Sitting for prolonged periods is known to raise the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity — but it can also contribute to “dead butt syndrome,” according to health experts who specialize in musculoskeletal injuries.

The condition, otherwise known as gluteal amnesia, involves numbness or pain in the buttocks, or pain in the upper thigh and hip, after prolonged sitting.

“The term gluteal amnesia, or ‘dead butt,’ can correlate with difficulty feeling or accessing glute activation in a particular exercise or activity,” Dr. Carrie Pagliano, a physical therapist in Arlington, Virginia, and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), told Fox News Digital.

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Causes and symptoms of ‘dead butt syndrome’

Over time, sitting for long periods can result in a “tug of war” scenario between muscles in the front (hip flexors) and those in the back of the hip (the glutes).

“The hip flexors shorten and tighten, and the gluteal muscles get over lengthened, leading to inefficient muscle activation,” Tamar Amitay, a licensed physical therapist and owner of Thrive Integrated Physical Therapy in New York City, told Fox News Digital.

This muscle imbalance can literally become a “pain in the butt,” especially for those who sit for long hours on a daily basis, experts agreed.

“The term ‘dead butt syndrome’ is simply a weakening and deconditioning of the glute muscles and associated tightening of muscles opposing them, creating an imbalance of the musculature and function,” Edward Farrell, an orthopedic physical therapist at Physical Solutions Physical Therapy and Fitness on Long Island, New York, told Fox News Digital.

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Farrell often sees patients who suffer from pain and tightness in the hips and buttocks, along with discomfort in the lower back. 

“Older patients will often report long days at work sitting at their desk, and younger patients may have a habit of spending hours playing video games or social media surfing,” he told Fox News Digital.

“Once we can resolve the acute issue, the take-home message is to get up and move around every once in a while.”

With dead butt syndrome, the glute muscle doesn’t actually die, but rather “shuts down,” meaning it does not contract as efficiently, the experts said. This can lead to other issues down the road.

“The condition can actually become quite serious,” Farrell warned.

The muscle imbalance can literally become a “pain in the butt,” especially for those who sit for long hours on a daily basis, experts said. (iStock)

“The glutes — the gluteus medius in particular — act as stabilizers, providing lateral support with walking and running,” he said. “If these muscles become weakened and less efficient, more stress is passed onto the lower back and other areas of the hip and thigh.”

When the pelvis is not stabilized, the hip can drop on one side, causing stress and pain in the hip and spine and even down the kinetic chain to the knee, according to Amitay. This can also affect how a person walks.

Diagnosing the condition

If someone is experiencing dead butt syndrome, a physician may recommend the Trendelenburg test, which can indicate weakness of the glute muscles responsible for hip abduction, according to experts.

With the test, the patient stands on one leg (holding onto an object if needed to avoid falling) for up to 30 seconds. If the pelvis drops on the contralateral side (the side not bearing weight), it indicates weakness in the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles, according to peer-reviewed studies.

In many cases, physical therapy sessions may be needed to properly strengthen the muscles and help with flexibility, an expert said. (iStock)

Some patients may complain that they don’t feel their gluteal muscles contract strongly when performing glute-targeted exercises, such as a bridge, physical therapists noted.

“If you’re doing glute exercises and can’t feel your glutes, it’s worth consulting with a physical therapist to determine why you’re experiencing difficulty accessing these muscles,” Pagliano told Fox News Digital. 

Recommended treatment

Treatments for gluteal amnesia may include therapies to help alleviate pain and tightness, such as moist heat, electrical stimulation, ultrasound and ice, Farrell noted.

“Once symptoms lessen, exercises [are performed] to strengthen the abductors and glutes, such as squats, side clamshells and side leg lifts, as well as stretching for the hip flexors, ITB band and piriformis,” he said. 

“Once we can resolve the acute issue, the take-home message is to get up and move around every once in a while.”

