. Just the glutes? Is this delay long-term? Does, I don't know, simply getting up and moving around restore a faster neuronal firing?
00:40:32
Speaker
They then go on to say, this cycle can cause the glutes to get weaker.
00:40:41
Speaker
What cycle? Slower neuronal firing or just being sedentary? Please, can someone tell me why? Why complicate this? Why make it so incomprehensible? Why not just say people should probably exercise more and not sit as much? Is it that this type of information telling people that they should exercise more and not sit so much is is just so under stimulating to our human attention that we need to, I'm sorry, make up a pathology? You know, like name a villain, the glutes, and and then scare the shit out of everyone to get people to understand we need more exercise?
00:41:23
Speaker
Here's another headline, how to tell if you have gluteal amnesia. And it goes on to to let us know that it's actually hard to tell. Remember, it's a sleeper cell issue, right? um For example, this is an example given in the article, you can see your biceps bulge, but the glutes are harder to spot. Not on me. ah But that's neither here nor there. You may think, quote, this is from the article, you may think your glutes are strong because you can do 25 squats, but your quads and lower back could be doing all the work.
00:41:55
Speaker
I want to add my interpretation of the emotional subtext of this sentence. This is from the perspective of the reader. I want to feel happy and confident that I can do 25 squats, but I guess I shouldn't. I guess I should instead be worried that even though I'm able to do 25 squats, it might be that my quads and back could be doing all the work, and that's bad. Shit. Here's my thought.
00:42:26
Speaker
The glutes are not involved in squatting very much. Did you know that? Squats are not really a glute exercise. You know what muscles are involved in squats? The quads in the lower back, mostly the quads. ah So we have, ah again, pathologized normal.
00:42:45
Speaker
Yeah. The article goes on to suggest this way of finding out if you have gluteal amnesia. Stand on one leg. The dangling leg glutes should be soft. The other leg, the glutes, should be hard. And you may have to squeeze them a few times to feel it. So we're testing for gluteal amnesia, okay? So you're going to stand on one leg and Feel the hip muscles of your standing leg, specifically the butt. Is it hard? If no, squeeze it a few times. So this experiment is based on the very common and very understandable, I think, faulty assumption that we can know what's definitely happening in our body based on feel alone. You know, the expression listen to your body. It's this idea that if we just listen to our body, we will know.
00:43:34
Speaker
But here's the thing, our perception, human perception in general, is extremely unreliable. And this is no different when we use it to try to understand what's happening in our body, when we try to use it to understand what is or isn't taking place. So for example, heartbeat, okay? Sometimes when I do Shavasva after a yoga practice and i'm in a very deep state of relaxation, I feel my heartbeat like a door knocker.
00:44:02
Speaker
resonating throughout my entire body. It is the most prominent sensation I experience and it's pretty cool and it's wild. However, at other times, for example, when I'm standing at my desk writing a podcast episode or shooting off emails to folks, I try to check in with my breathing, maybe my heart rate, and I absolutely cannot feel it anywhere in my body. Does that mean that my heart stopped beating? Of course not.
00:44:30
Speaker
perception is inconsistent and unreliable in general, and we should listen to our body, but we should not always assign factual meaning to what we do and don't feel. For another test, this is according to the article, to figure out if we have dead butt syndrome, we should try a glute bridge. Quote, if you don't feel your glutes burn a little, but you feel extreme strain in your hamstrings, that's a sign your glutes aren't activated.
00:45:00
Speaker
Or is it a sign my hamstrings experienced cramping? Let's talk about cramping. Cramping, muscle cramping, is due to muscle fatigue. Cramping is often worse when we have not been exercising a whole lot and then we go to start exercising. Cramping can be made better with proper warming up.
00:45:23
Speaker
Cramping, muscle cramping is not completely understood even by science. It is not fully explained, but in general cramping is a form of fatigue. Now, something that I come across a lot as a yoga teacher is students coming up to me after class telling me that they are having cramping issues in some of the poses.
