A question for bike fitters. If my cleats are too far forward, can that add extra stress on the upper part of my femur? When I ride, I feel a pain in my left hip/butt. Almost like the bone is being pushed too far back. If I move the cleats forwards just a hair, should that releave some stress? And yes I also haven’t been stretching enough, but just want to cover all methods. And yes I have been FIST fitted and my position is good.
fore/aft cleat adjustment isn’t likely to cause any hip problems. Lateral placement can have more of an impact on the IT band and everything that it connects to in the hip.
Anything in the stack can adversely affect you and cause weird pains. That includes:
Q factor, crank arm length
shoe fit, cleat stack, cleat angle, cleat fore/aft position, too much or too little pedal float
seat height, seat tilt, seat fore/aft relative to BB, seat rotation (nose not straight)
That’s why it’s important to write down what works so you can get back to it when setting up a new bike.