Using a standing desk is one way to help prevent dead butt syndrome, experts advised. (iStock)

In many cases, physical therapy sessions may be needed to strengthen the muscles and increase flexibility, according to Pagliano.

Targeted exercises that optimize core strength and muscle balance can also help to prevent and reverse dead butt syndrome, she said.

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Lifestyle changes, such as using a standing desk and setting a timer to remind you to get up from your chair and move around, can also help, Amitay advised.

Several physical therapists recommended getting up every 30 minutes and walking around for a minute or two to help mitigate the negative effects of sitting for too long. 

“Once symptoms lessen, exercises [are performed] to strengthen the abductors and glutes, such as squats, side clamshells and side leg lifts, as well as stretching for the hip flexors, ITB band and piriformis,” a physical therapist said.  (iStock)

Standing during phone calls and taking walks during lunch hours can also help decrease the amount of time spent sitting, they advised.

Following a general exercise routine that incorporates stretching, strengthening and cardio workouts is also widely recommended.

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Those who are experiencing symptoms of dead butt syndrome should contact a physical therapist or physician who specializes in musculoskeletal injuries.

The pandemic’s negative effects on kids and teens — academically, socially and otherwise — have been shown in numerous studies, and now the latest long-term effect appears to be accelerated aging of young brains.

A team of researchers at the University of Washington studied 160 teens between the ages of 9 and 17. They had gathered data in 2018 for a different study on changes in brain structure during adolescence, but the COVID pandemic interrupted that research.

“Once the pandemic was underway, we started to think about which brain measures would allow us to estimate what the pandemic lockdown had done to the brain,” lead author Neva Corrigan, Ph.D., a research scientist at the University of Washington, said in a press release. 

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“What did it mean for our teens to be at home rather than in their social groups — not at school, not playing sports, not hanging out?”

The researchers found that the pandemic caused teenage brains to age faster than normal.

“The lifestyle changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns appear to have affected brain development during adolescence, causing the brain to mature much faster than is typical,” Corrigan told Fox News Digital via email.

“This accelerated maturation was more widespread throughout the brain, and larger in magnitude, for females as compared to males.”

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On average, the young females’ brains aged 4.2 years faster than normal, and male brains were accelerated by 1.4 years.

Thirty regions in the female brain showed accelerated aging, compared to only two regions in the male brain, researchers found.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Sept. 9.

The researchers found that the pandemic caused teenage brains to age faster than normal. (iStock)

The researchers believe that the accelerated brain aging was due to the stress associated with the restrictive measures taken to curb COVID’s spread, Corrigan said.

“Accelerated development of the cerebral cortex during development has been well-established by previous research to be associated with chronic stress,” she noted.

Recommendations to parents

This study highlights the fact that teenagers’ brains are highly vulnerable to stressors in their environment, according to Corrigan. 

“We recommend that parents of children who were teens during the pandemic stay connected to their teens, and also look out for signs of depression and anxiety, as accelerated cortical thinning increases the risk of developing these and other neuropsychiatric disorders,” she advised. 

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“We also think parents should be aware that their teens’ social lives are very important to their brain development, and [they should] encourage healthy activities with peers.”

While these findings “seem alarming,” Corrigan said, it’s not known whether the accelerated aging will have long-term effects on continued brain development throughout the teens’ lives. 

“It is not clear whether the cerebral cortex of these teens that showed accelerated maturation will return to a thickness that is more appropriate for their age with time, or whether these effects are permanent,” she told Fox News Digital.

It’s not known whether the accelerated aging will have long-term effects on continued brain development throughout the teens’ lives, a researcher noted. (iStock)

She also pointed out that “cortical thinning” is a natural process in aging and can actually allow the brain to function more efficiently. 

“It is not clear that all the consequences of accelerated maturation are negative,” Corrigan added.

Potential limitations

The researchers acknowledged several limitations of the study, the first being its smaller sample size.

