Oh my aching tailbone!

I am new to the forum and need some advice. I have been cycling for 3 years now. This year I am training to ride in the MS150, which is a 170 mile, 2-day ride from Houston to Austin. This past weekend I rode a 70 mile ride and a 40 mile ride to prepare my body for riding two days in a row. I was sore in the usual places, however, I am also extremely sore on my tail bone. Since I that part doesn't touch the seat, I am curious if anyone has had this problem and if so, what they did to alleviate it. It is quite painful and uncomfortable. Any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated!

first thought: saddle too narrow or saddle too padded.


Lots of tendons and ligaments of the pelvic floor neighborhood attach at or near the tailbone. Does it hurt worse when you lift your buns OFF the saddle?

Nope... I actually don't feel it when I am riding. It isn't until afterward that I noticed it even hurt. Are there exercises that I can do to strengthen the ligaments or is this something that will improve as I ride more?

I have an ergonomic saddle designed specifically for women. I was hoping to avoid problems like this when purchasing the saddle...

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Originally Posted by blindwsci

Nope... I actually don't feel it when I am riding. It isn't until afterward that I noticed it even hurt. Are there exercises that I can do to strengthen the ligaments or is this something that will improve as I ride more?

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No, they don't strengthen like muscles would. You are stressing the ligaments and stuff. Something is pushing on them, and they are yanking on the tailbone. (unless the padding is giving as you settle into the saddle and the over-padding is actually pushing on the tailbone itself or is so thick that it does stress the connective tissue.)

I'm guessing it's ligament/tendon irritation at the tailbone, more than a padding problem, cuz you say it didn't hurt on the saddle but did later when you were off the saddle.

I could be completely wrong. :rolleyes:

My suggestion would be to go to the favorite saddles and most hated saddles sections and read up on all the fun and creative ways of measuring your "sit bones." Then measure the part of the saddle where you feel you are putting most of your weight. If the saddle isn't a couple cm wider than your bones (and flat) at that point, maybe start looking for a wider saddle to test.

Honestly, a well fitting saddle should be no more uncomfortable to your tush than a wooden church pew.

Edit: oh, hey, I didn't even ask what saddle do you have?

I've experienced significant tail bone pain on saddles that are too narrow for me. This is usually also combined with some degree of numbing toes or loss of bloodflow to the sensitive bits.

My theory is that a too narrow saddle causes your body to be suspended by soft tissue over the saddle - and that soft tissue is pulled taut across the tailbone. On shorter rides this might not be noticable - but once you exceed a certain amount of time on the saddle, it can result in a bruise that is noticable for days after, especially when sitting.

My reccomendation is to make sure it's your sit bones being supported on the saddle - and there are tons of posts around here on how to do that. If they are, then all of the above can be ignored :D

I hope you heal quickly - if you need to do your ride on this seat, get out of the saddle frequently to help keep blood flowing thru that area.

how's your core strength? If you are not holding your body properly because of core weakness, you could be putting stress on your tailbone.

I could be completely wrong, too. It's just that I have found that strengthening my core has helped a myriad of aches go away.

Sheldon Brown on saddles: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

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Originally Posted by tulip

how's your core strength? If you are not holding your body properly because of core weakness, you could be putting stress on your tailbone.

I could be completely wrong, too. It's just that I have found that strengthening my core has helped a myriad of aches go away.

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I have actually been working quite a bit on my core. It is in better shape than it ever has been, however, I am also riding longer distances. So it may not be in good enough shape. Thank you for the advice... I will certainly continue the Pilates that I have been doing to work on my core.

I also have a fair amount of numbness in the area. My saddle is a Royalgel (RGOGEL). It is supposed to be ergonomically designed for women, however, it does not have a cut out. I am wondering if just moving it forward or back may help the situation? I just purchased the bike I am riding, had it sized and fitted... but the man at the shop was not very experienced. I am thinking he may not have done it correctly. I have already had to lower my seat from where he set it.

I have never heard of your saddle but have heard bad things about gel saddles in particular. Just because it was designed for women unfortunately does not make it a good saddle or even an acceptable one!

Can you post a link to your saddle? All I can find via Google is a really difficult looking cruiser saddle by Lookin, though it appears the RoyalGel name is used for several other brands of saddle with that gel in their padding, too.

Edit: ummm, is this it? Ergogel? http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesom...343/2792/16460 If this is it, I'd say your problem is due to overpadding. The Brooks B68 mentioned on this page will give you a similar width, without the excess padding. And if you order from www.wallbike.com you have 6 months to return it.

An over padded loner bike saddle gave me excruciating pain once.

I can't really add any advice or help but I can add some empathy. I'm pretty sure I've bruised my bum badly after my ride last night. I did about 1 hour 25 mins on the trainer doing an aero base building spinervals. I've been playing around with the tilt of an already uncomfortable saddle to try and make it work but I think I made it worse. And every time I had to stand and pedal the pain shot up times 10 from my sits bones.

I tried to measure my sits bones today and have been looking in the saddle threads. I just really don't want to have to buy an expensive new saddle right now.

I hope you find something that works for you. Sore bums, especially tail bones, ain't fun!

That looks like a pretty wide saddle, so I have trouble believing it to be too narrow. If it is too soft, on a long ride the padding will squish down & you are sitting on the shell.

Is it truly pain on the tailbone? It hurts on the end of the bony protrusion way in the back of the butt?

My guess, and this is a guess, is that your tailbone is coming in contact with the hard plastic shell underneath the padding & you are getting bruised, which hurts like hell & takes a while to heal. My suggestion would be to get a saddle that has an opening, of some sort, in the very back. You will see some saddles have a v-shaped notch back there -- that's what it is for. I have had this exact same problem on a saddle that did not have any relief area in the back. It went away when I changed saddles to a style with an opening in the back.