Weird hip strain: hurts when I get out of saddle...ideas?

I've strained my left hip tendon. Or some part of it. I don't really
know how it happened, but here's my report. If anyone has any ideas,
they're appreciated! I'll go to my doc shortly, if it doesn't improve,
but I find that 'insiders' sometimes have helpful info.

The problem is that my left hip joint is really sore. At the "back" of
it. The clearest way the injury appears is when I ride my bike. When I
ride in the saddle I feel fine. If I get out of the saddle it hurts
like crazy and I basically have to sit right back down.

Here's the background.

I'm 43, 175 lbs, slight gut, decades of race background, but now a desk
jockey.

This spring without much training I went and did 3 really hard all-day
mountain rides in NoCal. Lots of hard out of the saddle riding. I was
fit from XC skiing/racing but only had a couple hundred miles in the
bike-legs. Had a great time. I've also acquired 4 new (old) road bikes
to ride and test to see which gets to be my next "keeper" bike. I was
having a great time swapping between them this spring. I noticed my hip
getting a tiny bit sore about then. I was also doing tons of very hard
yardwork and putting in long hours at the computer desk. My hamstrings
got very sore and stiff a couple times and I did hard stretching to
relieve them. What's more I was doing once-a-week over-the-top
hard-rides of about 2 hours with the racer wannabes. I'd ride casually
for errands once or twice a week then do this superhard ride. It was
definitely a strain and made me wonder. I also tend to jump out of the
deskchair or car-seat the same way every time. I've been fooling with
saddle height, but ride smoothly and the bikes have all felt fine,
basically (a couple hard rides on lowish saddles but no hip rocking
from too high). On one ride it finally was outright hurting when I got
out of the saddle and I've layed off the riding since then. It's been
about 3 weeks now.

I figure I just strained it and that it will clear up if I stop riding
or stressing it until it's better.

I'm wondering if maybe I can ride as long as I don't get out of the
saddle---and maybe stick to the same bike.

(I remember when I got my only knee injury. I went to docs and tried
several fixes but it turned out to be coming from the desk/car! When I
changed how I got out of my chairs the injury cleared immediately. Ha.)

I've been off the bike taking Ibuprofen/Alieve for 2 weeks now. No real
improvement. On meds it's tolerable, but noticeable. Very sore if I
skip the meds.

Oh well, if anyone has any ideas, thanks! --JP

wrote:
I've strained my left hip tendon. Or some part of it. I don't really

The problem is that my left hip joint is really sore. At the "back" of
it.

? People usually refer to this part of the anatomy as their ass, not
their hip. I.e. gluteus or hamstrings. Where exactly does it hurt?

mountain rides in NoCal. Lots of hard out of the saddle riding. I was
fit from XC skiing/racing but only had a couple hundred miles in the
bike-legs. Had a great time. I've also acquired 4 new (old) road bikes
to ride and test to see which ge ts to be my next "keeper" bike. I was
having a great time swapping between them this spring. I noticed my hip
getting a tiny bit sore about then. I was also doing tons of very hard
yardwork and putting in long hours at the computer desk. My hamstrin gs
got very sore and stiff a couple times and I did hard stretching to
relieve them.

It sounds like a pulled hamstring. I don't know what exactly you mean
by "hard stretching" but this is not what you are supposed to do.

Hamstrings pull from improper strength balance (quads too much stronger
than hamstrings) and improper or inadequate stretching and improper or
inadequate warm up. Heal by careful and consistent stretching (get a
book, try "Cycling After 50"), light excercise, ice after use, rest.
a

Sorry about not being clear on where the injury is. It's right in the
back part of the pelvic ball joint in the hip. It's not the hams. It
might be right where the glutes and hams attach to the ball-socket,
though.

I might've been hard on the hams when stretching. I did them steady and
slow but kept quite a bit of pressure on, relaxing the whole time. It
didn't seem like it was further hurting them at the time.

At this point it seems like a joint-located tendon injury. So
stretching now doesn't seem right. But I don't really know what it is.

The main weird thing to me is that it's fine when riding in saddle, but
I'm at about 10% strength (with pain) when I stand to get out of the
saddle.

I was just curious if some other riders might've had this exact same
thing (generally) and found a particular treatment effective.

Thanks again!

--JP

writes:

Sorry about not being clear on where the injury is. It's right in the
back part of the pelvic ball joint in the hip. It's not the hams. It
might be right where the glutes and hams attach to the ball-socket,
though.

I might've been hard on the hams when stretching. I did them steady and
slow but kept quite a bit of pressure on, relaxing the whole time. It
didn't seem like it was further hurting them at the time.

At this point it seems like a joint-located tendon injury. So
stretching now doesn't seem right. But I don't really know what it is.

The main weird thing to me is that it's fine when riding in saddle, but
I'm at about 10% strength (with pain) when I stand to get out of the
saddle.

I was just curious if some other riders might've had this exact same
thing (generally) and found a particular treatment effective.

Posterior hip pain is not all that common, and it can sometimes be
fairly difficult to sort out. Ususally when the problem is in the hip
joint itself, the pain is in the front. It is common for pain which
feels like it is comming from the back of the hip not to be comming
from the hip at all. Problems with the sacroiliac joint, lumbar
disks, pinched nerves, prostate cancer, or a bunch of other things can
all cause pain like you describe. You say in your first post that you
have been off the bike for 2 or 3 weeks but are still having pain (you
say both 2 and 3 weeks). That makes a muscle strain and other bicycle
related causes less likely. Keep in mind that any diagnosis over the
internet is little better than a WAG.

"Jim Smith" wrote in message
...
writes:

Sorry about not being clear on where the injury is. It's right in the
back part of the pelvic ball joint in the hip. It's not the hams. It
might be right where the glutes and hams attach to the ball-socket,
though.

I might've been hard on the hams when stretching. I did them steady and
slow but kept quite a bit of pressure on, relaxing the whole time. It
didn't seem like it was further hurting them at the time.

At this point it seems like a joint-located tendon injury. So
stretching now doesn't seem right. But I don't really know what it is.

The main weird thing to me is that it's fine when riding in saddle, but
I'm at about 10% strength (with pain) when I stand to get out of the
saddle.

I was just curious if some other riders might've had this exact same
thing (generally) and found a particular treatment effective.

Posterior hip pain is not all that common, and it can sometimes be
fairly difficult to sort out. Ususally when the problem is in the hip
joint itself, the pain is in the front. It is common for pain which
feels like it is comming from the back of the hip not to be comming
from the hip at all. Problems with the sacroiliac joint, lumbar
disks, pinched nerves, prostate cancer, or a bunch of other things can
all cause pain like you describe. You say in your first post that you
have been off the bike for 2 or 3 weeks but are still having pain (you
say both 2 and 3 weeks). That makes a muscle strain and other bicycle
related causes less likely. Keep in mind that any diagnosis over the
internet is little better than a WAG.


Sounds like good info to me. My wife just had a total hip replacement,
the pain of a worn our hip joint came more from the front , more like from
the pelvis, and lying down is actually the position that aggravates it the
most!

I'll have it checked out.