“Although we collected data from 160 teens prior to the lockdowns, and 130 teens after the lockdowns ended, larger samples are always better when conducting research,” Corrigan told Fox News Digital.

“What did it mean for our teens to be at home rather than in their social groups — not at school, not playing sports, not hanging out?”

“Also, since the study was not initially designed for the effects of the COVID pandemic, we did not collect the type of behavioral measures that would have allowed us to determine what exact lifestyle disruptions or stressors associated with the lockdowns might have been the greatest contributors to the stress experienced by the teens,” she said.

The researchers also only studied a limited age range, so they couldn’t determine whether the findings apply to other ages. 

On average, the young females’ brains aged 4.2 years faster than normal, and male brains were accelerated by 1.4 years. (iStock)

“Finally, we do not know whether contraction of the COVID-19 virus itself may have contributed to these findings, although in the community from which our study sample was derived, we found no reports of a sex disparity in the contraction of the virus,” Corrigan said. 

‘Downrange effects’

Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurologist, was not involved in the study, but commented on the “detrimental consequences” of pandemic-related stress for teens.

“We recommend that parents of children who were teens during the pandemic stay connected to their teens, and also look out for signs of depression and anxiety,” a researcher said. (iStock)

“High levels of stress, often associated with elevated cortisol, can wreak havoc on the brain,” he told Fox News Digital.

Cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, is typically released by the adrenal glands during acute stress, Osborn explained, but it can become harmful when present at high levels for prolonged periods.

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“This chronic elevation is particularly damaging to brain structures like the hippocampus (the region associated with memory) and the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-level cognitive functions like decision-making and social behavior.”

“While the pandemic is over, this is not the end.”

Long-term exposure to high cortisol levels can negatively impact memory, emotional regulation, impulse control, focus and concentration, according to Osborn.

“Over time, these changes may predispose individuals to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, which are already known to be exacerbated by high cortisol levels,” he added.

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Overall, Osborn said, the study sheds light on “yet another downrange effect” of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The doctor added, “While the pandemic is over, this is not the end.”

Ironically, it was a notification on his phone that prompted author and podcaster Carlos Whittaker to embark on a seven-week screen-free journey that would change his life. 

Whittaker, who lives in Nashville on a “suburban farm” with his wife, three children and dog, knew he used his phone a lot, but didn’t consider it a problem until he sat down and did the math.

After getting an alert that he had averaged seven hours and 23 minutes of daily phone time that particular week, Whittaker realized that if he lived to be 85, he would spend more than a decade of his remaining life on the device.

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In the summer of 2022, Whittaker embarked on a seven-week journey across the United States, navigating his life without the use of any screens.

He documented the mission in his latest book, “Reconnected: How Seven Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human,” which was published on Sept. 10.

“That’s exactly what I did,” Whittaker told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “I lived with these monks and the Amish, and it absolutely changed my life.” 

The author spent two weeks at a monastery, two weeks with the Amish and three weeks with his family, living entirely without screens.

“I lived with these monks and the Amish, and it absolutely changed my life.” 

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Before and after the experiment, Whittaker’s brain was scanned and analyzed by neurologists – and he details those results in his book. 

Whittaker, who described himself as an evangelical Christian, was connected to St. Andrew’s Abbey – a Catholic, Benedictine monastery in California – which allowed him to stay in a guest cabin for the first part of his journey. 

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Digital detox

Whittaker almost quit the experiment at the very beginning. 

“When you can’t get out of your head by picking up your phone and scrolling TikTok or X or whatever it is, and you’re stuck in your own thoughts – that’s something we’re not used to, and I definitely wasn’t used to it,” he said. 

This sudden digital detox led to “four days of panic,” he said, as he experienced “panic attacks, night sweats, heart palpitations [and] jitters.” 

Whittaker said he nearly quit his experiment right as it began, finding the sudden lack of a smartphone to be physically taxing. (iStock; Carlos Whittaker)

Not having his phone felt like “coming off the drug of knowledge and the drug of control,” Whittaker said. 

