Tingling/ numbness after riding a stationary bike

Dear Mods,

If this is not the right place for this thread, please relocate it to the right forum :)

Almost every time I use a stationary bike to exercise, after finishing the exercise I feel a kind of tingling sensation on my glans and some numbing on the PC muscle. Nothing that worries me too much, but I´d like to know something, does anybody else feel something like this/ know the causes ?

Thank you,

longirth

It’s most likely because of pressure on the perineal nerves. http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/F … endal_nerve.svg

A narrow hard bike seat can do this.

I’m a cyclist and I suffer from this as well. As you might expect I’m also interested to know if it is a problem. I haven’t noticed and problems as yet but I am still worried about possible long term issues.

If the seat is adjustable, you might try adjusting the angle to reduce the pressure. Also try scooting back a little farther on the seat to make sure most of your weight is being supported by the widest part of the seat. That small adjustment can make a huge difference.

The contact point between you and the bike saddle needs to be your ‘sit bones’. Stationary bikes are notoriously bad for this, as the seat has to accommodate all sizes and shapes, and the frame is often not the right size for the person using it, as it’s an ‘average’. If you find the pressure from the seat is in front of your sit bones, you will be resting the pressure on your perineum and will get the problems you describe.

I find most stationary bikes have big, wide women’s seats. Unless you have a ‘woman’ sized gap between your legs, you will tend to slide forward on the seat so that the inner tops of your thighs don’t rub on the seat. That puts the narrow front part of the seat in contact with your perineum, which is not good. Guys seats are narrow for a reason!

If only you use the bike, change the seat to one which supports your sit bones. If you are a serious cyclist, get a ‘turbo trainer’ and stick your road bike into it. Problem solved. :)

This is not to be taken lightly, it can end up causing nerve damage and impotence.

Look back in my times there weren’t no fancy hi tech seats. All you had to do was to lower the bike seat point to an angle 10 to 15 degrees below horizontal. That way, you avoid pressure on the perineum/prostate area and you use the Ischium bones aka sit bones to contact the surface.

That’s all as simple as it can get, but nowadays they need to rip you off selling you fancy anatomical bike seats and last time I was at the bike shop to buy a seat the lady goes, ‘well sir that’s the wrong seat for you as that’s for ladies the male seats have a groove to make space for your prostate and are you a male?’ Then I go, ‘Yo! male stands to female like lady stands to gentleman so just call me gentleman you fat bike shop fat ass bitch!’

aarrgghh!!

God bless,

Mentula

It´s not my bike, it´s one of the bikes at my gym, but what I find strange is that the seat is rather large and wide. I´ll try to adjust it differently the next time I use it and see what happens. Just as firegoat said, I feel as if the bulk of my weight rests on my perineum, the numbness begins and after I get up and leave the bike, the tingling comes.

Another time when I feel something strange on my glans is when I use the seated leg curl machine. Not that I´m using it too much these days, as I removed nearly all machines from my routine. Anyone else experiences this ? :)

Guess it´s time to stop using the bike and proceed to the treadmill… :)

Thank you for all the answers !

Good news for cyclists: Cycling does not damage men’s sexual or urinary functions

Use the bike. I was a competitive cyclist. Just get off of the seat every ten minutes or so. That will restore blood flow. Use that time to do a sprint or heavy load.