Sit Bone Pain

Knitapair · Mar 5, 2013

I'm going on my 3rd year of serious riding and have yet to find a comfortable seat. I've had a professional fitting and have put several thousand miles on several different seats but each year i seem to be more sensitive and become unbearably uncomfortable quicker as the season progresses. Getting out of the saddle every 15 or 20 minutes helps but after an hour to an hour and a half I have to stop.

Other than trying different seats, what other things could I try? Are there treatments i could do to relieve the pain between rides so i don't start the next day already sore? at this point I basically can't sit on anything for very long (i.e. watching a movie) without a break.

thanks.

fatoni · Mar 5, 2013

not really the solution you were looking for, but ive gone through a couple seats myself but the selle smp extra kinda did it for me. its a really heavy seat but they have lighter options. i feel that being comfortable saves me more time than the extra two hundred grams. also, it has tons of adjustability with its super long seat rails which i found lacking on my previous selle italia slr seat.

FTR · Mar 5, 2013

I would look at seat height, seat angle and seat setback.

Allthunbs · Mar 5, 2013

Your problem is quite simply, too light a body weight. You need to build up muscle under your butt joints. When I'm riding seriously, I lift free weights, typically doing squats and anything that will increase the mass of my glutes. Once you've got your butt built up your seat choices will be dramatically different. There are those that swear by the hard leather Brookes seats as being the most comfortable, once they're broken in.

FTR · Mar 5, 2013

Ummmm.......no.

Allthunbs · Mar 5, 2013

Judging by the picture under your handle, you don't need to. However, in my experience, it works and well. I used to ride to work every day and ran into problems with joint pain. The next winter of weight lifting and the spring-summer-autumn was pain-free.

xjbaylor · Mar 5, 2013

A more plausible reason for the success of your weight lifting routine is that while you were lifting weights, you were also riding more. Saddle time increases saddle comfort. You attributed the success to the lifting done in conjunction with your riding, but the truth is you were simply getting later in the season and more accustomed to your saddle.

woodys737 · Mar 5, 2013

Knitapair said:
I'm going on my 3rd year of serious riding and have yet to find a comfortable seat. I've had a professional fitting and have put several thousand miles on several different seats but each year i seem to be more sensitive and become unbearably uncomfortable quicker as the season progresses. Getting out of the saddle every 15 or 20 minutes helps but after an hour to an hour and a half I have to stop.

Other than trying different seats, what other things could I try? Are there treatments i could do to relieve the pain between rides so i don't start the next day already sore? at this point I basically can't sit on anything for very long (i.e. watching a movie) without a break.

thanks.

Many complain about this focusing on the saddle with out considering the chamois. Try a different short with a "nice/good quality" chamois before you go crazy with the saddle searching. i have a low end cham in a pair of bibs from an old team I rode for and can't ride 30 minutes w/o a lot of pain v. my current bibs where I can ride all day. Same saddle. JMO

winstonw · Mar 5, 2013

You could have anything from an inflamed ischial tuberosity, bursa, hamstring origin, or sciatic nerve; a cyst; periosteitis, referred low back pain from an inflammed lumbar disc or facet joint. Go see a sports physician or physical therapist who deals with cyclists.

wim · Mar 5, 2013

Knitapair said:
Other than trying different seats, what other things could I try?

I can't know without seeing you on the bike, but how the rider sits on the bike sometimes causes pain in the area of the so-called sit bones. The more upright the rider sits, the more weight is shifted onto the saddle. Having the handlebar too close (insufficient reach) causes a rider to tilt the pelvis back, which can cause such pain as well. Often, you can see both of those position faults if the rider is trying to get weight off the hands, wrists and arms in an attempt to be "comfortable." But as said, just a thought.

nOOky · Mar 5, 2013

Could you list the saddles you've tried and the shorts you wear while riding? And professional fittings many times aren't, learn the basics and how to adjust your seat, bars, and cleats yourself according to your riding style.

longhorn31 · Mar 5, 2013

I had a similar situation....diagnosed as piriformis syndrome. I stretch it every morning - do a google search, but my stretch is basically to lie on my back, put my left ankle on my right knee and pull my right knee toward my chest, do the other leg....a few reps of this each morning did the trick for me. I've also tried many saddles and settled on the Arione, but there is no one good saddle for every person. I also wear two pairs of shorts early in the season (actually one pair of bibs and a pair of shorts under them), and finally, I make sure to ride in the drops part of the time to distribute some weight off my sit bones and on to my hands....I shift positions a lot. Oh yeah.....watch out if you're riding a trainer....don't stay in the same position for too long....and watch out for gel saddles if you store your bike in a cold place....some gel can turn pretty hard when it's cold.

