Sisters-in-Service

Your Bottom Is Connected to Your Brain: The Surprising Science of Sitting Disease

• Cat Corchado • Episode 193

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Want to be a guest or know someone would be a great fit? I am looking for military vets, active duty, military brats, veteran service orgs or anyone in the fitness industry

Your body is speaking, but are you listening? That burning sensation in your lower back, the numbness in your legs, and the constant shifting in your chair aren't random discomforts—they're urgent messages from a body designed for movement, not prolonged sitting.

As a movement specialist, I've seen how our sedentary lifestyle creates a cascade of health problems that most people don't recognize until significant damage has occurred. We've normalized discomfort to the point where we accept pain and stiffness as inevitable parts of aging rather than symptoms of our increasingly stationary habits. The reality? Sitting compresses your entire spine, weakens crucial muscles, and—perhaps most surprisingly—impairs your cognitive function through what I call the "brain-bottom connection." When your bottom goes numb from sitting too long, your brain literally can't perform at its best.

The military understood this connection years ago, implementing mandatory movement breaks every 50 minutes during long training sessions—a practice supported by modern research showing how movement acts as a reset button for both body and mind. Have you ever worked on an email for hours, only to stand up briefly and suddenly notice all the typos you missed? That's your brain waking up after being dulled by prolonged sitting. Even more alarming is "gluteal amnesia" (or "dead butt syndrome"), where your glute muscles literally forget how to function properly, creating a domino effect of compensation patterns throughout your body.

Breaking free from sitting disease doesn't require dramatic lifestyle changes—just consistent attention to movement breaks throughout your day. Set a timer, stand up every 50 minutes, and give your body the reset it's desperately signaling for. Whether it's a quick stretch, a walk down the hallway, or dancing to your favorite song, any movement counts. Your future self, free from preventable pain and limitation, will thank you. Ready to feel what your body is truly capable of? Join us for a free week at Small Space Pilates or sign up for our 11-minute challenge—because everyone deserves to feel good in their body, and movement is how we get there.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Sisters in Service podcast. Most of you know me as a strong advocate for women veterans in being recognized not only as veterans but also as women who are changing the world through our passion of serving even after service. This podcast is my passion by telling all the stories of military brats, military spouses, active duty and veterans, not to forget the veteran service organizations that help us along our transition journey. I want to thank you in advance for listening. I hope that you will join me. Every week, a new podcast and episode comes out every Tuesday, so I hope that you will join and I hope that you enjoy. This podcast is brought to you by Small Space Pilates. Are you ready to get fit and fabulous from the comfort of your own home? Look no further than Small Space Pilates. With live online Pilates and strength training classes, a video library and a-allowed policy, you can achieve your fitness goals without ever leaving your house. Click on the link for your complimentary week and start your journey to feeling fabulous today. Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of why Not? Wellness. You know me, I'm Kat Corchato. I'm sorry, I'm the freaking fabulous Cat Corchado, and today we're going to be talking about something we all do all the time, but it's increasingly becoming more apparent how bad it is for our body sitting. We sit way too much, way way too much. So sitting is one of those things that you have to do. I mean, you can't stand up all the time and even though it's a functional movement a squat is a functional movement you have to squat to sit and you have to squat to stand up. A lot of people have a difficult time with it. So let's talk a little bit about the impact of prolonged sitting on our health. So think about it. If you pretend like you're at a conference, you've been at a conference and you're sitting and at first it's good, you know. You're like, oh, the seat feels good. Now, all of a sudden, you start shifting side to side. You're shifting from one side to the other, you're moving, you're stretching. You're like, oh, the seat feels good. And all of a sudden, you start shifting side to side. You're shifting from one side to the other. You're moving, you're stretching, you're bending over, because your body is starting to talk to you. Your body's saying excuse me, haven't we been sitting just a tad too long? But what do we do? We stay there and then, after the segment, we get up and everything just does not feel good at all. And so our body talks to us all the time, but we ignore it all the time.

Speaker 1:

Think about rounded shoulders, which is one thing from sitting in a computer, we all kind of just slunch down. Slunch, that's not a word, scrunch down I'm not sure that's a word either, but I'm using it. But there was a time when you would go there and your body goes oh no, we want to sit up a little more. And you did. And then you slouched down. Then your body goes nope, let me go back to sitting up. And eventually your body just says okay, this is the new normal. Now you're trying to sit up tall and your body goes nope, this is normal. Now we have to train our body of what is normal for us.

Speaker 1:

So one of the things that I learned way back in the military and the military was very smart in implementing this, although I didn't know how important it was at the time If we were going to be in a seminar or some kind of mandatory briefing for any more than an hour let's say it's eight hours Every 50 minutes we would get up, go to the bathroom, get some water, come back Every 50 minutes and you're going. That's a lot. Yes, you know why. I had a supervisor who said that sitting makes you stupid, and what he meant by that is sitting. There's a direct connection between your bottom and your brain. If your bottom goes numb, guess what happens to your brain. Here's another example. Have you ever been sitting? Let's, I'm going to take an email, for instance, because this happens to me all the time. You're working on this email, you think you have it perfect. You get up and you go get water, you go to the bathroom or something. You come back and you notice all the typos in your email. Has it happened to you Numerous times? To me, and it's when you get up. It's almost like a reset for your body and for your brain. So it's important for me to talk about this every few episodes, because I think it's so important.

