Sore Butt Syndrome

[tooni]

As I build my endurance in a quest to complete a full marathon, I’m consistently beset by my butt and it’s insistence that I cease immediately. It plagues me with a pain so intense that I often forget I have been without oxygen for the last 4000 meters.

I would have thought my own padding sufficient, but it’s woefully inadequate. I’ve tried the C2 foam, towels, bubble-wrap and even begun to question if a couple of maxi-pads strapped to each cheek might ease my pain.

I’ve tried working through the pain and made it a couple of thousand meters beyond the halfway point, only to stop, stumble to the hot tub and soak away the tenderness. Does anyone have any suggestions or input?
Thanks!!

[Alissa]

As I build my endurance in a quest to complete a full marathon, I’m consistently beset by my butt and it’s insistence that I cease immediately. It plagues me with a pain so intense that I often forget I have been without oxygen for the last 4000 meters.

I would have thought my own padding sufficient, but it’s woefully inadequate. I’ve tried the C2 foam, towels, bubble-wrap and even begun to question if a couple of maxi-pads strapped to each cheek might ease my pain.

I’ve tried working through the pain and made it a couple of thousand meters beyond the halfway point, only to stop, stumble to the hot tub and soak away the tenderness. Does anyone have any suggestions or input?
Thanks!!

Tooni, can you give us a bit more info? It is pressure on the "sitz" bones? muscle soreness? tailbone pain? More info should give people a better idea which "remedies" might help...

Alissa

[tooni]

Thanks for the reply:
The pain is definitely centered around the “sitz” bones and is quite intense by the time I stop.

[FrankJ]

Tooni,

I have a similar problem and after much experimenting have settled on a 3 layer pad made from a backpacking sleeping pad. I cut ever larger concentric circles to take the pressure off of that area. It works well for me but it took me a couple months to find the right combination of padding and shape to suit me.

FWIW I recently tried on the water rowing in a Peinert Zephyr and found the seat to be so comfortable that I've order one to adapt to my erg. I was able to row in the Peinert for an hour at a time and never even thought about the seat. Of course being new to rowing on water I wasn't pushing very hard but I can hardly wait for it to show up so I can give it a try on the erg.

Frank

[Alissa]

The pain is definitely centered around the “sitz” bones

Hi Tooni,

Perhaps Byron Drachman (who's done some interesting things with seats, one from leather, one that pivots side-to-side, and some with cut-outs) will see this, but in the meantime, here are a couple of threads from the old US Forum which address similar pains and/or seat modifications by others...

My Butt Hurs =o

My Model D Is A Pain In The ...

Erg Mods

You should note that these links are to locked copies of threads from the old forum which C2 has imported onto this board, so you can't post to them and internal links to other forum posts won't work, but all of the external links (like to Byron's pictures) are fine! (You can ID an old post by the addition of "[old]" in front of the poster's name.)

HTH,

Alissa

[Byron Drachman]

Hi Tooni,

"I hear you" as they say. None of the standard remedies such as folded towels, bubble wrap, pads, C2 pads, gel pads, small air cushions, etc. worked for me either. My most comfortable solution to date is a homemade seat with a thick leather top, supported by straps. The leather stretched under the sitz bones.

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/row/n ... ion2_5.jpg

Almost as comfortable is my seat from a shell with a C2 pad trimmed and put on top:

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/row/rockin_seat6.jpg

I got the seat from the Maas Boat company,

http://www.maasboats.com/prices_replace.htm#seats

The seat costs $50 and you can attach it to a scrap of wood as shown, and attach the scrap of wood to the frame that holds the C2 seat. I think a wooden seat would be even better, but this works fine for me. My version has two wooden pieces and I can insert a wooden dowel between the wooden pieces to make the seat unstable, the idea being to strengthen the core and work on balance, and give an on-the-water feeling.

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/row/rockin_seat7.jpg

I don't remember who did this, but someone described taking the C2 seat apart and making holes under the sitz bones, then reassembling with padding, again to take the pressure off the sitz bones. I was tempted to do something like that, but I didn't want to tinker with the original seat. However, I think it is a good idea and might be worth trying.

Someone else once described getting a comfortable small tractor seat and adapting it to the C2.

I'm sure if you try some of these things you'll get something to work for you and enjoy your C2 a lot more.

Byron

[tooni]

Thanks to all!!

I thought I was deformed or something worse. The suggestions are all being considered and I'll let you know when I've conquered the seat issue.

My goal is to have my legs and arms fail before my derierre.

[Andy99]

Would it help to wear padded cycling shorts?

[johnlvs2run]

I have rowed 110 km in a day, with the regular seat and unpadded nylon lycra shorts.

In the process of doing 1 million meters in 19 days last fall and a high day of 80+ km one day then 70+ km for three days in a row I found it was helpful to put a layer of 1/2 inch semi hard foam on top of the seat. I used two pieces of the foam, with a 1 inch space down the middle in between them.

The foam was $10 at an auto supply store for six pieces of 2' x 2' foam.

