I have been suffering with a chronic tailbone pain for quite a few months now. The hausarzt was no help, basically flat out said he had no knowledge in this area.
I believe that the tailbone pain was brought on by my seating position on my racing bike. maybe during the winter season on the turbo.
I guess the next step in this journey is to check in with the local physio's in basel. Does anyone know a reliable one for cycling injuries, maybe a sports phsio?
Also does anyone have experience of a similar injury, and how they managed it?
Ask your Hausarzt to refer you to one of the Sports Medicine Clinics, Hirslanden or Crossklinik. Or if you have free choice of doctor, just call them up and explain and ask to see someone appropriate.
I assume you’ve tried ice and anti inflammatories? Not sure a physio can help you. I think you should see a rheumatologist. Hope you get better soon. I had the same problem, It went away after one month, but I avoided sitting down.
I apologize if you knew the stuff in there already.
When I was young, I fell about 2 meters off of a wooden structure thing at our playground and landed right on my bum, in sitting position. Basically, right on my tailbone. I couldn’t walk straight for a couple of days, but thankfully it slowly healed on its own. Hopefully if you do some of the things in that article (like leaning forward when you sit, using a special cushion, ice, etc.) that will help you heal quickly. I think I’ve seen those cushions for sale on amazon.de at a good price.
Good luck and I hope you’re feeling back to normal very soon.
had a bike fit, it improved things but the problem didnt go away completely, although it did lessen. still have pain when sitting in a certain way and after a long ride, even after adjustment.
Chronic pain may never quite go away - you may just need to learn to live with it - unless you are prepared to completely change your habit - which may mean not riding - if that is the trigger…
My tailbone was actually broken after giving birth for the first time - it took months to recover…and there is no ‘real’ treatment -just avoiding further injury and allowing time for the body to heal itself.
Maybe you need a better bike fit with someone with a background in physiotherapy.
There are a lot of variability from bike fitters. Most have a background in selling bicycles: they are pretty good on getting you the right size by following some set rules based on body dimensions, flexibility and riding goals. This will include most Retul fitters. For most people these fittings are perfectly OK.
Others focus more on biomechanics and aerodynamics. A few (good and expensive) ones have more background on physio.
Sorry, can't help with a physio recommendation, but do you by any chance use your phone while cycling on the turbo? Not having your hands on the handlebar to support your weight puts immense pressure on the tailbone/lower back.
It sounds to me as though your riding position is too upright and is putting too much weight on your tailbone. Your weight should be partially held by your arms and your torso should be leaning forward with the weight on your "sit bones", not the coccyx. Do you ride with your hands mostly on the hoods/brake levers? Or do you ride on the drops? If you ride mostly on the hoods (i.e. in a relatively upright position) you might want to consider lowering your handlebars to compensate.
My suggestion is a diagnosis first, eg is it a problem with the nerve, the soft tissue around or the bone?
I've broken the bone mountain biking and my road bike was agony for a month, but an office chair wasn't much fun either, so you sort of know all the time if something's wrong here.
Saddles are very specific for cycling, a model one person swears by can leave another person swearing at it. As Bossa Nova says you want don't want the weight on your coccyx, it should be on the perineum.
To add to this and re-iterate what I said, bike fits can sometimes be problematic in that many people get fit for riding on the drops:
but in reality spend most of their time riding on the hoods:
Or on the tops:
Thus rendering the bike fit kind of useless.
My local bike mechanic says that many riders spend all their time on the hoods or tops so he ends up lowering the handlebars to compensate so they are comfortable, but then the drops end up being too low to be ergonomic and the riders end up hardly ever using them.
Am curious to know what riding position the OP spends most of their time in.
OP, do you do any weight/resistance training for the posterior chain? Training your ass, hamstrings and lower back may counter any imbalances cause by all that pedaling and leaning forward.