Speaker 1:

Now they talk about prolonged sitting. How long is sitting too long? Well, the general consensus is that you know, or many health experts talk about getting up and moving around every few minutes, every half an hour to an hour. I think every half an hour is excessive, but that 50 minutes, you know, till the hour of getting up, going to do what you need to do and coming back, I think, is something doable for all of us. So what are the risks of sitting too long? They call it the sitting disease.

Speaker 1:

Ok, well, for one thing, sitting too long compresses everything. So if I'm sitting up, when I first start and then my shoulders start to round, there's my upper, back and shoulders. Now everything in my spine, from the top to the bottom, is being compressed, all the way to the tailbone. Everything's sinking down, and not in a good way. So think about doing that over and over and over again, every day, every week, every month of every year. And then we sit there and go wow, my back doesn't feel good. Yeah, but it's our lifestyle, that's what we do. We're all working from home and it's one of those things that it has to be top of mind for you to get up. We all have one of these what are these called? Iphone or an Android or whatever phone. You have Put a timer on it Whenever you start, say 50 minutes reminder, get up and move, and do that every hour.

Speaker 1:

So it's hard for us to move around, but it's even harder. I'm sorry. It's hard for us to sit. Still, I can't sit for an extended amount of time. It's too hard for me because I'm a movement specialist. So what do I want to do? I want to get up and move.

Speaker 1:

But what about those people that are sedentary, that they just sit and they don't work out and they don't move their body? Now you're sitting for extended amounts of time. Now your body feels even worse than it did before. Have you ever heard of a syndrome called dead butt syndrome? It's a real deal. You go, it's a real deal. It's a real thing. I know, I didn't know it either. It's actually called gluteal amnesia is the real name for it where your muscles just forget what to do.

Speaker 1:

Think about it this way your bottom helps to support your back. If you have a strong bottom, you have a strong back, especially when in connection with your abdominals. But if you have no glutes, you can't walk. Standing is all upper body. You need help standing because your glutes help keep you standing up. Think about that for a second. You can't get out of the car. You can't sit down in the car. You can't sit at a regular desk. It sounds funny, but it's very, very serious.

Speaker 1:

So what do we do? Sitting too long can increase obesity, heart disease, diabetes, blah, blah, blah you guys have heard me say this over and over again not to mention poor posture and musculoskeletal problems, back pain, repetitive stress, injuries. Here we go. You guys have heard me talk about this. So now we have to keep it front of mind. I think that's the problem. We sit and we're trying to figure out something and we end up sitting for four or five hours and then we go to get up and wonder why our body feels awful. Have you ever been on a long car drive somewhere and you stop for a potty break, so to speak, and you try to get off the car and your body goes. Where are you going? We've been sitting here for this long. Why do you think you want to get up now? We have to keep it front of mind. So how do we do that?

Speaker 1:

Make a list of something that you could do when you stand up. Maybe it's just some stretches laying on your back on the floor, maybe it's just moving around. Sometimes just moving around normal getting up and moving can be good for your body. What about oh, here's an interesting tidbit of information working out, how about getting your body strong enough to where you can feel your body fighting you against sitting too long. Movement is one of the best things that you can do. Maybe you want to get up, put on a playlist of some music and you just start dancing your little heart out. Does that count? Yes, it does.

Speaker 1:

Walking around the condo I have very long hallways in my condo. I might do five or 10 minutes just walking up and down the hallways. Does that help? Yes, it does. So I want to encourage you to take action. First of all, keep it front of mind. When I sit down in my chair, I'm thinking how long can I sit and if I know I'm going to be here for a while, because sometimes we get stuck on something, I make sure I have a timer, okay, and then I get up and I reset. Remember the reset's great for your brain and your body. Movement is good for your brain and your body. Wait, you see where I'm going with this Movement. Just movement is good for your body, it's good for your brain, it's good for your entire health.

Speaker 1:

So when we talk about these risks of sitting, I haven't told you anything that you don't know. You guys know this, you've heard this, you've read this, you're on social media, I know you are and you've seen all of these why sitting is bad for you. Sitting is the new smoking, I tend to think, as bad as smoking was and is. I think sitting's worse because it affects everything in your body. Smoking your lungs okay, we need those to breathe, but sitting is something that's preventable. They're both are, by the way, they're both preventable, but're both are, by the way, they're both preventable. But we have to put it in place of what we're gonna do when we've been sitting too long.

Speaker 1:

So, as a movement specialist, it's important for me to put this information out there, thinking about all the health issues from sitting too long, all the things our body can't do. And when our body does hurt, what do we do? We go to the doctor, as you should, but then your doctor says well, you know if you started moving. And we kind of roll our eyes and go, blah, blah, blah. I hear you. He slash she, whomever it is, male or female, is right. A little bit of movement does wonders for your body. You guys have heard me say over and over again everyone has the right to feel good in their body. The problem is we have been feeling bad for so long. We think that's normal. Oh, that's due to age? Oh, my knee's hurting. Oh my hip? Oh, I must be getting older? Not necessarily. Your body wants to move. It needs to move Right.

Speaker 1:

So if you're looking to move, there's one of two things you can do. You can come and join us for a free week at smallspacepilatescom. Come see what we do, come see the types of things that I have in mind for you, and understand that I show all kinds of modifications for as many people, or as many as I can, so that you can pick one and feel good with it. The other is the 11 minute challenges coming up in May, and you can go to my website, smallspaceplatescom, and sign up for it. All it costs you is your email. That's it 11 minutes. Okay, please start moving, even if you're not part of Small Space Pilates. Just start something, start somewhere. Doing something is better than doing nothing. No-transcript.