I have added two layers of this semi hard foam in two sections to a wood base which makes a permanent seat for the rowing machine. The foam is two layers thick on each side, with a 1 inch open space between each side to allow the heat to escape and for comfort. This works very well and is much more comfortable than the regular seat.

[bw1099]

Tooni,

FWIW I recently tried on the water rowing in a Peinert Zephyr and found the seat to be so comfortable that I've order one to adapt to my erg. I was able to row in the Peinert for an hour at a time and never even thought about the seat. Of course being new to rowing on water I wasn't pushing very hard but I can hardly wait for it to show up so I can give it a try on the erg.

Frank

I used to row a Peinert Dolphin and my butt would always hurt after 40-50 minutes. Recently I switched to a Peinert 26, and I noticed that I could row longer without the pain. The seat is a different design than the Dolphin. But the comfort didn't last. The last time I was out in the 26, my butt started to hurt just like before.

bw

[Andy99]

I have rowed 110 km in a day, with the regular seat and unpadded nylon lycra shorts.

In the process of doing 1 million meters in 19 days last fall and a high day of 80+ km one day then 70+ km for three days in a row I found it was helpful to put a layer of 1/2 inch semi hard foam on top of the seat. I used two pieces of the foam, with a 1 inch space down the middle in between them.

The foam was $10 at an auto supply store for six pieces of 2' x 2' foam.

I have added two layers of this semi hard foam in two sections to a wood base which makes a permanent seat for the rowing machine. The foam is two layers thick on each side, with a 1 inch open space between each side to allow the heat to escape and for comfort. This works very well and is much more comfortable than the regular seat.

Dont get me wrong but for $850 bucks in my opinion the seat should be perfect. There should be no need to mod the seat for comfort. I know alot of people do it but Concept should look in to this in the next model if the seat is so uncomfortable.

[ehagberg]

The problem is that no seat will be perfect for everyone - at least not over long distances.

So C2 has a seat that works very well for just about everyone at the 2k race distance and is fine for up to probably 20-30 minutes for most people as well.

Start making the seat more "comfortable" and you'll cause different pains for different people.

I believe it's a similar story with bicycle seats - not many racing seats that come on multi-thousand dollar bikes are all that much of a joy to sit on for very long (at least not until you're used to them).

Maybe people just need to keep at it until their posterior adjusts to the demands of the C2 seat?

[johnlvs2run]

Dont get me wrong but for $850 bucks in my opinion the seat should be perfect. There should be no need to mod the seat for comfort. I know alot of people do it but Concept should look in to this in the next model if the seat is so uncomfortable.

Agreed.

[Rockin Roland]

Tooni,

FWIW I recently tried on the water rowing in a Peinert Zephyr and found the seat to be so comfortable that I've order one to adapt to my erg. I was able to row in the Peinert for an hour at a time and never even thought about the seat. Of course being new to rowing on water I wasn't pushing very hard but I can hardly wait for it to show up so I can give it a try on the erg.

Frank

Good to see that you've given the real rowing a try Frank. Seats in a rowing boat can get very uncomfortable too. I started with a timber seat in my boat and could only last an hour on it. Then I tried the backpackers closed cell foam padding you described and still found it uncomfortable.

Drawing from my experiments, rowing boat seats have holes in them where the butt cheaks go and for good reason. When I tried putting foam on the seat it made no difference to butt pain because the foam covered up the holes. However when I cut holes in the foam to match the holes in the boat seat it made a huge difference and solved my butt pain problems.

I think it would help greatly if erg seats came with holes where the butt cheaks go, just like in rowing boats. Having said that though, anything more than 30 minutes on an erg is far too long anyway. After that I believe you should be going outside to get some fresh air and enjoy the sun shine.

[Bob S.]

Drawing from my experiments, rowing boat seats have holes in them where the butt cheaks go and for good reason. When I tried putting foam on the seat it made no difference to butt pain because the foam covered up the holes. However when I cut holes in the foam to match the holes in the boat seat it made a huge difference and solved my butt pain problems.

I think it would help greatly if erg seats came with holes where the butt cheaks go, just like in rowing boats. Having said that though, anything more than 30 minutes on an erg is far too long anyway. After that I believe you should be going outside to get some fresh air and enjoy the sun shine.

The model B came with a seat that had depressions for the ischia (spelling?) and I never had any trouble with mine at home, but I never did more than an hour at a time in those days. Then the club bought model Cs when they came out and I was shocked at how uncomfortable the new seats were. I stuck with the model B for a long time and finally bought a new (used for the satellite regatta) D in early february of this year. I had noticed that all the Ds at my old club were equipped with the C2 pads, which have holes at the proper places, so I immediately installed one on my new D. I gave away my old B, but was tempted to keep the seat.

I have done only one FM and that was on the D, with both bubble wrap and a folded towel. I can only say that the butt pain inspired me to better time than I might have had if I weren't so eager to get the damn thing over with.

Having the holes helps a lot, but there has got to be some variation in the spacing and shape of the ischia in the human species. One size is not going to fit all.

Bob S.