Men of a certain age love their ginseng. Ask a ginseng user, and he’ll tell you it gives him more energy. It’s like a cup of coffee without the screeching violins. A health nut will tell you that ginseng is good for the immune system, it increases your concentration, and it’s good for the heart. An old cowboy will tell you it makes his dick hard.
What makes ginseng tick?
Until recently, scientists considered Ginsenosides (ginseng saponins) to be the active ingredient in ginseng. During the past two decades, pharmacists have found another active ingredient called Gintonin, a glycolipoprotein – a protein with bonded carbohydrates and lipids, or fats.
Ginsenoside and Gintonin
Ginsenoside is Yin. It acts as a negative regulator. Gintonin is Yang. It acts as a positive regulator.
Yin
At the atomic level, Ginsenoside blocks positive-charged ions and it enhances negative charged ions. In the amazing factory of our bodies, this atomic action relaxes the excitability of nerves, it relaxes smooth muscles, and regulates heart muscles. In plain language, the Yin property of ginseng is that it soothes jangled nerves, which increases concentration. It lowers high blood pressure and regulates the heartbeat. And because it dilates the blood vessels, it makes that old cowboy one of the favorites at the dance hall.
Yang
At the atomic level, Gintonin increases the calcium ions that play a role in signal transmission along those miles of nerves. In the amazing factory of our bodies, positive calcium ions stimulate neurotransmitter release, increase muscle contraction, and stimulate fertility. In plain language, Gintonin makes the brain and nerves work better, it makes muscles stronger, and yes, that old cowboy is smiling now.
Olga Kramar avoids prirformis syndrome by climbing 22 stories on her way to work each morning.
When you buy a blue bike, you notice other blue bikes. When it hurts to walk, you notice how many riders at rallies walk painfully. Most will talk about sciatic pain. Some really do have a back problem. Most have some combination of muscle and nerve pain. Orthopedics Expert Jonathan Cluett, M.D. Tells us why exact causes ares hard to pin down: It’s all theoretical. Just like so many problems with your bike, ask 3 experts and you’ll get 4 opinions
Three different muscles connect the back to the legs: the piriformis, the psoas, and the gluteus maximus.
All three become annoying when we get “saddle sore.” The fun begins when the glutes spasm, the psoas fires up the core nerves, and the piriformis compresses the sciatic nerve. Dr. Cluett and most trainers call this the Piriformis Syndrome. Common signs and symptoms of piriformis syndrome include:
Pain behind the hip in the buttocks
Electric shock pains down the back of the lower extremity
Numbness in the lower extremity
Tenderness with pressure on the piriformis muscle (often causing pain with sitting on hard chairs)
No one has written about how this comes about for motorcyclists, so let’s have a look at causes, conditions, cures, and prevention.
The Penny Drops
My pain in the tush fired up three years ago. I would arrive at a rally a thousand miles from home, and find that walking was painful. It hurt worse when I stood still, talking with old friends. A nail-in-the-bone pain, that made it hard to straighten up. Sitting on chairs was uncomfortable. Until year three, laying down did not hurt. If I stayed off the bike for a few days, the pain would go away.
When I arrived at the 2014 Top O the Rockies Rally in Paonia, the suffering misery was on me. It would not go away. This was the first long ride on a resurrected K75 S. For years I had ridden RTs. Those bikes can grind out the miles, but, they lack panache. The low bars, the tighter tuck, and the wind rush on the S bike make for a thrilling ride. I had added a layer of high density foam to the seat. The idea came from bicycle. The harder the seat, the longer I could go. Not so on motorcycles. I paid the price for a failed experiment, I thought. But, it was not the hard foam, nor was it the position on the S bike. At the Paonia rally, I was able to remove the seat cover, yank the high density foam out, returning the seat to the way Mike Corbin had builtt it. “Fixed,” I thought. To test my theory, I rode Monarch Pass and back roads through beautiful cuts, a 300 mile round trip from the rally. When I returned, the pain was just as bad. That night, I could not shake the pain. That was new.
Help Arrives
Lucky for me, a massage therapist had set up shop at the rally. Lynn worked on me for half an hour, releasing the hip rotators, glutes, and the piriformis. For an hour, I was pain free. I stayed off the bike the next day and got another massage. That night, the pain was reduced enough to dance. I thought the problem was solved. I was in the eye of a hurricane.
