ITB pain/soreness

[Zippy7]

Hi all,

I had been struggling with some ITB pain/soreness, and I wanted to share my experience with it and try to contribute something to this forum.

I can trace the issue back to when I started trying out different saddles. I ride a cheap drop bar bike on my Sunday morning rides (usually 60/70kms), and the stock saddle is pretty ordinary for comfort. I was getting a sore rear end after the ride and I have a chamois and use cream too.

Since a few of my riding buddies have spare saddles they bought and didn't like. I thought I would take the opportunity to try them out.

Fancy carbon railed Selle Italia Flite - the big round hump was very uncomfortable. Used it once, then back to the owner.
Fizik Arione - again, didn't agree with my rear end.

Selle Italia Max SLS - this felt comfy on the rear end since it has lots and lots of padding. I liked to sit on this one!
However, after a few weeks, I started getting ITB soreness - thought it might have been a bike fit issue, adjusted saddle height and fore/aft position. This got to the point where the ITB would get sore and flare up 10-15kms into the ride.

I couldn't figure out why this was an issue, but then decided to go back to square 1 and reinstalled the stock saddle. The ITB pain did not reappear on the ride.

I think the Selle Italia Max SLS had too much padding for me, and maybe that contributed to a bad position on the bike, leading to pain/soreness.

I'm now testing a Fizik Antares VS - not that comfy, BUT the ITB issue has not reappeared. Hopefully it will stay away. I want to try a Selle SMP saddle soon

As always, YMMV.

[trailgumby]

I've been through this. I'm not all the way out the other side yet, but heading in the right direction.

It's not the saddle per se. I know you've swapped saddles and gained an improvement but bear with me.

It is more likely imbalances in your muscle recruitment patterns. The fix for me has been aggressive rolling of the ITB on a hard roller (hurt like hell to start with), massaging the sore spots to break up the stiction as it passes across the outside of my knee, and tweaking my riding and cleat position to encourage me to use my glutes more instead of relying so heavily on my quads.

I also have a set of exercises to do to strenghten my glutes and encourage me to use them in my pedalling action, and a warm up-exercise that gets my glutes firing immediately I start riding instead of waiting until my other muscles start to tire, by which time I've often reinjured myself.

The saddle and/or the discomfort might have subtly affected your muscle recruitment during the pedal stroke.

Once you have found a comfortable saddle, I'd go to a physiotherapist bike fitter and tell them your problems, and have them adjust your bike to suit.

Unfortunately there is no standard for saddles apart from the gap between rails. Two different model saddles of the same length and width will have you sitting in a slightly different position on each, and you will therefore need to have the fore-aft position changed, and potentially the height and angle to horizontal changed too.

Does this make sense?

[Zippy7]

Thanks TG
That makes sense - I commute (12km each way) and had no issues before, but that is a flat bar road bike. I even started the sunday rides on that bike, but went with a drop bar roadie to make it easier to keep up.

Agree that this issue is caused by overusing the wrong muscles due to poor bike position. In my case, it could have been that since the Selle Italia saddle had so much padding (a seriously thick layer padding that you could compress heaps) - I ended up having to adjust the saddle height up and up a couple of times. I guess I might have had it too high, but in the end, couldn't get it sorted.

Also, I should mention that since I use SPDs on both bikes, there was no cleat adjustment possible.

I'd only get the ITB issues on the long ride, and I could commute without too much discomfort (as long as I didn't try to overdo it).

[alrsv1]

I also have a set of exercises to do to strenghten my glutes and encourage me to use them in my pedalling action, and a warm up-exercise that gets my glutes firing immediately I start riding instead of waiting until my other muscles start to tire, by which time I've often reinjured myself.

Hi, can you elaborate on the glute and warm up exercises that you do please?

[trailgumby]

The "warm-up" that I do consists of standing on one leg with the thigh of the other parallel to the ground and pressing into the wall at the knee. Hold for 20 seconds and swap sides.

The purpose is to wake up the parts of the brain responsible for firing the glutes and pelvic floor so they start firing straight away. Without doing this, it can take up to 20 minutes for them to start firing properly on the bike, by which time my sticky ITB as it passes by my knee gets irritated and starts protesting.

The other exercises are going to take more time to describe than I have at the moment. I would recommend going to a cycling-savvy physio and getting him/her to diagnose your individual issues and setting you a program to address your specific needs.

[alrsv1]

Thanks Trailgumby.