But on day five of the experiment, something changed. 

“It literally felt like an elephant stepped off my chest and I could breathe again,” he said. “And I got it. But those first four days were the crazy days.”

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In the book, Whittaker writes about how he initially felt uncomfortable living among Benedictine monks and found their prayer routine to be “boring.” (Benedictine monks pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a daily prayer, at different times throughout the day.)

“I’ll be blatantly honest, the first two days, I was bored out of my mind,” he said. “We were praying five or six times a day.”

“When you lower the volume of life, the volume of God goes up.”

But eventually, he said, “I got it,” adding that he has kept up the practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours even after leaving the monastery.

“I missed it so much. It created a rhythm in my day,” he said. “It gave some stability to some parts of my faith that maybe were unstable.”

Whittaker lived among the Benedictine monks at St. Andrew’s Abbey in California for two weeks, joining them for daily prayer and Mass.  (Bryan Chan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“What I learned from the monks is that every day, I had multiple opportunities to lower the volume of life and slow down — and when you lower the volume of life, the volume of God goes up,” he said. 

After his time at the monastery, Whittaker moved to the Midwest and lived for two weeks with an Amish family. (The Amish are a religious group that eschews most modern technology.)

Getting permission to live among the Amish, however, was more challenging. Whittaker was rejected by many people he contacted, as they were wary of an outsider temporarily joining their community.

Whittaker spent two weeks living with an Amish family as part of his screen-free experiment.  (iStock)

“We finally ended up with a sheep-farming family that was like, ‘Absolutely, come on in,’” he said. “And they helped me become as Amish as I could in 14 days.” 

Throughout his seven screen-free weeks, Whittaker journaled and recorded videos each night on a small, screen-free camera. 

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Those videos will be compiled into a documentary, also called “Reconnected,” that will be released on Oct. 25, he said.

New habits

While Whittaker has largely returned to life as it was before his experiment – including the use of a smartphone – he has made changes that he says have improved his life. 

“This book isn’t about how bad phones are. This book is about how beautiful it is on the other side of the phone,” he told Fox News Digital. 

“This book isn’t about how bad phones are. This book is about how beautiful it is on the other side of the phone.”

“Instead of setting up all these rules and restrictions for my screen time, once I fell in love with wondering, with noticing, with savoring, with 90-minute meals – with all of these things I was doing without my phone, I just picked up my phone less.”

Today, Whittaker uses his phone about 3-½ hours a day, four hours less than before the experiment.

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“I’ve legitimately added half of my life back, half of the years back that I was losing before.” 

4 tips to cut down on screen time

Whittaker offered a few tips for those who want to limit their daily screen time.

1. Charge your phone outside the bedroom 

“The first thing everyone needs to do is stop charging your phone in the bedroom and start charging it in another room,” he said. 

“Buy an alarm clock. I know it’s the craziest, most old-fashioned thing, but all it’s going to do is wake you up.” 

One of Whittaker’s suggestions to cut down on screen time is to buy an alarm clock.  (iStock)

2. Don’t pick up your phone right away

People should avoid looking at their phones for “at least 30 minutes in the morning,” Whittaker suggested.

“Just drink your coffee. When you’re just drinking the coffee, [it] tastes so much better. You get to savor it,” he said. 

3. Subscribe to print media

Whittaker subscribes to a newspaper rather than relying on the constant buzz of a smartphone app. 

4. Use the ‘do not disturb’ feature

“I’ve actually placed my smartphone in permanent ‘do not disturb,’ so I never get a ‘ding,’” he told Fox News Digital. 

Whittaker said his smartphone is permanently on “do not disturb” for everyone except his family and his assistant.  (iStock)

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Whittaker has set up his phone so that only his assistant and family can immediately reach him.

“I never get a buzz. I never get a notification,” he said.