Aches and pains from the commute - what to do?

DonDaddyD

Ok, so generally during the mid week, I can feel my muscles tightening, usually this is normally my thighs (certain parts like the side and top never the inside or hamstring) and my shoulders.

But this week its something new. My butt. I'm serious, both my butt cheeks hurt and its worse when I clench any advice (could someone in all seriousness explain) or stories about body parts that ache after your are more than welcome...

greg66_tri_v2.0

I'll skip the explanation and go straight to (a) solution: get a sports massage. You put long term fatigue into your muscles and they will tighten and shorten. This leads (and you can trust me on this) to all sorts of problems.

Sports massage, my boy. You need someone getting their elbow right into your tender bits. :shock:

cjcp

Is your seat lower? Are you sitting in the saddle pushing a bigger gear more often? Have a recovery day when you spin more and seat how it feels.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

It must be the wheels. Only an upgrade will fix this.

always_tyred

You don't need a sports massage, but omg they feel good.

Make sure you find a particularly evil masseur, with pointy elbows and no restraint, and assure them that you have a high pain threshold, in order to get the best value for money. :twisted:

DonDaddyD

cjcp wrote:

Is your seat lower?

It might well be this. My seat post (carbon) lowers itself throughout the week (ITboffin has told me how to remedy this).

But generally I can't seem to find the ideal height for the post. When its too high the knees hurt, when its too low power is lost on the down stroke meaning I'm having to pedal harder, get tired quicker etc... but I can't seem to find the ideal height.

Stupid £100 carbon seatpost, with no height markings.

@ Greg, I always thought a massage was a bit extreme given the distance of my commute but I don't want to be doing long term damage. Surely a hot bath and some baby oil would suffice? Do you know any reputable massage parlours?

Edit: Actually it really is starting to bug me and the left side of stomach doesn't feel too good either.

greg66_tri_v2.0

DonDaddyD wrote:

but I can't seem to find the ideal height.

What's your inside leg (measured properly: stand against a wall and place a book vertically between your knees, with one side of the book pressing on the wall. Lift the book up until you can lift it no further. Step/straddle/waddle away, and measure from the top of the book. This is best done with an assistant. One who knows you well )

DonDaddyD wrote:

@ Greg, I always thought a massage was a bit extreme given the distance of my commute but I don't want to be doing long term damage. Surely a hot bath and some baby oil would suffice? Do you know any reputable massage parlours?

I usually head for the nearest phone box if I'm in a hurry. If not, I tend to sift through yellow pages looking at the pretty pictures, then I decide.

Any physio should be able to give you a sports massage.

biondino

Where does inside leg stop? At the floor? The sticky-out bone on the ankle? Top of the foot?

If you're getting unusual muscle aches could you be coming down with something?

Rich158

Always Tyred wrote:

You don't need a sports massage, but omg they feel good.

Make sure you find a particularly evil masseur, with pointy elbows and no restraint, and assure them that you have a high pain threshold, in order to get the best value for money. :twisted:

You've met my physio then

It sounds like your glutes and ITB's, that's exactly what I had a few months back. I've been doing glut and hip flexor stretches, together with specific glut strengthening exercises. These have worked wonders, my hill climbing ability has increased dramatically, the soreness has gone, and I now have a really tight butt

There's plenty of glut stretches on the web, the one I use is to place my left foot on right knee, akin to crossing my legs, and gently push down on my left knee until I can feel my glut stretching, then hold for 30, and do the same for the other side. I can at least do this at my desk without encouraging the ridicule that comes from lying on the floor stretching

jonginge

DonDaddyD wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Is your seat lower?

It might well be this. My seat post (carbon) lowers itself throughout the week (ITboffin has told me how to remedy this).

But generally I can't seem to find the ideal height for the post. When its too high the knees hurt, when its too low power is lost on the down stroke meaning I'm having to pedal harder, get tired quicker etc... but I can't seem to find the ideal height.

Stupid £100 carbon seatpost, with no height markings.

@ Greg, I always thought a massage was a bit extreme given the distance of my commute but I don't want to be doing long term damage. Surely a hot bath and some baby oil would suffice? Do you know any reputable massage parlours?

Edit: Actually it really is starting to bug me and the left side of stomach doesn't feel too good either.

DDD have a gander at this:
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... ight-14608

I use some finish line gel on my seatpost, no slippage:
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/9 ... y-Gel.html

As for remembering the seat height when there are no markings: i cut a strip of cardboard to the length of from the collar to a memorable bit of the seatpost. Very handy when putting bikes back together when travelling

greg66_tri_v2.0

biondino wrote:

Where does inside leg stop? At the floor? The sticky-out bone on the ankle? Top of the foot?

At the floor.

always_tyred

A decent massage therapist might be able to spot misalignments and/or muscle imbalalances also.

Note - small seat post height adjustments can make a big difference. A good starting point is; when the crank arm is at the bottom of the stroke, such that the pedal is furthest from the saddle (usually this is when the crank is parallel to the seat tube), your heel (in your cycling shoes, assuming that the "stack height" is roughly the same as at the balls of your feet) should touch the pedal when your knee is completely straight. This should not require you to "reach" to one side (a recepie for lower back problems). If you adopt this position, your knees will not lock out during the pedal stroke.

Also, seat position/angle might be different if you've just switched posts. Put the posts side by side - are they both layback posts? Do they both lay back the same amount?

Typically, you feel better able to get the power down by sitting forward on the saddle. If you find that you are always trying to do this during normal effort, perhaps push the saddle forward a little. This will have the effect of also slightly reducing the effective saddle height, but it will get you over the cranks a little more and shorten the reach and reduce the angle at your hips.

Conversely, if you get the sensation that you are "missing" the top of your pedal stroke and always pushing back on the saddle go the other way.

