It may sound funny, but “dead butt” syndrome is no joke. If lots of time sitting makes you feel numbness, soreness, pain, or stiffness, you may be experiencing dead butt syndrome.
What is “dead butt” syndrome?
Dead butt syndrome, or gluteus medius tendinopathy, is usually caused by frequent sitting. It happens when your glute muscles ‘forget’ their main function and fail to keep your body in alignment. In other words, sitting for long periods of time without using your glutes can hinder your nervous system’s ability to control them.
Dead butt syndrome (DBS) can cause a range of postural imbalances, which is why it often goes hand in hand with lower cross syndrome, a muscle imbalance marked by visible anterior pelvic tilt.
These two conditions are different, but they both tend to stem from the same problem: frequent sitting and inactivity. While dead butt syndrome is caused by weak, inactive glute muscles, lower cross syndrome is caused by a weak, inactive core.
Now let’s talk about symptoms to watch out for, plus how to prevent or recover from these conditions.
DBS potential symptoms
The most common symptoms of dead butt syndrome are numbness or soreness in your glutes. Other symptoms include:
Pain (including knee pain)
Nerve pain (similar to sciatica)
Reduced flexibility
Gait problems
Weakness
Stiffness
Since sitting can lead to other problems—including edema (swelling) and impaired circulation—it might be worth revisiting your daily routine. Thankfully, dead butt syndrome can be reversed simply and easily. How? By activating your glutes.
(Photo by ELLA DON on Unsplash)
4 Easy Ways to Activate Your Glutes
Glute bridge
Glute bridges help strengthen your glutes and increase your mind-body connection. Here’s how to do them.
Lie flat on the ground on your back.
Draw your knees up and bend them while keeping your feet flat on the ground.
Here’s the important part: Squeeze your glutes and push upwards until your back/butt have lifted off the floor.
Keep your glutes engaged and try not to rely on your leg muscles too much.
You can do sets of 10-20 glute bridges as needed. They also make a pretty great quad stretch.
Glute bridge
Glute bridges help strengthen your glutes and increase your mind-body connection. Here’s how to do them.
Lie flat on the ground on your back.
Draw your knees up and bend them while keeping your feet flat on the ground.
Here’s the important part: Squeeze your glutes and push upwards until your back/butt have lifted off the floor.
Keep your glutes engaged and try not to rely on your leg muscles too much.
You can do sets of 10-20 glute bridges as needed. They also make a pretty great quad stretch.
Crab walk
To make the crab walk more effective, you can add a resistance band to the mix. Here’s how you do this exercise, with or without a band.
Begin by standing in a high squat with your feet hip-width apart. Take a step towards the side, then follow with your other foot.
Now go the other direction. Take a step to the other side, following with the other foot.
Keep your awareness on your glute muscles as you move.
Side step + squat
This exercise targets the gluteus medius directly.
Stand up and place your feet about as wide as your hips. Bend your knees enough to get into a deep squat.
As you come out of the squat, press down hard with one foot and take some weight off the other, almost like you’re doing a cossack squat.
On your next squat, reverse the process, and press down hard with the other foot.
See if you can do 20 reps. If you can, you’re doing great!
Clam
This exercise also does a great job of targeting the gluteus medius. Plus, it helps with hip stabilization.
Lie down on the floor on your left side. Your hips should be touching the floor.
Raise your upper body up with your left forearm. Your knees should be bent in front of you and touching each other.
Raise your top leg (your right leg) as high into the air as you can. You should really feel it in your glutes and hip flexors.
Do 10 reps of raising and lowering your right leg, then switch to the other side. If 10 reps are too easy, add a resistance band.
How to Recover From Lower Cross Syndrome
First, if you want to reduce dead butt/lower cross syndrome, try sitting less. There’s nothing like getting to the root of the problem. Sitting less is as easy as installing a standing desk. Or, just getting up and stretching from time to time.