00:45:47
Speaker
So for example, hamstring cramping and bridge, but also in locus pose, that's a prone backbend. Anecdotally what I find to be the case is that these students are often newer to yoga and after they've spent a couple weeks or months practicing consistently, these cramps go away. They're, you know, experiencing less fatigue. They have more yoga exercise under their belt. They may be better warmed up before doing the poses. All of these could be the case. But here's another thing that might explain specifically hamstring cramping in bridge. There is such a thing called active insufficiency, okay? Active insufficiency is a concept in muscle physiology that occurs when a muscle
00:46:29
Speaker
is unable to generate maximum force because it has either been brought into too short of a muscle length, the attachments of the muscle have been brought too close together, this is all going to be determined by the body's position, or the attachments have been brought too far away, the muscle is too lengthened, right, so that it cannot generate maximum force. Muscles generally can generate the most amount of force from a moderate length.
00:46:53
Speaker
So neither too short nor too long. However, in bridge pose, okay, we have an extended hip and a flexed knee. So the hamstrings are actually quite short. They could probably be shorter but they're approaching their shortest possible length and therefore active insufficiency could explain hamstring cramping in bridge because, like I said, when the hips are lifted in the bridge position hamstrings are simultaneously shortened at both the hip and the knee and are perhaps reaching a point where they can no longer generate effective force and this can lead to cramping as the muscle tries to contract further
00:47:27
Speaker
while already significantly shortened. So no, I reject this claim that if your hamstrings experience quote extreme strain, which holy hyperbole, do you mean a cramp?
00:47:42
Speaker
that that's a sign your glutes aren't activated. I'm sorry. That is just not the case necessarily. Two things can be true at the same time. You could have your glutes activated and your hamstrings could be cramping. but Those two things can happen at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive.
00:48:01
Speaker
Okay, here's another headline. How to, quote, turn on your glutes. I'm reading a book right now called Running Rewired for a running certification that I'm about to undergo actually tomorrow and Tuesday. It's just to help you understand how embedded this idea of gluteal amnesia is in many different movement communities and discussions around movement. The author of this book, which, you know, it's a book that's being recommended by a major certification entity,
00:48:29
Speaker
continuously refers to the glutes and the hip muscles as being, quote, switched off, right? So there's this idea, this mental model, that muscles are like lights that can be turned on and turned off. And while that's kind of true analogously to neuronal firing and how the brain sends motor signals to muscles. It's not true that whole muscles or muscle groups can just be like switched off and we still somehow manage to function in our lives. Like we wouldn't, okay? When a muscle is truly switched off, this is called paralysis. It's called paralysis.
00:49:11
Speaker
So, headline how to turn on your glutes, followed by this quote, for most healthy people, glutes should fire on their own when moving. Yeah, yeah, okay. I would like to suggest an edit for this sentence. Here it is. For most people who haven't become paralyzed in their glutes for some reason pertaining to a traumatic incident, glutes should fire on their own.
00:49:33
Speaker
But I don't think that that's what Dr. Canitis means. Here's another quote, some advice. Quote, set an alarm and stand up every 30 to 50 minutes and gently tap your butt cheeks with your fingertips. That little stimulation reminds the brain that those muscles are there, unquote. Okay.
00:49:52
Speaker
ah I'm just going to go ahead and sound the alarm.
00:49:59
Speaker
Neurotic protocol alert, neurotic protocol alert. hu How about this? How about this? How about set an alarm every 30 to 50 minutes? I think that's pretty good advice. Stand up, great advice. Move around, move around. Don't just tap your fucking glutes with your fingers, okay? If you wanna do that,
00:50:19
Speaker
awesome, but like why don't you move around too? This is the problem with scare tactic or made-up pathologies, okay? They often lead to advice that could be so much better, okay? Maybe some people will benefit from being scared into being active and the dead butt syndrome narrative could be one way to do that, but for most people It literally sucks all the joy that could be had from movement, from exercise, out. Because now I'm not moving to feel my body move and experience the positive emotions connected to that. I'm moving instead to stave off a debilitating invented syndrome.
