Has anyone experienced extreme sit bone pain after an indoor ride? I’m new to indoor training and signed up for Zwift a couple weeks ago. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it and had an 8.5 hour week last week where as my typical would be 4-5 hours outdoors. I did a race last night that was an hour long, and had a great performance, but didn’t once stand up to give my butt a break (was in the zone and dint want to get dropped ha). I could tell my butt was a little sore but no more than any other ride I’ve done at this point.
I stretched a little after as I felt a little tight, and about 20’ later it felt like I had high hamstring strains on both sides. I could only get into half the normal “prayer stretch” that I should be able to. Needless to say I think I overdid it. Looks like I could have potentially inflamed the bursa the covers the sitbones. I’ve never experienced this in the 5+ years of road biking I’ve done…
Has anyone else gone through this? I’m thinking I need to obviously take a break from the bike until things feel better, stand much more frequently, and probably worth looking into a saddle with a little more cushion like the Sella Italia Max Flight Gel. I’m currently using a 1st gen Kurt kinetic rock and roll trainer so I’m not locked into one position.
Are you using the same bike on your trainer as the one you use outdoors? If not then there could be differences in the setup leading to your issues. I have a dedicated trainer bike that is an identical frame to my road bike so I know they are the same.
It could also be you are holding yourself in a different position on the trainer setup. Perhaps not as relaxed? After a while I think you’ll find your sit bones adapt. After years and years of cycling I’m fairly confident I could sit on a saddle made of nails and not feel a thing. Everything is a bit numb down there.
I think this is something a number of new indoor- cyclists experience. One of the major culprits, which you mentioned, is a lack of getting out of the saddle. Because the bike doesn’t move laterally as much inside as outside, you’ll find that you need to get out of the saddle more often on the trainer than IRL. And, as the previous poster mentioned, if your not using the same bike the could be some positional issues contributing to the mix, also.
So, give both of those some thought and see if things improve a bit. If not, you might look for a different saddle (I love the Selle SMP models).
Just my opinion but if your bike has been ok for you outside, and you ride it hard outside as well, then leave it. Zwift is a LOT different than outdoor riding, especially Zwift racing! I recommend just giving your body some time to adjust, let the muscles quiet down, maybe do some easy group rides on Zwift. When I started racing on Zwift it was so different from IRL and I found that I was working muscles I never knew I had.
Of course the flip side of the coin is that Zwift exposed a setup issue that you have been getting away with outdoors so you can give that a thought. But I wouldn’t go crazy just yet and start messing with setup.
Thank you for the voice of reason Bob. I think I overdid it over the weekend with ~4-5 hours of indoor riding. I’ll let things calm down and give it a go again. I think the main case for concern was that things were getting much worse after my ride, where as the butt always feels better and back to normal not long after ending the ride end hopping off. First time I felt like I may have injured something in the ischial sits bones area.
The sit bone or coccyx has a few joints and tendons. Let it rest, you’ve probably aggravated something or a few things but if you can take an anti-inflammatory like advil and if it’s not getting better after a few days of rest then look further. I still think you’ll be in good shape after a couple days. With hard Zwift rides you really push down on your saddle to get all that power and as you found out there is no rest so it puts stress on muscles and tendons that we don’t use as much outside.
Never tried it myself but the great Hoppo, as well as a bunch of others I know (or know of) use this. I am a mtb’re so so generally shorter rides than roadies. Got a sore ■■■■ when I discovered Zwift a few years back but dont even think about it these days, so, no disrespect intended, but rule #5 applies.
It dawned on me when I was Zwifting today that you didn’t mean the tail bone but the pelvic bones that actually contact the saddle. When Zwifting you put a lot of downward force into the saddle and that just puts more pressure on these bones. You most likely overdid it in that massive session so give it a little time to heal. If you have a
an upright position that might make it a little worse so try riding with a little more weight forward on your arms
In addition to all the above, as a rule of thumb if I have not used zwift for an extended period of time, as in a month+, I keep my first ride to 45 minutes and take a day off the next day. I do another 45 minute ride, take another day off and then I find I’ve “broken” myself in at that point and can usually handle 2-2 1/2 before the body starts saying this is not comfortable.
Thanks for all the insight everyone. I have myself a few days off the bike and things were progressively getting better. I did end up lowering the saddle a tiny bit and I think it was the right thing to do. I did my first structured workout that had about 7 intervals over the course of an hour end I made sure to stand for about 15-20” at the start of each one. Felt great after!
I was seriously worried after the workout that left me in pain as I thought I genuinely injured myself. I’ve never had the hips tighten up like that. The next morning it was uncomfortable to sit or get my hips into 90 degrees of flexion. Lesson learned, stand often!
I think for casual rides or group rides I’ll stand every time I see my avatar take a drink of water as a cue.