Sitting for long hours at work can cause buttocks pain end be very tiring and stressful, more so if you’re starting to develop a painful butt. Your buttocks, consisting of the glutes or gluteal muscles, can become tight from too much sitting and painful because of excessive pressure from your seat. Although this may seem to be frequent in office workers, an ordinary person and an athlete alike can also develop the symptoms from direct trauma to the gluteal region or overuse in athletics performance.
Myofascial pain in the butt
If you sit at a desk all day, your glutes become inactive, tight, and weak because of restricted blood flow, which can lead to hip and lower back pain, sciatica pain, and even a butt pain. Buttock pain can be of a myofascial origin, where myofascial trigger points, or knots, are formed from excessive use of the muscles that involve hip extension, such as in activities that require a lot of jumping, lunging, and squatting. The piriformis and gluteus medius muscles are most commonly prone to develop these stubborn trigger points of myofascial pain syndrome.
What happen when you tear a muscle
The process occurs when microscopic tears start to form in the muscle fibers. Your body then begins an inflammatory response with swelling and localized pain, and as the muscles go through repetitive stress, larger tears will start to develop with more inflammation. Your body will attempt to fix the damages by filling in these gaps with newly formed muscle tissues of a disorganized pattern.
Scar tissue a collection of cells and collagen
Scar tissues will start to build up layer by layer until forming compact adhesions, known as taut bands, and within these tight fibers are the trigger points or the muscle knots. These will restrict movements, causing tightness and pain. The same thing happens when engaging in sports and sustaining a muscle injury. Muscle tears are repaired by the formation of scar tissues and muscle knots in the taut bands around the injured area, causing the affected muscle to shorten. These tiny spots of adhesions are fixed in a contracted state, contributing to the tensed nature of the muscle.
Pelvic instability from muscle imbalance and alignment issues, lower back injuries, and overuse of the gluteal muscles can also result in the formation of excessive tight bands and myofascial trigger points, and this may also lead to soft tissue and muscle shortening, resulting in myofascial pain in the buttock muscles.
More on dead-buttocks syndrome…
When you sit for a prolonged period, your very powerful gluteal muscles may fail to fire properly when needed, and may literally fall asleep — thus, the term “dead butt.” Others call it as gluteal amnesia, where the inflamed gluteus medius forget to activate when it’s supposed to be working. The condition is clinically described as gluteus medius tendinopathy. Various explanations have been proposed about this condition with the gluteal muscles not working or firing properly, and the only plausible interpretation would be of that of a neuromuscular mechanism – the gluteal inhibition.
In sitting, the sustained flexed posture can shut down your glutes function through the process known as reciprocal inhibition, in this case, termed as “gluteal inhibition.” This refers to the inhibition or delayed activation of the gluteal muscles, leading to weakness and occurs when your hip flexors become tight due to prolonged sitting, which then creates lengthening of the opposing muscle, your gluteal muscles. If the compressive pressure is not withdrawn for too long, your glutes will become desensitized, weak, and left immobile. Gluteal inhibition can adversely affect performance and lower body strength and can be a cause of chronic low back pain.
Ease off that gluteal pain with sports massage
Athletes most often rely on sports massage as their go-to treatment for many muscular or myofascial pain. Many beneficial effects have been reported, including both physical and psychological. Depending on the technique used, the following are some of the benefits of sports massage:
- Enhanced muscle relaxation by reducing work-related muscle tension
- Reduced spasms, pain, and discomfort
- Increased joint range of motion and muscle flexibility
- Promote muscular recovery following any workouts or training
- Improved blood flow to the injured body part to promote fast tissue healing
- Decreased or increased neurological excitability of the nerves (depending on the type of manual technique)
- Relieved physical and emotional stress
Sports massage technique for buttocks pain
Massaggi.co.uk specializes in the most relevant massage techniques that can help you out with your buttocks pain. While offering various forms of therapeutic massage, it also offers sports massage and deep tissue massage that can both address the gluteal myofascial pain syndrome and the dead butt syndrome. An athlete can avail of their massage treatment as a pre-workout massage to warm up the muscles and relieve any tension before engaging in strenuous activities, or as a post-workout treatment of muscle soreness for faster muscle recovery.
Sports massage can help ease out and loosen taut bands of muscles, as well as break the knots that are causing the butt pain and muscular imbalances through myofascial release and trigger point massage. By loosening taut tissues, a sports massage can alleviate pain from the compacted fascia, while facilitating movement in the shortened muscles. A sports massage along with a comprehensive stretching routine can work on realigning the newly formed muscle fibers, which really eases off the pain in these problem areas.
How massage can help dead buttocks
Dead Butt massage can be a great way to activate the “switchedoff” muscles by utilizing a specialized technique that stimulates the nerves that supply the gluteal muscles. Also, increased blood flow to the area can address the inflammatory condition and facilitate soft tissue healing of the injured fibers.
For all your massage needs, whether you need a butt massage for a dead-butt syndrome or a myofascial release for your myofascial pain, Massaggi can provide you not just a massage experience but a stress-relieving rubdown that also delivers targeted therapeutic results.
How to relieve buttocks pain: 2 Exercise to try
Glutes pain or buttocks pain can be treated by performing a series of simple exercises to strengthen the muscles and joints that are located around the butt and thighs. Many of these exercises will also help to release the tightness and stiffness that are often associated with glutes pain. These exercises can be done while you are sitting, standing, or even while lying down. However, if the pain is particularly severe, it may be necessary to perform these exercises in order to address your problem.
The first exercise that you should perform for acute pain is the bent-knee raise. Begin by laying on your stomach on the floor. Take one leg and put it under your opposite elbow, then raise your other leg up so that it is parallel with the ground. Now you must bend over at the knees. Make sure that you keep your lower back straight. Keep doing this exercise and try to do thirty repetitions per leg before moving onto the next leg. This is the best and most efficient way to strengthen the gluteus medius.
The second exercise for acute pain is the single-leg hip extension. Begin by lying on your back on the floor with your forearms flat against the floor. Now you must bring your right foot forward to the position where it is parallel with the floor. Hold this position for one count and repeat the process with the left leg.