00:51:09
Speaker
I don't know it's invented. I only think it's real. And I'm tapping my ass with my fingertips.
00:51:21
Speaker
It goes on. Even better. Okay, even better than tapping your ass with your fingertips. Believe it or not, it can get better. Okay, even better, march in place or do some hip circles or squats. Make sure to tighten your butt cheek each rep. Tighten your butt cheek each rep is unnecessary advice and layers on complexity to a movement that could be more fun and joyful. March, do hip circles, squat, yay! Be sure to tighten your butt cheek each rep.
00:51:58
Speaker
ah
00:52:00
Speaker
This advice that you need to consciously tighten your butt cheeks to avoid pain in these human movements, marching hip circles and squats, it seems, I don't know, at least in my opinion, ridiculous, maybe harmless. It is actually potentially harmful because while the exercises that are named here in and of themselves are great, great ways to move, they can be beneficial for sure,
00:52:30
Speaker
overemphasizing glute activation during them can lead to an unhealthy focus during the exercise, a kind of hypervigilance or fear-based behavior where someone becomes overly concerned about whether or not they're successfully contracting their glutes during these movements, none of which require more than a tiny bit of glute activation at baseline.
00:52:53
Speaker
This
Scare Tactics in Movement Narratives
00:52:54
Speaker
ironically, this hypervigilance on a superfluous minutia can make pain worse and it can make movement more difficult and frankly just less fun. I see it all the time. I saw it all the time when I taught yoga classes where students would come up. um And I was a perpetrator of this mentality because I taught a lot of old quote on lineman based yoga with a micromanaging of the body and an emphasis on certain actions as being healthy or safe and others as being unsafe and unhealthy that people would come up to me who had a fine practice a practice that was serving them well.
00:53:29
Speaker
They weren't in pain, or maybe some of them were, but they were very, very concerned about whether or not their pelvis was anteriorly tilting in a posture, and I would ask them, do you have pain? No, I'm just worried that my pelvis is anteriorly tilting. like They're just walking around concerned about these details that bear little relationship to their experience and what it is that they're ultimately trying to do.
00:53:54
Speaker
So I hope you hear me saying that it's fine to do this physical activity every 30 to 50 minutes. It's more than fine. It could be very beneficial, mostly because it's exercise, it's physical activity, it's movement.
00:54:06
Speaker
it would potentially be just as beneficial to take a brief walk, to do some shoulder circles, to do a plank, to do some yoga too. Contextualizing the movement in this way as quote, some type of prevention of dead butt syndrome or gluteal amnesia frankly really cheapens the experience and makes the advice much less good.
00:54:31
Speaker
Here's what else the article says. Exercises such as clamshells, hip thrusts, side planks, split squats and single leg glute bridges don't require equipment and can be performed at home. Pick two or three every other day and do them in a controlled manner slowly until you feel a slight burn in the glutes. Sure, okay. So now we have some recommendations to do some exercises and to do them regularly, to do them every other day.
00:55:00
Speaker
I have a few questions. um Why are we doing them slowly? Why are we looking for a slight burn? What does slight mean? Why only two or three? Why every other day? Who is this advice for?
00:55:21
Speaker
And after I get the answer to that question, I would add that when you are no longer working with a very low baseline of strength relative to what you could potentially have if you applied yourself in that regard a little bit more and you no longer feel the slight burn after 20 reps, you should probably add some load.
00:55:44
Speaker
Here's what else. I think the myth of dead butt syndrome often leads people to waste. And this is my bias. It is also my opinion. Too much precious time and energy on low load, quote, glute activation exercises that do precious little to build real strength.
00:56:03
Speaker
I think a better name for dead butt syndrome would be how about strength training your whole body a minimum of twice a week and see how your butt feels then anti syndrome. The article closes with what I feel might be one of the worst analogies I've ever heard or read. Quote, when one link in the chain is weak, the whole fence collapses.
