Body symmetry problem?

[EarthRower]

I am right-handed. My left glut tends to be more tensed and requires a longer time to warm up than my right side. During long rowing (>40 min), the left glut tends to fall asleep. The seat pad I use shifts slightly to the left side of the seat during a long session. Is this a body symmetry problem? Which muscle group might be responsible for it, and how can I remedy it? Thanks!

[Sakly]

Could be asymmetries, could be asymmetrical power generation on the rower. Most likely it is related to your lifestyle and what you do day in day out. No other sports activity? Mostly sedentary activity/work? That could be reasons to develop imbalanced muscle tone and weaknesses that develop to such symptoms.

It is very difficult to help for such stuff over internet.

[jamesg]

Same problems, but much older here.

Since I put a thin rope round my various cushions and under the erg seat they haven't moved at all. Tied with a bowline and two half-hitches it's easy to adjust or remove.

To avoid all aches and pains I never do long pieces without stopping every 5-7 minutes, as when at school 60 odd years ago; which also lets me do them at higher Work than otherwise. This is how rowing is done anyway, and has a large advantage: can keep fit by doing no more than 2 hours a week (last week 22km in 6 days using C2 WODs). My last 2k/½k speed ratio was 85%.

[GlennUk]

FWIW IME 'seat issues', ain in my case, arose out of a combination of factors i found.

Seams, seat pad movement and slouching.

Whatever you wear, make sure there are no seams or wrinkles which after quite short times can cause areas of pressure which may give rise to discomfort and ultimately pain, i suspect if in the 'wrong' place they could also cause the affected area to lose sensation too. I now wear lycra shorts/tights and nothing else, underpants wear the bain of my life in this respect.

I have spent quite a lot of time on the erg over the past two years, mainly aimed at endurance erging ie. FM upwards, and my training regime usually means i erg continuously for at least 45mins and depending on the part of my training plan up to three hours at a stretch. I did a much longer row and in the build up to that had some issues with seat pad movement, although i didn't identify it immediately, but it sounds similar to your problem in that the pain always arose in my right buttock. I was using a Citrius Remux seat pad just laid on the C2 seat and found that it was moving very slightly, i would say of the order of a few millimetre, maybe 5-10mm over a period of time. I haven ow use velcro pads to fix it in place and i rarely have any issues in this department at all, even up to periods of over three hours.

Edit: as a thought for asymmetric problems I suspect it is simply a factor that our bodies are only symmetrical superifically, you have have heard that if we have a pair of something, one is always bigger than the other! I dont see any reason why there should not be slight differences in the strength/power of two muscles which are superficially the same and would give rise to pain on one side of our body due to changes in pressure that such differences give rise to. It wold also be largely true imo that such differences would materialise during longer sessions and be unnoticed during short duration exercises except where 'extreme' differences arise.

Finally, i did a 116K row where i did have 'seat issues' after about 9 hours, and i am pretty certain that the problem was that as i got tired i struggled to maintain good posture and tended to slouch. I found that although the pain didn't go, sitting tall reduced the discomfort (although i still had to get on and off the erg periodically to relieve the absolutely agony to allow me toc omplete the session.

HTH Glenn

[p_b82]

You may find that when you sit down and set your backside, on the right, you get it in a slightly "better" position without any pressure on the muscle from the sit bones, but your left is being pinched a bit.

You may want to try angling the seat pad a little differently left/right to find the right angle/spot that works for both of your glutes.

I also had some pinching issues on the back of the hamstring, with my feet too low, but it transferred into the glutes as numbness.

With the C2 pad, I can go up to about 70mins, but I get discomfort then pain in the glutes beyond that - so I'm thinking of trying a different pad (without one I was hitting that point around 40mins).

[EarthRower]

Lots of great suggestions here! Thanks, everyone!

I sit most of the day in front of a computer. I did some weight lifting (mainly barbells) in my younger years. I now occasionally lift some weights (dumbbells) and find my left side clearly weaker. Such asymmetry might have been concealed during my barbell training days. I will try to add more dumbbell work to even my sides up.

I think during longer rowing, my left side is tired first, leading to a change of form and body position. Hopefully, the dumbbell work will help in the long run.

A pair of proper pants is important. Rowing first thing in the morning in my basement, I wear my boxer only without a shirt . Sometimes the fabric creases up, and it really can hurt. Interestingly, my pants had scraped off my skin twice, and both were on the right buttock. It's another sign that I am not perfectly symmetrical.