Tailbone Pain

[SummerPerk]

Hello everyone~
I've spent waaay too many hours over the last week reading all the posts! I'm glad to have discovered such an active community. I recently begun cycling, and absolutely love it! I have a trek hybrid 7200 and am having so much fun, except for one issue. I have been experiencing major pain just above my tailbone, mainly when I rise up off of the saddle. It gets so bad that after 10 miles or so I can't really lift myself off at all. After I'm off, the pain pretty much disappears (although it reoccurs if I sit on a stool when I get up). I did try a new saddle (Serfas Women's Rx). It helped a little bit, but not enough. Any suggestions at all? I am assuming that it is the result of a compressed nerve. I am going in for a physical in two weeks, so I will talk to my doctor, but am not optimistic that she will be able to provide an answer. I've researched tons on the web, but have been unable to find anything. Should I go in for an in-depth fitting consultation? Suggestions for saddle type? It's getting to be so that I'm afraid to go riding because I'm afraid of the pain.

[KnottedYet]

The pain is above your tailbone, and only when you rise up *off* the saddle or *off* a stool?

Have you researched sacro-iliac pain?

Your doc or PT will check you for a functional or structural pelvic alignment issue when you go in, but it might be interesting to research S-I joint problems before your appointment. (if it is the S-I joint, it's very easy to deal with, exercises and self-corrective techniques, shims in your shoes if needed, things like that)

[Zen]

You'll probably want a referral to a physical therapist, look here

[RoadRaven]

Just echoing Zen and Knotted, Summer

Get this checked out - tailbone when you rise doesn't sound familiar to me as bike-specific/bike-related...

[beetle]

I've got this but not as a result of the bike. I had a baby 5 weeks ago and think I've agrevated a previous break in my coxyx. I totally know what you mean when you talking about the pain getting up off a stool. On my bike though I only experience it on the trainer when I'm sitting up, well back, with my hands off the handlebars. Whenever I'm forward it does not hurt. I'm seeing my dr soon and was planning to ask about it then but suspect it will just take time to heal (like it did last time). But it seems like your case might be different as I certainly remember the events that caused the pain to start, could it have been something other than the bike that caused the problem, in your case, like a fall? Regardless I would get it checked by a dr as the others have suggested.

[Thorn]

While the others are probably right and a visit to the doc is in order, but in the meantime, here's a possible simple solution....your saddle is too narrow.

If I ride a saddle that is too narrrow, I get a pain similar to what you describe--just above the tail bone. It is as if someone put in a device and spread everything apart. Standing on the bike becomes almost impossible and I dread intersections. Once I'm up for a while the pain subsides. I discovered this after riding the winter on a good fitting saddle. When I went back to my outdoor bike, the pain started up again. Switched the outdoor bike to the same saddle I was using indoors and voila'--no pain.

Find those threads on measuring the sit bones and then go back and masure your saddle. Do your sit bones have enough room? If so, then look at the shape of the saddle--is it flat across the top or angled to the middle. If the latter, go for the flat.