Health
How to avoid getting 'office chair butt' from prolonged sitting at work
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Office workers have something new to worry about, according to a warning that’s gone viral on social media.
“Office chair butt” is trending as a side effect of sitting for too many hours, leaving the appearance of a flatter behind.
Alissa Mosca, a certified fitness trainer with Planet Fitness in New York, confirmed that “office chair butt” refers to muscle loss due to sitting stagnant in one position and not activating the muscles in the posterior chain (along the back of the body).
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To combat this, Mosca recommends performing the following simple exercises throughout the day to stimulate muscle activation in the glutes, hamstrings and quads.
“Office chair butt” can occur with prolonged sitting and lack of muscle movement, experts warn. (iStock)
- Air squats (using only body weight, squat down and then return to a standing position)
- Lunges (step forward or backward until the knee is bent at a 90-degree angle with the back straight)
- Good mornings (bend forward at the hips with a straight back, then return to an upright position)
- Bulgarian split squats (perform a lunge forward while the back foot is elevated on a bench or platform behind you)
“These four exercises require no equipment and can even be done from the office chair,” she added.
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“It’s important to not only focus on strength training exercises that activate the glutes, which are being sat on all day, but the surrounding muscles as well, which is what adds support to the whole posterior chain,” Mosca said.
She encourages office workers to incorporate some type of movement every time they get up from their seat — ideally picking one of the four movements above and performing 12 to 15 reps, two to three times.
“Once that becomes more of a routine, try setting a timer to do this every 45 minutes to an hour,” the trainer suggested.
A trainer recommends that office workers stand up every hour to stretch and work the muscles. (iStock)
Incorporating these exercises into a gym routine is also a great way to prevent muscle loss, according to Mosca.
This might include a circuit with kettlebell swings, Smith machine squats (performed on a machine with a fixed barbell), hip thrusts and walking on an incline.
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Jonathan Puleio, a board-certified professional ergonomist and global vice president at Humanscale – a New York City consulting practice focused on corporate ergonomics – also spoke about “office chair butt.”
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“Not only are the muscle groups atrophying and weakening, but there’s also a buildup of fat tissue, which has a very different consistency and density than muscle,” he told Fox News Digital. “That’s why … the shape of the tissue appears much flatter — and even saggy, in some scenarios.”
Office chairs with more supportive mechanisms or standing desks are great swaps for promoting better posture and movement, experts advise. (iStock)
Puleio agreed that muscle atrophy can be supported by movement and posture shifts, but noted that chair design also plays a big role.
“Any chair design that can promote movement and support postural shifts regularly throughout the day can certainly combat issues like this,” the expert said.
Sitting in a chair that supports movement, such as one with a self-adjusting recline mechanism, can help prevent this condition, according to Puleio.
“The recline tension is based on the user’s body weight,” he said. “This removes the barriers to movement that we typically see on traditionally designed chairs.”
Simply walking is a great exercise to strengthen muscles during the workday, experts say. (iStock)
Puleio also recommends using sit-to-stand workstations and performing some tasks while standing, such as taking a phone call on your feet.
“Taking micro-breaks, stepping away from your work, going to get a glass of water, taking a lap around the office, going outside and taking a quick walk – these are all great ways to combat this particular issue,” he said.
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The expert also urges employers to take their employees’ comfort seriously and to take steps to ensure healthy workplace ergonomics.
“Discomfort is the precursor to pain and injury,” he warned, noting that injuries can be “costly and debilitating.”
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
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After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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