Cycling, like any athletic activity, requires a certain tolerance for discomfort. As the saying goes, "no pain, no progress!" But it is important to distinguish between pain that comes from normal or extreme exertion and pain that indicates injury. When you feel that burning in your buttocks, keep an eye out for signs that medical intervention may be necessary.
The glutes are also called the posterior thigh muscles. This group comprises the gluteus minus, medius, maximus and tensor fascia lata . As you can guess from the name, the gluteus maximus is the largest of the glutes. It makes up most of the visible buttock. It is your main hip extender, which powers the downward movement when you pedal. Of all your glutes, the biggest is the one that receives the worst part of your cycling training.
3 possible causes of gluteal pain when you ride a bike
Muscle pain during cycling
Your muscles need oxygen to convert glucose into energy. The more you exercise, the more oxygen your muscles will need. But during a really intense workout, your body's oxygen delivery system eventually lags behind the energy demands of your muscles. When that happens, your body relies instead on an anaerobic process to metabolize glucose. This backup process has an unpleasant side effect: it results in a buildup of lactic acid or lactate. Lactate buildup is what causes that burning sensation in your glutes when you pedal hard. The pain should go away if you take a break and give your body a chance to slow down.
Muscle pain after riding a bike
However, if you experience pain in your buttocks during the days after a very intense bike ride, you can't blame the lactic acid. Delayed-onset muscle soreness ( DOMS ), characterized by muscle pain accompanied by a loss of strength and range of motion that generally peaks 24 to 72 hours after extreme training, has not been found to correlate with lactate levels during the exercise event. Exactly what causes DOMS is unknown. Most research indicates that it has to do with an inflammatory repair response to muscle cell damage that occurs during extreme exercise events. Anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen can reduce pain, but they can also slow down the damage repair process.
Piriformis syndrome
What you're experiencing as butt pain may not be coming from your glute muscles at all. In the case of piriformis syndrome, the piriformis muscle swells and irritates the sciatic nerve , which usually passes under the piriformis, but passes through it in some people. Piriformis syndrome is characterized by deep pain in the buttocks that sometimes radiates down the thigh or lower back, following the path of the sciatic nerve. Treatment for piriformis syndrome usually consists of progressive stretching and physical therapy under the direction of a sports medicine physician. Stubborn cases sometimes require corticosteroid injections.
