Help identifying my injury to my backside

Training
1

Hey everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone here as experienced an apparent injury that I woke up with. Not looking for any sort of medical advice, but just if anyone else has experienced it and what it might be.

So I had a threshold workout on Tuesday, Rogers +3. During the workout everything felt perfectly fine. I did my normal stretches that I do after every workout, had dinner, watched tv, and then went to bed.

When I woke up in the morning I noticed an incredible pain in the tailbone area. Like 9/10 pain if I sit or lay on it the wrong way. After some poking and prodding it seems to be specifically right at the top of my butt crack, but offset just a little to the left side right as the meaty part of my backside starts. So essentially in the crack, but just off to the side. There’s nothing visual to see, or anything to even feel. It just feels like an extremely bad bruise. Its as if I fell on my tailbone really hard, but didn’t.

So my question becomes, is this something that can happen specifically to cyclists? Is there a muscle or something that runs through there that I maybe just “tweaked” somehow?

Lastly, I can walk and move around fairly well, but there’s definitely some discomfort if I move the wrong way. I can ride my bike at like Z1, but as soon as a put out some power I can really feel it in that area bad. So do I abandon my last two training rides this week and stay off the bike completely to let it heal? Or, if the pain isn’t bad, should I get some light Z1 rides in for an hour to keep the fitness up?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

2

The location you describe sounds like the insertion of the gluteus muscle. I have an anecdotal experience of jamming away from a red light when I was in my 20’s with sudden pain in the same area. I actually tore part of the insertion away, and have a slight notch there ever since. Obviously diagnoses over the internet are next to worthless, but you can’t go wrong by resting it and see what happens.

1 Like
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  1. I have no direct experience with this.
  2. Talk to someone with training in this, and that can examine you specifically.
  3. That said, this video by Kelly Starrett demonstrates what is now my go-to exercise whenever my low back or pelvis get wacky and don’t feel right:
    Low Back Tweak Fast Fixes | Feat. Kelly Starrett | MobilityWOD - YouTube

Good luck!

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4

Not a medic. Caution advised.

Might be something pressing on a nerve. Have you any pins and needles or numbness anywhere? If you do it might narrow down any nerve issue.

You can try working out which nerves go through where the pain is (femoral, pudendal, sciatic etc…) and then try some nerve flossing of the suspect nerves.

5

I’ve had a similar issue I’ve been working through for months. I’ve a sharp pain just to the left of my spine at the top of my buttcheek. I self diagnosed myself with a sacroiliac joint (SI) problem. I can’t get to a doctor right now with COVID so just tried to follow that SI rehab guidance. Standing feels better than sitting, so I stand more. Stretching and mobility exercises help. It still flares from time to time, but it’s better. VO2 max intervals annoyed it more than SS and lower intensity. If it’s what I think I have, be patient. It takes weeks or months.