Coach’s Corner — Soft-Tissue Discomfort

3 Cures for Soft-Tissue Discomfort When Cycling

Our Coach’s Corner series is your chance to have your biggest cycling questions answered — right from longtime cycling coach Darryl MacKenzie. In these short Q&As, Coach Darryl speaks from his 35+ years of cycling and coaching experience to help you become a stronger, smarter cyclist.

Uncomfortable Cyclist:
Coach, I love cycling, but I am getting soft-tissue pain during and after my rides. This is something that no guy wants to have. What can I do to prevent this uncomfortable situation?

Coach Darryl:
Discomfort in your genitals — we’ll call it your “personal equipment” will never fail to grab your attention, that’s for sure. And while the initial soreness during the ride is certainly noteworthy, the real worry begins when the pain or numbness persists. You may wonder, How long will this last? 

Fortunately, there are a few easy ways to address discomfort in your genitals and get back to comfortable rides. 

1. Get Your Shorts Right

The first thing you should do (if you haven’t already) is assess your shorts. Some riders go without cycling shorts, and that can put you on the fast track to pain. Your shorts should have a thick pad that moves easily inward — like a sponge — when you press it with your hand. A pad that's too stiff may be uncomfortable.  

Don’t like the look of cycling shorts? You can buy cycling pants designed to be used like underwear, so you can wear traditional non-cycling shorts over them. And don’t worry, this won’t break the rule of wearing nothing between you and your chamois. The pad goes right against your body as it would with regular cycling shorts.

You can also find shorts with built-in padding that don’t look like cycling shorts. These tend to be popular for socializing after rides. 

Whichever option you choose, be sure you have a spongy pad to ease the pressure on your sit bone and your personal equipment. This is an essential first step — but the next two are more likely to fix your issue.

2. Use the Right Saddle

Many cyclists overlook an even more critical component for comfort: The saddle. The saddles on most new bikes have little or no padding — and it seems the more expensive the bike, the more uncomfortable the saddle! They are designed to look sleek and aero, not to be comfortable. It’s no wonder many cyclists want relief after a few hours “up close and personal.”

The good news? There is a saddle that will keep you comfortable, no matter how far you pedal. The Selle Anatomica saddle was designed for all-day comfort by a cyclist who completed more than 50 double centuries (200-mile rides). 

Selle Anatomica saddles have an area about 6 inches long — from just behind the nose to the back of the saddle — that is only flexible leather with no rigid plastic or metal frame. The leather moves with your body as you pedal each leg up and down. No resistance = no sit bone pain of soft-tissue irritation. 

Not only that, but the saddle is so soft and flexible that it begins to mold to the shape of your body in the first few minutes after you start riding. The hard leather on other saddles, meanwhile, takes many weeks of pedaling 100 miles to adapt to the rider.

Here’s some living proof that it makes a difference: Before I discovered Selle Anatomica saddles, I used to apply saddle sauce to three different spots to stay comfortable on rides. In the 11 years since I made the switch, I haven’t opened a single container of saddle sauce.

3. Arrange (And Rearrange) Your Personal Equipment

There’s one more way to prevent soft-tissue discomfort — and this has nothing to do with your bike equipment or what you’re wearing. It’s about how you arrange your personal equipment. After you get your leg over the bike, before you start pedaling, rearrange your equipment. Reach down and pull everything up toward your belly button so there’s nothing between your legs. 

Here’s the idea: When you’re pedaling fast, say at 80 rpm, your legs are grinding past one another 160 times per minute, or 5,000 times per hour — 15,000 times on a typical three-hour ride!

That’s a recipe for irritation or numbness, and hence why you need to pull up your personal equipment to make sure nothing is there to rub. And not just at the start. Throughout the ride, you’ll need to repeat this rearrangement every 15 to 25 miles. It may feel awkward adjusting yourself around other riders — but you’ll perfect the art of doing it discretely.