I’ve dealt with sciatica for years. It seems to get progressively worse as the bike season goes along and I accumulate several thousand miles. This year I’ve tried PT, massage, and had an injection in the hip as well as a perscription of muscle relaxants. I sit on a tennis ball when I sit on a hard surface. I don’t have much in the way of pain, sometimes an ache. The biggest problem is that my leg wants to fall asleep if I stand in one spot for very long, or when biking over 45 minutes. After the numbness starts to occur on the bike, I have to get out of the saddle every 10 min or so, and end up concentrating more on avoiding the problem than performance. I’ve tried many different saddles, adjusting my fit, saddle tilt, pointing the tip of the saddle one way or the other, etc. Believe me, I’ve thought and thought about this and have tried everything that I know, other than staying off the bike. I start the season out fine, but as I said, it gets to be way worse by July and later. Conditions that make it worse are hammering hard into the wind or climbing in the saddle hard, as I push my butt into the saddle more vigorously. I’m very lean, and there isn’t much meat in the crease between my glutes and hamstrings, so now I’m wondering if I could add some padding there to protect the area that I seem to irritate. I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t compress or ball up after the miles start piling up. It seems that gel-filled pad that I could place in the affected area might help me out, but I can’t for the life of me imagine where I could find one. The pads in my shorts, of course, are in the butt and perineal area and don’t extend to the glute/hamstring area. This is the one place that I turn to when I run into something that I can’t figure out myself, so I throw my case out to you Slowtwitchers.
I have had a lot of success with chiropractic. Been going for 6 yrs once a week and I usually only get a flare up about 2-3 times/year or when the weather changes drastically. This year I have focused more on my core strength training and have only had one flare up over the last 8 months. R.J.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this is resulting from irritation to that area on the bike, and has a cummulative effect as the season and miles accumulate. Thus my idea about padding(protecting) the area that I seem to be irritating.
These threads are interesting since I am now dealing with my first full blown impact with this. I die trying to sleep. Kills me sitting.
I have a visit to a massage guy tomorrow morning, and a PT in the afternoon. Will see if any of these help. I sure do not like the comments I have read from many
that have had issues for years, and no clear cause or solution.
the best combination i’ve found is chiro with a certain amount of yoga (only a few poses are needed, but you should do them daily. try a variety of forward and backward bending poses; e.g. downward dog flowing into cobra with your legs shoulder width or wider apart.) i’ve found if i can create space between the vertebrae it relieves the pressure on the neerve
I just got over sciatica, where it was bad enough I couldn’t walk. I ended up getting very aggressive ART, chiro appts, massage, icing/heat, trigger point roller/tennis ball, stretching 2 x a day after a 15 min walk to ‘warm up’ and a couple days of being completely out of it on flexeril
Took about 5 ART appts, 2 massages, 3 chiro appts, and icing/heat 2 x a day for 2 weeks, doing the trigger point/tennis ball 2-3 times a day. I finally took some flexeril, got a massage, saw a chiro, then another ART appt. I think the flexeril before all that helped relax the muscles so they could really get to the problem.
I can’t imagine that having a softer bike seat would help the problem.
I don’t post much but I feel your pain. In 2005 I put in a lot of bike miles (300-400/week almost all year) on a cervelo that I fit myself on because I knew everything about bike fit … I raced IM Wisconsin that year but with some serious hamstring pain. In 2006 I could hardly train and drug my fat leftovers through Kona. The pain in my legs was extreme. I hated triathlon.
I have had 2 MRI’s and have 3 degenerative disks in my back. The problem guy is between the lumbar and sacrum for me.
Recommendation #1: Go to a chiropractor - Yes we all think they are not real doctors until you need one and I go to mine every 2 weeks still. Even if he says see you in a month. See if you can get a recommendation from another athlete on whom to see. Like any profession there are good and bad ones.
In 2007 I did a ton of pilaties and worked with my chiro to learn what was happening to my back. I wanted to understand why and how to fix it. I started to understand my back more but also realized that I was about as flexible as a piece of steel. A MAJOR help was putting a ½ foam roller in our vehicles. I put this behind my back when I drive or ride in a car/truck. Sitting is still the worst problem for me. At work I have a chair from the 1960’s that is a simple firm chair because the modern things HURT to sit in. Also I was very fragile when it came to doing things like lifting heavy objects or anything abnormal with the back. Finally I started racing sprint tri’s again in 07 with of coarse a stupid bike fit … I remember having pain like you describe and that didn’t help running much either. I did however find my love for the sport again!
Finally in 2008
Recommendation #2: GET A BIKE FIT. I was still very stiff but I was having less siatic pain. I went to Bob Duncan at wheelie fun multi-sport in Ohio and we worked together on a bike that would fit ME. I rode in this position for all of 2008. And started to race “well” for me again. I was able to see my old bike speed start to return. During this time I also worked very hard on hamstring flexibility EVERY DAY AFTER EVERY RUN or BIKE.
This Year
Currently in slowtwitch speak I ride about 80-81 deg (and on the tip of the saddle at that) and about 2.5 inches HIGHER then the highest range in the fit formula on Dan’s guide lines. I’m not far from what Bob set me up at. I’m 1cm more forward and about the same amount lower. I’m 6’1” and around 160lbs (OK 170 in the winter). I can’t run like I used to yet but I’m getting close, but I can compete ok for a guy with a bad back.
I do exercises and stretch every day and see my chiro every 2 weeks just to make sure nothing is going wrong. Like I said I feel pain if I sit too long (and I’m and engineer so I sit all day). Pilates, core strength, flexibility, bike fit and not stupid long hours on the bike have made a big difference for me.
Good luck,
Ed Alyanak
I do a lot of HFP races in Ohio (hfpracing.com) so say “Hi” if you are in the area … I love to talk J
This sounds** exactly** like what stopped me from racing in Feb '08. Went through chiro, ART, massage, et al, before finally getting an MRI and learning that I had DDD.
I refused to believe what local docs said and found Dr V who did a two level microdiscectomy on Aug 4th '08.
I am racing and training pain-free and am almost back to where I was before it all went south. I will be doing my 1st 1/2 IM at Redman and can’t wait to see how it goes.
Get your back checked…I wasted a LOT of time in pain.
Well basically anyone who has been active and is above the age of 30 is going to have some DDD as far as I’m concerned. And I do have some biomechanical problems due to some injuries. But I can FEEL the saddle digging into that hollow spot between my glutes and hamstrings and want to try some padding in that area. It just makes sense to try that since nothing else has helped.
Hope that works. It’ll be a whole lot cheaper and easier.
My worst pain was right where my hamstring attached and it would feel like it was going to rip off of the bone. Numbness, tingling and all that too. Never had any back pain.