Training & Nutrition - umm .. numbness?

on my saturday morning ride, i experienced numbness for the first time ever in my.. special area..

i reached down and felt nothing, and honestly, i was scared. after getting up out of my saddle for a bit, i regained all feeling..

is this a simple issue of saddle placement or something else to worry about?

mc

Originally posted by mcutt
on my saturday morning ride, i experience numbness for the first time ever in my.. special area..

i reached down and felt nothing, and honestly, i was scared. after getting up out of my saddle for a bit, i regained all feeling..

is this a simple issue of saddle placement or something else to worry about?

My boyfriend experienced a similar problem. The numbness did not stop though and he ended up going to a specialist. Here are some of the recommendations the specialist made to him to avoid further problems:
1. Get up off the saddle every 10-15 minutes of cycling to relieve the pressure on the crotch area (that is where the arteries and nerves are being compressed - causing numbness)

2. Lowering the seat a bit so the legs support more of your weight.

3. Changing the angle of the seat so the nose (front of the seat) points slightly downward.

This may be an embarassing topic but serious problems can arise and it is important to get medical attention if the numbness does not go away after a reasonable period of time or if other symptoms - i.e. varying degrees of impotence are noticed.

Justen

I should add that I am female. Just so there are no misinterpretations.

You might also want to check out a new saddle, I have one that has a cut out for that area and it seems to help.

On my MTB, I didn't have one of these and it would go numb pretty quickly.

Last weekend did a 25 miler on my Road bike with no problems.

I have a Selle, that has the cutout. I like it alot. So I ended up with one on my MTB as well.

Like said above, be sure to get up out of the saddle periodically to help get blood circulating around as well.

Definitely check the saddle. I had mine adjusted in such a way that after some time, it would make that area feel pretty uncomfortable, but when I lowered the front of the seat down, it moved the pressure center to the butt, instead of you know what :), so try to play with saddle positioning. :D

I bought a Selle San Marco Aspide Arrowhead, it was designed by some sort of doctor to reduce problems down there. Click Here (http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=16412)

The saddle position should be adjusted so that you have most of your weight on the wide part and there should be little tendency to slide forward onto the narrow nose end in normal riding. Terry Liberator type saddles helped me a great deal, but tend to soften up after 3-5kmi and need to be replaced but they are fairly cheap. Short spells of numbness are ""OK" for the interim but long term fix the saddle: position and type. On one of my bikes I had to switch to a seat post that would allow the post to be rotated 180deg thus moving the saddle ~1" closer to the bar. Long term repeated or prolonged episodes of numbness (hours after end of ride) can be problematic as there is (generally) reversible damage to the neurovascular structures controlling erection. A few well publicized reports in the medical literature show that a few people have had nonreversible problems. How much of this is truly bike related is the question, all reports are for small #s of subjects. The problem is solvable and needs to be corrected. Steve