“Sitting too long can restrict the blood flow, causing gluteal amnesia, which can lead to hip pain, lower backache, and problems with your ankles. The glutes will fail to fire properly even when performing exercises targeting the glutes,” fitness trainer Donovan Green says.
According to physical therapist Kelly Starrett, the reason why sitting less works is simple. Your glutes aren’t designed to bear weight for hours on end. And—if you must sit—variety is the spice of life. Try sitting on an exercise ball from time to time, or switching up your chair.
Natural Cures for Dead Butt and More
Finally, try CBD-infused topicals! While we don’t advocate using CBD products as a band-aid solution, it’s a great way to get fast-acting pain relief with a minimum of negatives. Pair a CBD topical with GAMER RLSE Half Moon for a soothing glute massage.
Inflammation isn’t always bad, but it can be painful. When you get a gaming injury your body may send out inflammatory cells to attack bacteria or heal damaged tissue. When inflammatory cells are released as a response to injury, that’s called acute inflammation. It’s temporary – it usually only lasts for a few days – and effective. That’s great, but that immune reaction can also lead to swelling and biochemical processes that affect nerves and cause pain.
How much pain can acute inflammation cause?
Acute inflammation can vary from painless to severe. Painless symptoms may include redness or being warm to the touch. More severe pain can be constant, throbbing, pulsating, or pinching. Acute inflammation pain isn’t likely to send you to an emergency room but it can certainly affect your game. The pain can make it difficult to grip a controller, sit for extended periods, rotate your thumbs, extend your fingers, and more.
Staying in the game
The best way to stay in the game is to prevent injuries in the first place by taking breaks and stretching. However, if you find yourself with pain from acute inflammation, there are some ways to relieve the pain.
Unlike chronic inflammation which poses serious health risks and warrants long-term solutions, acute inflammation can be addressed with icing – also known as cryotherapy – and topical analgesics.
Topicals have fewer side effects and penetrate the skin to deliver relief directly to affected areas. They work similar to ingestable anti-inflammation solutions by reducing the body’s production of a chemical that causes inflammation and pain.
Anti-inflammatory topical options
Prescription topicals
Topical NSAIDs, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs work on pain in small areas near the surface of the skin and require a prescription.
Plant-based topicals
NSAIDs offer effective pain relief but may have adverse secondary effects. Natural, herbal pain relief can be similarly effective and safer for use over a longer period of time.
The best of both worlds
CBD topicals don’t just mask pain, they’re able to turn down the production of inflammatory markers. They also often include other natural pain reducing and calming ingredients such as arnica, camphor, and eucalyptus.
If you’re 21+, CBD topicals may be the right choice to address your acute inflammation with natural ingredients and without a prescription.
Do you need to focus a little better? Need a little more mental oomph? Probably… Especially if you’ve been staying indoors like the rest of us. And if your reliance on caffeine has pushed you from 2 to 3 to 6 cups of coffee a day. It could be time for CBD. It may be one of the best natural ways to enhance your concentration and boost your focus. Here’s why!
CBD 101
CBD is a cannabinoid, a plant compound that’s considered hemp’s most important “ingredient.” CBD activates the human body’s endocannabinoid system, which leads to all sorts of natural health benefits.
(In a recent article we honed in on some of CBD’s most common benefits. Check it out if you haven’t already!)
One of CBD’s positive effects is to reduce inner stress. By doing this, CBD may be able to help your body overcome the outer stresses and strains that come its way. That includes the stress of distractions.
CBD vs. Distractions
In 2013, Salon declared that email is killing us—and things have only gotten worse since then. Between the sway of our social media accounts and the near-omnipresence of our phones, our brains are tempted and lured away from work almost constantly. Even leading researchers have resorted to calling the weaker parts of our psychology our “monkey mind.”
The human brain wasn’t really built for the modern world.You can try to set yourself up for success by creating the perfect work environment or following a morning ritual. That might work for a while. But ultimately, trying to overcome the brain’s built-in weaknesses by brute force is akin to trying to swim upstream.
