This is not medical advice.
I just returned from a long spring break driving trip. As much as I tried not to think about “work,” I’m still fascinated by the structures of the human body and will day dream about it’s function and correlations during mindless activities like long drives, and showers.
While I spent 8 hour days sitting and/or driving, I started practicing what I preach, by flexing my buttocks. I don’t think my family members noticed, otherwise I would have been mocked mercilessly.
But who cares? I’m the father, and that ship has sailed. I’m the butt of most jokes about being forgetful or spacy anyways.
What I did want to alleviate was lower back and butt pain.
It’s not surprising that our lower back and hips hurt when we have to sit on these structures for hours at a time.
So as I’m driving, I’m thinking about these considerations.
Most people fail to appreciate all the things we do without pain. Let’s say for the sake of argument that our upper body weighs at least 100 pounds. We are placing a 100 pound weight on the ball of the hip, on top of the sciatic nerve, and then on top of our buttocks.
When we were kids, our hands went numb after sitting on them for 5 minutes. And as kids we recover quickly from everything. So what made us think that 100 pounds on our sciatic nerves for 2 hours would be ok?
The Cure
The cure for me, was not just to start flexing the buttocks every 15 minutes, but holding that contraction for a couple minutes.
Many times in therapy we give you “glute sets”, which I hate to babysit. Those are done while you are lying flat, with little resistance. Many of our patients are unable to flex the buttocks. It’s from a loss of motor control, and a lack of usage.
Or we give you a little wimpy rubber band and pretend this is going to make you stronger. In some cases this works, on joints that have poor leverage, such as the shoulder.
The buttocks are a different story. They are a large muscle, built for elevating us from chairs (lifting body weight of at least 100 pounds) and propelling that mass forward (walking).
If you contract your buttocks for 2 minutes while sitting, you are resisting a 100 pound force against gravity. Now we are getting somewhere.
And when you contract the buttocks, you are lessening compression on the sciatic nerve.
Not just for the car
This can also be done when sitting at work all day, or sitting on the couch watching TV.
It can also apply to vanity. Many people want nicer looking buttocks. They won’t look nice on their own. You have to flex them.
I just tried it. I'll have to put a note on my computer screen and the dashboard to remember.
Glad you had a nice trip, and a safe, happy return!
Your post about finding physical relief while driving really resonates with me. Since I started working out everyday, I get really cramped up when I have to sit still for hours. This hadn't happened to me prior to my working out (I used to be able to do a marathon 10 hour drive with basically no stopping), so that's why I attribute it largely to that lifestyle change.
When I started making 10 hour trips to my in-laws, my glutes were on fire. I began to dread the trip. But two activities helped me greatly. The first is in-car exercising at periodic intervals throughout the trip. My routine includes doing glute flexing and ankle pumps, engaging my core and isometric presses against the steering wheel. This in addition to taking more rest stops, where I can get out, stretch and do some quick plyometric sets, has been a game changing experience.