Do any of the proverbial old wives’ tales actually work?
You may have clicked on this, thinking you don’t have a tight arse at all, but actually, the glutes are one of the most common places that we store our tension. It’s a lot more common in women than in men, so if you’re female, your chances of being tight-arsed are a lot higher!
The thing about our butt-muscles, is that practically every single movement we make needs their participation. On one hand, they’re getting good use, right?. Butt on the other hand (pun intended,) when we sit for long periods of time, these muscles end up in a state of continuous tension. The very annoying and unfortunate result of todays society, is that it requires millions of people to be sat at work desks for long hours.
Sitting on our glutes
These long and regular hours spent sitting, cause all sorts of muscular imbalances. Considering we sit ON the muscles in question, it’s not surprising we’re creating all this trouble. Often, people have no idea that their tightly-strung glutes are the cause of seemingly unrelated problems. One of the symptoms of too much tightness in the gluteal region is shortness of breath. This occurs because the diaphragm muscle (under the lungs) is not free to descend into the body when our glutes are clenched. If your gluteal region happens to be even slightly tense, you are unknowingly preventing your body from breathing properly.
Stretch our your glutes!
Another symptom of a tight-arse is lower back, leg, and/or hip stiffness and pain. This pain can really be felt after a workout, leaving us with a pretty sore arse. The best way to deal with this is to stretch it out. Stretching out over-tight muscles, especially the glutes, can be a painful business. Using deep-breathing and visualisation techniques can help us stay relaxed, and will give us an overall better stretch and outcome.
Massage is also an effective option to help relax your glutes, though stretching yourself first will make all the difference. It’s also impractical to get a butt-massage every time you get sore, whereas stretching is always readily available, you just have to do it. A recommended place to start, is with this awesomely and easy-to-follow stretch which requires only two things: A clean, comfortable floor, and a wall.
This YouTube video posted by popular channel UprightHealth, shows Matt Hsu (personal trainer) demonstrating a simple stretch to get at your glutes in a way other stretches don’t. I feel pretty confident you probably haven’t tried this one out yet, and I guarantee your butt will never feel the same. As their company motto goes: “Pain sucks, life shouldn’t”.
Sources: Live Strong, Huffington Post
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