Cycling, like any athletic activity, requires some tolerance for discomfort. As the saying goes, "no pain, no progress!", but it's important to distinguish between pain that comes from normal or extreme exertion and pain that indicates injury. When you feel that burning sensation in your buttocks, be alert for signs that medical intervention may be necessary.
The gluteal muscles are also called the posterior thigh muscles. This group includes the gluteus minimus, medius, maximus, and the tensor fascia lata. As you can guess from the name, the gluteus maximus is the largest of the buttocks. It makes up most of the visible buttock. It is your primary hip extensor, driving the downward movement when you pedal. Of all your glutes, the biggest is the one that receives the brunt of your cycling training.
Causes of pain in the buttock when riding a bicycle
Before addressing the pain, it is convenient to know the origin or the factors that influence it. Below we reveal the most common causes of gluteal discomfort when cycling.
during cycling
Your muscles need oxygen to convert glucose into energy. The more you exercise, the more oxygen your muscles need. But during a really intense exercise session, your body's oxygen delivery system eventually falls behind the energy demands of your muscles. When that happens, your body relies instead on an anaerobic process to metabolize glucose. This backing process has a nasty side effect: it results in a buildup of lactic acid, or lactate. The lactate buildup it's what causes that burning sensation in your buttocks when you pedal hard. The pain should go away if you take a break and give your body a chance to slow down.
After riding a bike
However, if you experience soreness in your buttocks in the days following a very intense bike ride, you can't blame lactic acid. Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), characterized by muscle soreness accompanied by a loss of strength and range of motion that typically peaks 24 to 72 hours after extreme training, correlates with lactate levels during the exercise event. Exactly what causes DOMS is unknown. Most research indicates that it has to do with an inflammatory repair response to muscle cell damage that occurs during extreme exercise events. Anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen can reduce pain, but they can also slow down the process of repairing the damage.
piriformis syndrome
What you experience as buttock pain may not come from the gluteal muscles at all. In the case of piriformis syndrome, the piriformis muscle swells and irritates the sciatic nerve, which usually passes below the piriformis, but in some individuals it passes through it. Piriformis syndrome is characterized by deep pain in the buttocks that sometimes radiates down the thigh or lower back, following the path of the sciatic nerve. Treatment for piriformis syndrome usually consists of progressive stretching and physical therapy under the direction of a sports medicine physician. Refractory cases sometimes require corticosteroid injections.
Best treatments to reduce gluteal pain
If you spend a lot of time on the bike, it's normal to feel soreness and tightness. But contrary to what you might think, the pain you feel after pedaling too hard is not caused by your gluteal muscles. It actually comes from tightness in the hip rotator muscles, a group of muscles hidden below the buttocks, which runs from the tailbone to the upper thigh.
The reason you may feel pain is because your hips never open when you're on the bike. They remain in a fixed position as the leg moves up and down in the same plane, but never straighten or rotate enough to open the hip joint.
rest and rest
After a hard cycling training, it is necessary to rest and allow the muscles to recover from the effort. If the pain is noticeable, the RICE method is recommended. This consists of resting for a few days, applying ice to the painful area to reduce inflammation and slightly elevating the leg to promote blood flow.
It is important to allow the muscles to rest and perform total rest. When you feel more recovered in the area, you can do cross training so as not to saturate the gluteus by only doing cycling sessions. You can even take active breaks to improve circulation in the lower extremities.
Gluteal Stretches
They are recommended Stretching fully open the rotator muscles. There is no limit to how often you should do them, sooner or later. Stretch more if the deep area of your buttocks hurts and less when it doesn't hurt. Doing this stretch should not cause any discomfort or pain.
- Lie down, keeping your head and neck rested. Bring your right knee across your chest toward your left shoulder.
- With your left hand, pull your ankle toward your shoulder. Don't twist your knee as you pull.
- Be sure to pull the muscles deep into the buttocks, but not so hard that you feel tight or cannot breathe easily.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
Set up the bike well
Perhaps the problem of pain in the buttock when riding a bicycle is due to the bad position of it. The saddle height should be set so that when the pedal is at the bottom of the stroke and the ball of the foot is on the pedal, the knee should have a slight flex. Your hips should not move to the sides during crank rotation and should not have to stretch at the bottom of the pedal stroke.
The saddle angle should be horizontal, parallel to the ground when looking from the side (but sometimes a very slight downward tilt can be helpful for those who experience a lot of pressure in the perineum area). The forward or backward saddle position can be achieved with the pedals adjusted so that they are in the three and nine o'clock positions.
The handlebars should be adjusted so that we don't have to stretch to reach them or feel confined by having them too close to the body. You should be able to comfortably reach the bars from an upright position and your elbows should be slightly bent when resting on them.
pedal slower
A slower cadence often means we're pushing too hard in a high gear. That puts more demands on our strongest but quickest-fatiguing type II muscle fibers, so we run out of energy sooner and end up more sore.
But if we pedal closer to 90 rpm (in an easier gear), we rely more on the higher-endurance type I muscle fibers. That cadence may seem strangely fast to a casual cyclist, but it's the best way to avoid unnecessary effort, exhaustion, and sore glutes.
Of course, it is possible to go too far. Ultra-high cadences can become exhausting in their own right. For most of us, around 90rpm is a good balance between not exerting yourself while pedaling and not wasting energy turning.
To put it another way:
- A slow cadence and a stiff gear is like lifting a 2-pound weight 5 times.
- A fast cadence and modest equipment is like lifting a 15-pound weight 5 times.
The former will cause more pain to the average person who has not been specifically trained for it.
ride more times
We can keep gluteal pain at bay by cycling at least a couple of times a week at a moderate intensity. It's also important to increase intensity gradually, as sudden intensity (such as chasing personal records in sprints or rock climbing) dramatically increases pain.
Our muscles are amazingly adaptable, but it works both ways. They get used to regular use, but also to regular disuse. That's why a break can leave us more sore when we're back in the saddle.
Naturally, harder efforts mean more delayed-onset muscle soreness. Walking on the beach will not let our buttocks hurt. Consistent time and effort on the bike, even if brief, will keep those excessive aches and pains to a minimum.