My unicycle rides have been getting longer as I get better. I’ve started having pain in my tailbone, but I’m not sure if its as a result of unicycling or something else. Is tailbone pain common in unicycling? Does anyone else experience pain?
I have never gotten any pain there as a direct result of riding but i have fallen backwards and hit it. My brother recently did that and hit so hard that he couldn’t really do anything without extreme pain for around two weeks.
I do suffer from time to time , I find I have to get on top with stretches to prevent pain.
In cases I know about symptoms like you describe, the major reason was tension, sensitivity or insuffiecient strength in gluteal muscles connecting to your tailbone. Things you could try:
- rolling over a tennis ball or something larger / harder, to find and release tense parts in the muscles
- Squat exercises and other training, to develop strength in those muscles and improve tension regulation / load tolerance.
- when you have active pain, move those muscles with light activity. May sound paradox, but that could be biking in a very easy manner, with that you can find your (low and easy) level of activity to decrease stress / tension in those muscles.
- whatever you try and feel to be helpful, use it regularly
Thanks! I’ll have to try some of these
Pilates is great for this, especially as one learns to ‘tilt your sitbone’.
I have a rather sensitive tailbone, as a result of a fall (b!cycle, icy conditions…) years ago - didn’t use studded tires back then . So far I never had problems when unicycling (as long as not falling on my bum). That said, I’m not riding for hours…
In my experience, tailbone pain isn’t a thing in terms of riding, other than landing on it. And this not a common occurrence beyond the learning-to-ride stage, unless you’re working on tricks. I have vivid memories of learning to wheel walk, forward and backward, in my garage, and several landings that were basically tailbone-first. Those had a tendency to make you reconsider whether you liked riding unicycles…
This does not mean you don’t have something going on there. It might be posture-related or could be something else. Sitting up straight is generally the most back-friendly posture for riding a unicycle (and most things). We generally aren’t completely vertical, unless riding slowly, but we also don’t want to strain the lower back. You could try making adjustments to your riding position and see where that goes. If pain persists, you may want to ask a medical athletic professional.
From what I recall (and that becomes dicier year by year) women learning to unicycle tend to fall off backward and land on their tailbones. Much more so than men, boys, or girls. Maybe a center of gravity thing. I know it’s been discouraging for many women learning to ride and I’ve heard of too many quitting as a result of this. You don’t mention falling when learning, though, so perhaps this doesn’t apply to you.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. I can’t recall the last time I fell off my unicycle backwards though. My most recent fall was on an uphill so I fell forward.