A better solution might be to set up your brain for success by optimizing its chemistry. Scientists call this type of chemistry neurochemistry or biochemistry. Just think: instead of fighting off distractions on the macro level, why not promote concentration on a molecular level?
This type of molecular optimization might be exactly what CBD does best. Studies have shown that CBD may ‘quiet down’ overactive reward pathways in the brain. Reward pathways that are associated with sugar intake or even cocaine addiction. Other observational studies in humans have associated cannabinoid intake with reduced alcohol intake, reduced opioid abuse, and even reduced waist circumference.
CBD and Fat Burning
You know how some people claim that bulletproof coffee, rich in MCT oil or butter, boosts their concentration and reduces their hunger? CBD’s metabolic effect may do something similar. Try it for yourself before your next work session. You might feel more energized and less distracted by food.
That’s because CBD may help your body get into what’s sometimes called fat-burning mode. While our bodies are always metabolizing some mix of carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids to fuel themselves, some energy sources are “cleaner-burning” than others. Studies have shown that CBD might increase the proportion of fuel that comes from fat—fuel that powers your brain with stable, clean-burning energy.
To really go the extra mile, combine CBD with a diet rich in healthy fats—like the keto diet. In addition to favoring fat-burning mode and all the cognitive benefits that come with it, this diet actually provides the precursors (i.e, building blocks) that form our body’s own endocannabinoids.
CBD for Performance
When it comes to optimal performance, CBD and focus could be a match made in heaven.
CBD can help you concentrate on what really matters and stay productive. CBD capsule products may also deliver extra-long-lasting benefits. CBD can even be mixed into the coffee we kept mentioning earlier—far from being bad, moderate coffee intake has a wide variety of health benefits that improve when combined with CBD.
Better yet, compared to other popular concentration-boosting substances (caffeine, coffee, or even prescription drugs), CBD is remarkably free from side effects. It’s also one of the few substances that boosts concentration while simultaneously reducing feelings of anxiousness. It’s basically the high performer’s best friend!
Summing Things Up
Well, there you have it. CBD really could enhance focus. And it seems to do so holistically, working with your body through a variety of natural pathways. The only unknown in our minds is what other benefits you might experience alongside CBD’s cognitive boost. Here’s to finding out!
After bursting onto the scene in 2018, CBD has only kept getting more popular. It’s gathered a grass-roots reputation for promoting health and wholeness — customers report that CBD has them feeling better, thinking better, and sleeping better than they have in years.
In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at all these benefits…and much more. Here’s an outline of what you can expect to read about:
What is CBD?
How is CBD Different from THC?
CBD vs. Stress
CBD vs. Inflammation
CBD vs. Chronic Pain
CBD and Sleep: Why It Could Work
What is CBD?
To put it super simply, CBD is a plant compound. What’s a plant compound? It’s a compound that’s important to a plant’s life cycle and metabolic health, of course!
In the case of CBD, the plant in question is called hemp. And while hemp’s CBD content fulfills several important metabolic roles within the plant, it also fulfills several important roles within us humans.
CBD is also an acronym that stands for canna bi diol. Its full name denotes its chemical structure, but it’s also a little awkward to say, so CBD’s shorter name has stuck.
How is CBD Different from THC?
If “location, location, location” is the clarion call of real estate, “sourcing, sourcing, sourcing” might just settle the question of CBD quality. Why’s that? Because good hemp creates good CBD products, and CBD sourced from industrial hemp is fully legal in all 50 states.
Sourcing also highlights the main difference between CBD and THC, another well-known cannabinoid. While CBD is hemp’s most active ingredient, THC is marijuana’s most active ingredient.
Compared to ‘normal’ marijuana/cannabis, hemp contains lots of CBD and very little THC. Federal law specifies: industrial hemp must contain .3 % THC or less. That’s not very much!