Knitapair · Mar 5, 2013

I can't remember the names of my saddles. I had a gray one, then a cobb that was not good to me at all. Now i'm on a Selle Italia that has been more manageable but still not quite right and i've tested a couple others, including some tri saddles.
I actually spend more of my time on the drops than on the hoods. I'm 5'11 with a 32ish inseam but I have a 77+" reach so unless I get some serious bend in the elbows my hoods have me sitting to high. (Yes i have flipped my stem to give me some more drop) I have to switch to the hoods periodically to relieve any numbness I get in my hands after a while.
The stretch you described is actually a common one for hurdlers (which I was for about 10 years) so I do that quite often. I also have a foam roll which I don't use often enough I'll admit. I picked up a solid pair of Bontrager bibs last year and I'm definitely better off wearing those but still not good to go for hours. During a work out or mobbing around town it's obviously easy to get off the saddle at intersections or takes breaks at a park. But i'd like to do some 50-100 mile races this year where I won't be taking a 5 minute butt break. Currently my longest annual event has been a 24 mile hill climb that I can do in under 2 hours. There's lots of chances to stand on the peddles through corners so it's doable but I still end the race in considerable pain.

blitzo · Mar 5, 2013

I had a similar problem no matter what I did I always had a slight pain in the sit bones. I switched my saddle to a Specialized Romin. Haven't had any pains at all.

Knitapair · Mar 5, 2013

The adjustments I've tried all seem to take pressure from one spot and just transfers it elsewhere. So if I nose up my soft tissues kill me. If I slide the seat forward to help out my junk, the pressure goes back on my sit bones. I can't seem to find that sweet spot.
My dad and I both claim to have particularly bony sit bones but having not examined the sit bones of anyone but my own I can't verify the veracity of that claim. There may be some merit in that less tissue could be the problem. When I was about 175-180 I wasn't having as big a problem even though I was new to the sport. the last couple years my competitive weight has been between 160 and 165 and it's been much worse. however, I only road about 100-150 miles a week back then vs the 200+ I ride now.

xjbaylor · Mar 6, 2013

Knitapair said:
The adjustments I've tried all seem to take pressure from one spot and just transfers it elsewhere. So if I nose up my soft tissues kill me. If I slide the seat forward to help out my junk, the pressure goes back on my sit bones. I can't seem to find that sweet spot.

If you are moving your saddle fore/aft to relieve your sit bones you are probably a good candidate for another fitting. Fore/aft saddle adjustments are important biomechanically, and really shouldn't be adjusted for saddle comfort. The two saddles that you mentioned by name are very narrow saddles. On a Selle Italia Flite I couldn't do more than 30 minutes in the saddle. Give me a saddle that is at least 140mm and I will be comparatively comfortable regardless of shape/padding/etc. I highly recommend that you try something like the Fizik Aliante, Fizik Antares, WTB Laser, or anything Specialized in their 143 or 155 mm widths. Williams Cycling will, for a small fee, loan you one of their SLC+ saddles if you don't have an LBS nearby that has loaners.

None of the saddles mentioned above are a magic bullet, but I bet if you need a wider saddle it will take you about 5 second on one of them to realize that a wider saddle is the key. Once you discover whether or not that is the case, the rest will be ironing out the details.

FTR · Mar 5, 2013

Sliding the seat forward is going to put more weight on your seat bones IMO.
It will also see you with more weight on your arms and make you use your quads more so than your hamstrings.
This could also be why you ride in the drops so much.
I would try sliding the saddle back and perhaps tilt the nose down.
Many saddles work well with a nose down tilt of approximately 3 degrees from my experience.

aleajactaest · Mar 7, 2013

It can't simultaneously put more weight on both your seat and your hands. Unless you simultaneously get fatter. Moving the relatives positions of seat, handlebars, stems and spacers moves the weight around but the law of gravity says all the weight you have is supported by your ass and hands minus a small amount on the pedals.

Knitapair · Mar 6, 2013

I tried an Adamo seat one time and knew in about 5 minutes that it would be bad. an hour later i thought i'd never walk right again. So I'm not sure if a wider seat will suit me but I'll try the seats you mention. I'm gonna give a Brooks a try too. If it's not great I can throw it on my commuter that I'm never on for more than 30 minutes. I just like the idea of a saddle that gets used to me.

Knitapair · Mar 7, 2013

I think you may be right about my saddle being too narrow, but I think I may simply be sitting too far forward on the narrow part of the saddle. I nosed up about 1 degree and slid it forward a couple microns. I'm gonna put an hour or two on it this afternoon to see if it's made an impact. I think i'm still gonna need a new saddle eventually but if i can find a better spot on this one for now I can get my training in gear.

FTR · Mar 7, 2013

I think you are moving it in the wrong direction.

FTR · Mar 7, 2013

OK. Badly worded but it will see you seated more on the skinny part of the saddle which sees me more uncomfortable any way.

jared@WKYC · Mar 7, 2013

My recommendation is to accurately determine your sit bone width and then find a corresponding saddle. Someone mentioned SMP saddles, and many have found them to be huge improvement.

Sit Bone Pain

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