Sore Butt From Cycling? Bum Butt Pain Relief Guide

When you go on longer rides, not only will your legs be extremely sore and you will want to relieve that pain through ice or other alternatives, but your butt, bum, underside, back side – your peach – will be sore. You may be wondering how to treat a sore bum from cycling while sitting on the couch, and it’s a very valid question. There are a couple of ways that will keep you from feeling sore and out of it from the bruises that you’ll get when on long rides.

In this post, you will learn why saddle soreness develops and why it hurts so much for so long. Second, you will learn if it eventually does go away after the butt toughens up and gets used to it. And finally we will discuss how to soften the blow to the butt when you are riding and help you feel good where it’s most important.

Why is bum so sore after cycling?

Your bum is sore after cycling for two reasons:

• Blood is pooling in one specific area in your bum from sitting so long
• The area is being rubbed by a (typically) very hard surface

Although the rest of your body is moving, your butt is sitting specifically in one place, on a particularly small surface area (you saddle). It’s also facing a lot of pressure and rubbing in that specific area which leads to saddle sores, soreness and in some cases ingrown hairs.

How to treat a sore bum from cycling:

Follow these steps and your butt will be happy with you:

• Ensure that your bike fit is correct: Follow this guide to make sure that you have the correct bike fit. If you would like to get a professional bike fitting, read this first. A bike fit is quite possibly the most important aspect of riding your bicycle. You will not be able to go certain distances without the correct bicycle fit. You will have problems with injury, riding and the placement of your butt on the saddle will be incorrect. Making adjustments to your body without the correct fit will lead you to putting other parts of the body out of alignment and will lead to early fatigue, or a mis-alignment caused injury.
• Sit correctly in the saddle: Make sure that your sits bones are placed firmly on the widest parts of the saddle. This may seem pretty obvious, but you will be surprised how many riders sit too far forward on the seat typically. This is to disperse the surface area of the bum on and ideally keep the amount of pressure off of one specific area of the seat.
• Invest in yourself [Shorts]: Purchase the correct padded shorts to help disperse the surface area of the seat further. The pads are also softer and simply feel great. LECOL and Castelli have proven themselves to be the leader in making the most comfortable bibs in the market right now, though there are many alternatives. Just make sure they have padding in the right area.
• Invest in yourself [Chafing Treatment]: Choose a cream or a powder to work with and powder yourself before each ride. Both work very well.
• Find the right saddle: Brooks is the standout for making some of the strongest, durable and most importantly, well padded structured saddles on the market. If you are a touring cyclist or a commuter this is the choice for you. If you are a competitive cyclist or a racer, this will be your best choice. It is wider than most racing saddles and has a disappearing midsection for ease on the groin.
• Wear your shorts correctly: Wear your shorts without underwear.
• Keep Riding: As you already understand as an endurance athlete, the more you do it, the more your body gets used to it. You will be shocked by how much less sore your butt is simply by going through the motions over and over again.
• If you are dealing with a case of hemorrhoids while cycling, read here.

How to deal with Ingrown hairs from riding:

It is important to have an understanding of what an ingrown hair is. In many cases with the tight second skin that we have, the hairs will rub in the groin area on the skin. When it is rubbed enough, and the skin becomes sore, the pores open enough so that the hair will re-enter the skin. It feels painful and looks worse. If you happen to be suffering from ingrown hairs, here is how to solve that particular problem:

• Band-aid: The easiest way by far is to place a band-aid over that specific area if you are currently suffering an ingrown hair. This will keep the chamois from rubbing against the skin to further irritation
• Apply Ingrown Hair Treatment: Tend-Skin is the best known treatment out there. This will remove the hair in a couple of days. If you happen to be in a pinch or out of the country, rubbing alcohol is a good close second, though Tend Skin works noticeably better. Rubbing alcohol cleans the area, which decreases the infection allowing space for the hair to remove itself. The difference that I noticed with Tend skin is that the skin actively tightens and the hair can be removed. This process is a matter of days in comparison to alcohol which is a week or two.
• Prevent from coming back: Apply baby powder or a chamois cream to stop chafing. Both Johnson and Johnson and Chamois butter are equally effective. It simply depends on if you want to use a powder or a butter. If I feel the area becoming raw, I will pre-emptively put a band-aid in areas where I historically have had trouble.

How to deal with Bum Bruising and Soreness

Having a sore bum after cycling doesn’t feel good whether it’s an ingrown hair or a bruised sit bone. The main thing that you want to focus on when focusing on the butt is to soften the load on the specific area, increase the surface area of where the pressure is coming from and finally, make sure that there is as little rubbing as possible.

Does Saddle soreness go away?

Yes. The good news is after your butt gets used to many of the rides, the saddle soreness does go away. On rides that are longer – 50+ miles, the soreness is suddenly more noticeable than anything under that length and it will take a bit longer for the body to adjust to this stimulus. It will help you to wear padded shorts in the meantime.

Conclusion

Want to know how to treat a sore bum from cycling? The easiest way is to keep riding, while adding padding in the near term so that your body is able to get used to it. For ingrown hair problems while cycling, add a powder or a cream to prevent chafing and allow the second skin to move fluidly on the body. Make sure to find the right padded shorts for yourself and wear them the correct way so that you will feel most happy when doing the longer 50 mile plus rides.