This unique cannabinoid ratio of high CBD and low THC means that hemp’s CBD content can gently regulate the body without causing any weird side effects. In other words, CBD provides health benefits without the ‘high.’
CBD vs. Stress
Speaking of CBD’s health benefits, most of them actually stem from something very simple: CBD’s ability to reduce stress. By helping various parts of your body communicate with each other, CBD may silence stress and promote full-body balance.
This might sound a little metaphysical, but it’s actually real science. CBD activates a system called the endocannabinoid system, and this system provides an ongoing checks-and-balances type effect to virtually every other physiological system and vital organ in your body. That means CBD may help your body operate efficiently — efficiently enough to stay above the equilibrium that is poor health and reduced immunity.
In short, CBD = improved endocannabinoid system function = reduced stress.
The implications of this concept are nearly endless. Pioneering endocrinologist Hans Selye found that non-specific stressors can manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways; stress can crush a person’s posture or wreck their circadian rhythm or steal the glow from their face. Conversely, reductions in stress can have different effects on different people.
Indeed, some people who take CBD find that they sleep better, while others notice no difference in their sleep but gain some much-needed mobility. Could CBD’s wide variety of health benefits be explained by this simple stress-reduction concept? We think so.
With this pattern in mind, let’s take a more specific look at some of CBD’s most common health benefits.
CBD vs. Inflammation
The human body is complex enough that nearly everything that happens within it is dependent on context.
A little bit of inflammation is a good thing, but chronic inflammation can begin to eat away at tissues and cause degeneration if left unchecked. Many factors can influence inflammation, and some of them are unexpected: even the foods we eat provide the building blocks for inflammatory molecules. Unfortunately, the modern western diet is full of both the omega-6 fats that fuel the creation of these molecules…and the allergenic proteins that send them off.
Hey, we get it: avoiding these problem foods can be tough. The good news is that CBD’s here to help! CBD may shift your inflammatory balance to a healthier place by reducing the rate at which interleukins and other inflammatory molecules are produced. It may even work with the endocannabinoid system to reduce the need for inflammatory reactions in the first place.
“It has been suggested that CBD may indirectly improve anti-inflammatory effects,” one study deduced. CBD may also act as an antioxidant, which makes sense given inflammation and oxidation often go hand in hand. Both these effects have all sorts of nice ‘downstream’ benefits…
CBD vs. Chronic Pain
Reduced pain is one of the biggest benefits many CBD users notice. Even super-stubborn chronic pain often fades with consistent CBD use. Key word being consistent. CBD can only reduce inflammation and pain if it’s taken consistently over time. You’ll likely need to take more CBD the higher your pain levels are.
But don’t feel hopeless if your pain has you feeling like you need relief right now. That’s what topical CBD is for! There’s some evidence that applying topical CBD can blunt your brain’s perception of pain almost instantly.
You know how hot peppers make your mouth feel like it’s burning, even though it not actually on fire? CBD works via the same TRPV1 sensory pathway in the opposite way, making your joints feel like they’re not inflamed — long before CBD’s actual anti-inflammatory benefits begin to kick in.
If you want to get the best of both worlds, the solution is simple: take CBD oil consistently each day and add a CBD topical into the routine if/when you really need it. And have hope. CBD for chronic pain can really work! Some doctors are even using it to wean their patients off conventional NSAIDs and opioids.
CBD and Sleep: Why It Could Work
Another favorite benefit of many of our new customers? Improved sleep. Unlike conventional sleep aids, however, CBD doesn’t normally make you sleepy during the day. Instead, it may work with your body’s built-in circadian clock to make you feel tired when you want to — at night! One of America’s largest CBD case studies yet found that the compound might work for both sleep and anxiety.
If you’ve been depending on melatonin, alcohol, or other substances to help you unwind in the evening, consider switching over to CBD. It has considerably fewer side effects…and it might just work better anyways. Why take supplemental melatonin when your endocannabinoid system can help your body produce the melatonin it needs to produce, naturally? (That’s a rhetorical question, of course.)