00:56:33
Speaker
I'm sorry, but can we all please imagine a chain link fence for a moment? Do you have that in your mind's eye? Imagine one link in the fence is broken? Has the fence collapsed? This analogy is not even true for fences, let alone the human body.
00:56:59
Speaker
I would say, if anything's collapsing, It's the premise of this entire article when we recognize that dead butt syndrome is a made up pathology.
00:57:10
Speaker
All right, so this one's for cleverest cat. What would a better approach look like? What should we do?
Evidence-Based Movement Recommendations
00:57:21
Speaker
Here's what we know works when it comes to movement, health, and pain prevention. Number one, strengthen your body.
00:57:32
Speaker
Number two, apply progressive overload. Number three, prioritize regular movement. Move more, sit less, move in, quote, all the ways, stand up, walk around, change positions. Number four, think of pain as multifactorial. Pain isn't just about muscle weakness. It's definitely not about the weakness of
00:58:03
Speaker
one muscle, it's a complex experience influenced by physical, psychological, and environmental and social factors. An approach that considers these aspects together is evidence-based. An approach that leaves them out and instead homes in on one muscle is not. Number five, trust the body's adaptability. Muscles adapt to load and movement over time.
00:58:33
Speaker
pain is often temporary.
00:58:39
Speaker
Well, I hope you enjoyed this in-betweeny all about whether or not dead butt syndrome is real. If you would also like to leave us a review, we would appreciate it.
00:59:01
Speaker
Additionally, and I don't often plug my own work in these podcast episodes, I am teaching a free yoga with resistance bands class tomorrow. So tomorrow is Thursday, January 16th. So if you are listening to this episode on the day that it releases, you still have time to sign up.
00:59:24
Speaker
to take this free class live. If you are listening after the fact, you can still sign up via the link in the show notes and you will get the recording of the class. You will get a band guide as well, helping you know what resistance bands you should have for the class. The class will be about 45 minutes long and its title is Escape the Grid. a multi-planar banded flow. If you happen to be one of those yoga teachers or practitioners who suspect you might benefit from a little bit more pulling in your practice, bands offer an opportunity to do that. Also, if you wanna just mix things up and move differently, this class is going to offer you that experience. The class is also doubling as an info session for a live, fully online teacher training that I'm teaching in Keene, New Hampshire, February 8th and 9th,
01:00:15
Speaker
So if you have a desire to take that training with me.
Promotion of Upcoming Courses
01:00:18
Speaker
Take this class, get some information about the training in addition to experiencing a creative flowy banded yoga class. You can sign up, link in the show notes. And also get on the wait list for bone density course, Lift for Longevity, our premier movement logic offering six month barbell course that progressively overloads your strength to make you and your whole body strong as fuck
01:00:45
Speaker
Build bone, move through the world with confidence and ease. You can sign up for our waitlist and get the only discount on the course that we offer ever and a bunch of cool freebies every month leading up to the launch of the course. Link in the show notes. If you are brand new to our work,
01:01:04
Speaker
and you would like a free introduction to what Sarah and I are all about. You can also get our free mini course, which is linked in the show notes. This is a free offering that introduces you to barbells and barbell equipment.
01:01:21
Speaker
three incredibly useful exercises utilizing barbells that can help you get very strong and build bone and also how to build up to lifting heavy and not just doing 100 reps with a pink dumbbell or even just three sets of 10 all the time. So we're going to teach you how to use the tools of strength training to actually build up these lifts to lift an objectively heavy load for you, which is always what heavy means. It's always relative to you and your baseline of strength, what is heavy for you.
01:01:58
Speaker
All right, that is all I have for you today. Thank you again for joining me for this in-betweenie episode. Sarah will be back in your ear with a special guest. Until then, I hope you are having a wonderful new year and we're about to start season six. So we will see you next season.