Lynn explained to me that the pain came from my Piriformis, deep in the hind quarter, that attaches to the tail bone on one side, and the top of the leg bone on the other. The swelling and tightness was causing it to press the sciatic nerve, hence the pain that radiated down the hamstrings, into the calf, and caused my heel to tingle. “You guys,” she wagged her finger. “You ride all tucked up tight for how many miles? You’re putting a lot of pressure on the IT band, your glutes are relaxed, and that causes the Piriformis to spasm because it is doing all the butt work.” I ignored her when she said something about a shortened psas. Once I got the piriformis sorted out, the role of the psoas in the aging long distance rider syndrome came to the fore. More on that later.
I concluded , incorrectly, that the genesis of pain was the tight tuck on the S bike. I would have to figure out how to create a taller seat, and maybe lower the pegs. Discussions with several other riders who complained about sciatic pain revealed the real problem. A Canadian fellow said, “Get off the bike every 100 kilometers. Walk around.” I did the math. That’s 60 miles. Impossible. I’d seen Ardys Kellerman ride 1,000 miles without getting out of the saddle. She refueled while sitting. John Ryan rode 400 miles at a stretch with his fuel cell. Could it be that my butt was no longer iron?
Another fellow suggested Kegel exercises while riding, which he explained and demonstrated for me. Native Americans call this the Deer Exercise, which strengthens the pelvic floor. You’ve done it waiting between pee stops. We know it by a more familiar name: Twerking. “It increases blood flow in the compressed sitting muscles and strengthens the core,” he explained.
So, I thought I’d try these two suggestions on the ride from Paonia to St. Paul for the BMW MOA National. But something new occurred. My butt hurt while I was on the bike. The high cost of dancing, I thought. This was new, and worrisome. I found that holding my knees as far apart as possible, a position discovered by most K bike riders with roasting thighs, for a count to 10, followed by ten seconds of twerking, relieved the pain for a few minutes. Holding the knees out relieves the shortened hip rotators and brings the muscles into balance for a sweet few minutes. Twerking increases blood flow, giving compressed nerves a breather.
I did stop every 60 miles. I hobbled around, and stretched, using tecniques learned from Lisa Kinney and Andrea Borella in their Yoga and Chi Gung seminars at rallies. Warrior 1, a stretch familiar to anyone who does yoga, was effective for me. It brought some relief, enough to walk a bit before the pain went shooting down the hamstrings and into the calf, tightening them both. I stopped 50 times on the ride from Paonia to St. Paul, stretching the 1200 miles out to 2 1/2 days. That was a new slow record for me, and the start of something wonderful. It became a “smell the roses” ride. I met locals and chatted with them. I felt the mighty wind on high plains. I stopped in Sturgis and had a buffalo burger at the Knucklehead, then toured the Black Hills. Those seed & grain places with the high towers are a wonderful place to learn about local color, and to share stories of the road with a small crowd. And, they have clean restrooms!
By the time I reached the National in St. Paul, I discovered I could not walk more than 100 feet. That is a problem when you have 5,000 friends waiting to kick tires and tell lies. Fortunately, the grounds abounded with benches. I could sit and lean elbows on my knees, which allowed the spasms to subside. I researched the area at the Internet Cafe and found The American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine a few miles away in Roseville, MN. The wonderful thing about acupuncture schools is that they have a big staff of interns who are available right now and affordable. I became a regular for three days. The needles gave me a few hours of relief. On day two, a very Strong young woman who specialized in Yoga Massage took me on a Trip of Pain. She explained exactly what was going on, and prescribed stretches that you can find if you search for YouTube videos with the delimiter, “piriformis.”
The Causes
Nick Jack at No Regrets Personal Training in Melbourne Australia says it best. Some of this has to do with your anatomical genetic make up, but in most cases it is due to Poor Posture, overuse or repetitive movements coupled with poor strength in the muscles that stabilize the pelvis and hip, being mainly the abdominals and glutes. As the primary muscles of the hip become fatigued, the smaller muscles, like the piriformis, work harder to maintain form. Trying to compensate for stronger muscles is how the piriformis becomes strained. Nick lhas described his wife’s advtures with prirformis syndrome n a comprehensive blog at:
Consider the sitting position on your motorcycle. With the feet spread on the foot pegs, and the glutes immobilized on the seat, the body stops dead in its tracks. This feels stable, but, as core expert Jonathan FitzGordon says, stable isn’t what we are looking for. We want a dynamic body that lives in a quiet state of perpetual motion. Try FitzGordon’s proof:
Stand with your feet together, close your eyes, relax your butt and feel how your body stands in space.
Then do the same thing with the feet hip width apart or wider.
Stand in both positions for a number of times to feel the different way the inner body reacts.
