What is ‘Office Chair Butt’ and How Can You Prevent It?

“Workplace chair butt” is the most recent concern to your well being—particularly your glutes—selecting up steam on TikTok.

The time period has been sparking widespread dialogue amongst content material creators, who’re speculating about whether or not sitting at work may cause a decline within the energy and look of an individual’s glutes.

TikTok consumer Alexandra posted a video in early July warning her followers about workplace chair butt—it is since gained over 7 million views.

“Simply came upon about workplace chair butt so I will likely be utilizing the standing desk function for all 8 hours on daily basis,” she wrote.

In one other video that has over 2.6 million views, a TikToker named Itzel known as workplace chair butt her “new concern.”

However is workplace chair butt one thing folks ought to really be involved about? Here is what consultants needed to say about how sitting regularly impacts your physique, and easy methods to preserve your muscular tissues wholesome whereas working your 9-to-5.

Workplace chair butt is a standard phrase that actually does not have a real medical that means or definition, Evan Johnson, DPT, director of Och Backbone Care Outpatient Bodily Remedy at NewYork-Presbyterian, instructed Well being.

Nevertheless, sitting for extended durations of time can definitely have an effect on your butt.

“By sitting in a chair for hours, days, weeks, and years like many people do, we neglect our glutes they usually can turn out to be very deconditioned and lose muscle mass consequently,” Andrew Bach, DO, bodily medication and rehab specialist at Cedars-Sinai. instructed Well being.

When the physique is sedentary, muscular tissues—together with the glutes, but in addition the deltoids, pectorals, hamstrings, and extra—aren’t engaged or working, Bach mentioned. Over time, this will trigger them to weaken. Weakened muscular tissues may also be infiltrated by fatty tissue, Johnson added, making them much less resilient.

Extreme sitting can even trigger muscular tissues to have an altered look, mentioned Johnson. Folks would possibly discover workplace chair butt particularly when their gluteus maximus—which has the biggest cross-sectional space, or muscle quantity, within the physique—begins to say no.

“Sitting on the muscle all day and never exercising it ends in the muscle dropping tone and finally form,” Johnson mentioned. “This may end up in a flat butt look or a really delicate, fleshy butt if muscle is changed with adipose tissue [or] fats.”

Extreme sitting can even trigger muscular tissues to shorten or tighten, Bach added, altering our look.

“The impact is that our our bodies are likely to mould into the form of our chairs,” he mentioned.

Fortunately, sitting for extended durations of time does not normally hurt your glutes immediately, Johnson mentioned. Nevertheless, weak gluteal muscular tissues can result in issues over time, together with pressure on different muscular tissues within the thigh and again.

Technically, if somebody have been to take a seat in the identical place for a very long time, it is potential that their butt bones might put an excessive amount of stress on the gluteal muscular tissues, mentioned Bach. Nevertheless, that is fairly uncommon.

“That is how a stress wound occurs,” he mentioned. “The excellent news is that the typical individual shifts their weight each jiffy, usually with out even eager about it, to keep away from this from occurring.”

In any other case, if somebody is experiencing ache from sitting for lengthy durations of time, they may have what some folks name “useless butt syndrome,” somewhat than workplace chair butt.

Ache deep within the butt from sitting may very well be brought on by sciatica or tendinopathy (tendon damage) in one of many different gluteal muscular tissues—the latter is “generally known as ‘useless butt syndrome,'” mentioned Johnson.

However “useless butt” can even check with gluteal amnesia, or points along with your muscular tissues’ means to contract as a consequence of extended sitting, Bach added.

“Muscle activation is simpler the extra you do it,” he mentioned. “In case you are sitting down all day, you aren’t activating your muscular tissues and the impact could be that if you do use them, they may not be as dependable as earlier than.”

This “useless butt” weak spot can include numbness, tingling, and ache, Bach added. In the event you’re experiencing these signs, he advisable talking with a healthcare supplier.

Anybody who sits for extended durations of time—together with these in sedentary jobs—is prone to growing workplace chair butt, Bach warned.

Specifically, ladies could also be extra more likely to get workplace chair butt, as they’re extra more likely to work jobs that require them to take a seat all day. The identical goes for older and middle-aged folks, Johnson mentioned, who’ve collectively spent extra hours sitting at work.

“Moreover, with age, we are likely to lose muscle flexibility and tone except we work to counter that course of with train,” he mentioned.

However like many power well being circumstances, workplace chair butt is avoidable, Johnson mentioned. The easiest way to stop it’s merely to remain lively and activate your glutes recurrently all through the day.

That would imply getting up recurrently out of your desk, strolling your canine, or taking the steps on the workplace.

You may additionally need to use a standing desk to keep away from the unfavorable results of extended sitting at work, Bach added. If you do not have a standing desk, you possibly can activate your muscular tissues whilst you’re seated by doing glute squeezes or calf raises each quarter-hour or so, he suggested.

Exterior of the workplace, there are additionally particular workout routines you are able to do to strengthen your glutes, together with bridges, clamshells, squats, and step-ups, mentioned Johnson. Nevertheless, correct type is necessary to keep away from defective motion patterns. 

“In the event you don’t know easy methods to do these workout routines correctly, it’s a good suggestion to schedule just a few periods with a healthcare supplier to evaluate correct type,” Johnson added.

In the long run, practising just a few wholesome behaviors may help folks “reap the advantages of a stronger and shapelier behind,” he mentioned. “That mentioned, it’s value celebrating the inherent variations of form and measurement of people. The purpose is to advertise nice well being, vanity, and health—to not physique disgrace.”