I'm wittering. You get the idea.

linsen

Greg66 wrote:

biondino wrote:

Where does inside leg stop? At the floor? The sticky-out bone on the ankle? Top of the foot?

At the floor.

Aaah that's why my jeans have always been too short!

iain_j

DonDaddyD wrote:

But generally I can't seem to find the ideal height for the post. When its too high the knees hurt

Maybe you're raising your seatpost too much in one go - more than about 5mm at a time will give your knees trouble as it can't cope with big changes. Raise it about 5mm, give it a day or two until you don't feel the ache in your knee, then raise it again.

I'm in the middle of it myself after discovering my saddle was about 3cm too low, which coincidentally was giving me sore glutes.

I use a measurement for saddle height which i found in a book years ago, inside leg multiplied by something, which has been quite reliable for me. I'll find it tonight and post it here.

greg66_tri_v2.0

linsen wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

biondino wrote:

Where does inside leg stop? At the floor? The sticky-out bone on the ankle? Top of the foot?

At the floor.

Aaah that's why my jeans have always been too short!

No, no, no! It's plainly because your legs are too long!

linsen

Greg66 wrote:

linsen wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

biondino wrote:

Where does inside leg stop? At the floor? The sticky-out bone on the ankle? Top of the foot?

At the floor.

Aaah that's why my jeans have always been too short!

No, no, no! It's plainly because your legs are too long!

Only in my wildest dreams.....

Actually they are just the right length to reach my body, which is just as well.........

Clever Pun

have you tried stretching the muscle groups affected... works for me

iain_j

iain_j wrote:

I use a measurement for saddle height which i found in a book years ago, inside leg multiplied by something, which has been quite reliable for me. I'll find it tonight and post it here.

Just found it on Google - the Greg LeMond method - multiply your inside leg height (measured the way Greg66 said) and multiply by 0.883. That should be the height from the centre of your bottom bracket to the top of the saddle, measured along the seat tube.

Mine works out at 75cm which is easy to remember if I want to check it.

singlespeedexplosif

HTFU and ride through it

rb1956

biondino wrote:

Where does inside leg stop? At the floor? The sticky-out bone on the ankle? Top of the foot?

I think the whole bike world should stop talking about "inside legs" and "inseams". It's stupidly confusing with the use of the same words in tailoring, and we're not trying to fit trousers. I don't really care what we call it, but "pubic bone height" (PBH) is one term I've heard.

Measure from the floor, standing in bare feet or socks on a hard surface. Use the old "pull a thin hardback book up hard between your legs trick (mind your tackle) as described above, or go to a bike shop that does fits and see if you can sweet-talk them into using their spring-loaded rod thingy (definitely watch your tackle with these. Don't ask how I know... :oops: ).

There are all sorts of formulae to translate PBH to saddle-height, some of which are quoted above. One based on some research done at Loughborough University suggested 109% of PBH from saddle to pedal surface, with the pedal near the bottom of its stroke and the crank aligned with the seat tube. This has the advantage of taking your crank-length into account. I had a professional bike fit done a while ago, and their computer spat out exactly the same ratio.

DonDaddyD wrote:

Stupid £100 carbon seatpost, with no height markings.

Riding a folding bike, I feel your pain about seatposts with no markings. Part of my Swift's fold involves removing the seatpost, so I originally marked the correct height with a water-proof felt-tip pen. That worked, but it was a hassle to adjust and align the saddle every time I folded. In the end I tightened a 34.9mm seat-post clamp round the seatpost itself to act as a "stop" holding the saddle at the correct height while I aligned it with the frame and fastened the two frame-clamps to hold it in place. I don't know if you could get away that with a carbon post though...

itboffin

If I had the money i'd go for a pro bike fit session, Its murder on my SS at the moment, really bad lower back pain very similar to the problems I had on my road bike last summer.

DDD have you looked at your saddle position? I had mine too far back which caused me to sit to far forward putting a lot more stress than needed.

Edit:

I found this quite helpful http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

Greg T

rb1956 wrote:

pubic bone

Gnurk gnurk gnurk

Bassjunkieuk

I'd say try some stretches and check your riding position.
I raised my saddle up a bit the other day and found some niggling knee pains I'd get when seated with legs crossed disappeared.
As for saddle height the way I remember mine is having the rear light fitted so the collar is around the seatpost by the frame.
I'm sure I need to move my saddle forward a bit but also want to sling the original saddle back on (which is on the wife's bike from when I was riding that) so will wait until the weather improves and I cba to fish it outta the shed!

jonginge

Just seen this:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/How ... 75129.html

greg66_tri_v2.0

Greg T wrote:

rb1956 wrote:

pubic bone

Gnurk gnurk gnurk

I am both ashamed and pleased.

Ashamed because of thought of doing this very thing too.

Pleased because I resisted.

And slightly annoyed now because I resisted.

gtvlusso

DDD - you need to be on the bike cycling it as opposed to carrying it over one shoulder and running....!

tailwindhome

DonDaddyD wrote:

Ok, so generally during the mid week, I can feel my muscles tightening, usually this is normally my thighs (certain parts like the side and top never the inside or hamstring) and my shoulders.

But this week its something new. My butt. I'm serious, both my butt cheeks hurt and its worse when I clench any advice (could someone in all seriousness explain) or stories about body parts that ache after your are more than welcome...

Your butt hurts because it was kicked by a girl :P

The woman was gone and no not into the distance, I mean visibly gone. I in all my years never thought I’d ever witness such savage speed on a bike. In the name of all that is considered holy she was fast. My God! Fast! The Condor guy and I gave chase though it was useless she wasn’t even around the bend she was well up the road.

She didn’t just scalp me, she scalped the World!