With the feet together there is a feeling of movement within the pelvis as the gluteus medius and minimus doing their internal and externally rotating thing in search of a place of balance. With the feet apart. that all tends go away.
As we ride for long hours, our tightly bent legs put a strain on the IT band (illiotibial tract) which runs down the outer leg from hip to knee. The psoas is shortened. The gluteal muscles are relaxed, and the piriformis starts to do all the butt work. This causes it to tighten up and swell, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve, which is the source of that pain that dances along the rear hip, hamstrings, calf, and into the heel.
I love my ice pack. Often, it is the only thing that will relieve muscle pressure on the firing nerves to the point where I can function.
If your pain has reached a chronic state, as mine had, see your doctr first. He or she may prescribe antiinflammatory and pain medications.
My Doc at the VA Clinic wrote for Prednisone and suggested ibuprofen for pain. Within two days, the medications reduced swelling and pain to the point where I could start releasing trigger points and stretching. If your insurance will pay for it, the physician may prescribe a physical therapist who will help you thorough the following exercises. Some of us don’t have that luxury, and will have to go the “Do It Yourself” route.
Release
The first thing to do is to find and release those knots, or trigger points. Myotherapist Carla Hedtke defines trigger point as a self-sustaining irritated spot in the muscle. It causes the muscle to gradually become tighter and to shorten. This limits function and motion of the muscle causing
weakness and pain. On long rides, the Piriformis contracts and holds, creating tight spots that can be found by sitting on a ball – I like a baseball, but a lacrosse ball or a tennis ball is kinder. Leaving your weight on the ball for a few minutes will release the trigger points. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it, so have a look at some web videos before you try.
YouTube videos offer more comprehensive instruction. Justine Shelton gets into yoga nuances, and you’ll find a variety of techniques in the sidebar at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxsDfXBDZec
Stretching on rides
Tightness of the psoas can result in lower back pain by compressing the lumbar discs. The psoas lifts the thighs toward the belly. When we ride for long hours, the psoas is shortened, and its function is overtaken by the foot pegs. That’s how it gets tight. I believe this tightness is the first step in the process that leads to piriformis syndrome and sciatic pain for many riders Because the top of psoas connects to the front of the spine, rotation will release it. Simply twist the torso from side to side. You can do this to an extent while riding, and more completely at red lights. Hyper extension of the hips – in plain language, sliding the leg backwards, will stretch a tight posas. The perfect combination of these two moves – rotation and hyperextension, is the yoga pose called Warrior 1.
Warrior 1 is a great gas stop stretch. You can do it while filling the bike. It will loosen you up enough to enjoy a walk – which will stretch and loosen the cramped butt, and, if your lucky, lead to some roses yo smell.
Strengthen
Strong gluteus muscles are the key. Climbing stairs is the 3-in-1 answer for many. The gluteus maximus is especially active, and the single leg extension and flexion work the gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus. K13 pilot Olga Kramar avoids prirformis syndrome by climbing 22 stories on her way to work each morning.
Deep Eddie, Austin’s premier deep massage therapist, has three exercises for strengthening the 3 glute muscles using a Theraband or exercise tubing for resistance. Bands and tubing are color coded for strength. Eddy recommends silver for most people, which offers 40% more resistance than black, which works better if you have reached a point of low strength. I like to tie a 36” length into a circle roughly 12 to 14 inches in diameter, and slip it around my ankles for each of Eddy’s three exercises.
1. Gluteus maximus
Hold onto a table or chair for balance.
Slowly lift one leg straight backwards without bending your knee
Hold position for 1 second.
Slowly lower leg. Pause.
Repeat with other leg.
2. Gluteus medius
In the same posture and in the same sequence, lift one leg at a 45 degree angle, i.e., to the rear quarter
3. Gluteus minimus
Standing straight, lift one leg to the side in the same sequence as the previous two exercises.
Eddy’s prescription is to work muscles for 45 seconds to exhaustion only one time (set) in any one day Exercise different muscles 2 days in a row and rest on the third day for growth.
You may become one of the many long riders who suffer from sciatic pain emanating from the Piriformis Syndrome.
If you know the causes and cures. it can be avoided, or staved off so that you may one day garner the Oldest Rider Award. See you down the road.
Acknowledgements
Andrea Borella, BMW MOA Rally Presenter, Follow Along Qigong
Jonathan Cluett, M.D., Orthopedics Expert
Core Power Yoga
Nick Jack, No Regrets Personal Training in Melbourne Australia
Piriformis Syndrome: the anatomy of a pain in the butt 