What's That Pain In Your Rear?

A lot of people have complaints of pain with sitting for long periods of time. Some people are plagued by this pain but there is no apparent cause for it. No hemorrhoids. No bulging disc. No apparent hip problems. Just a searing pain that comes on progressively the longer they sit in one spot.

When trying to find where the pain is coming from, nothing seems to bother them until you start pressing around the area of the "gluteal fold". Then you might get a little pain with palpation but nothing to really speak of.

Trying to find a comfortable spot to sit in is usually a challenge. In fact, sitting on a firm surface is out of the question. Most of the time you need to find a pillow or other cushion to sit on. But, even this doesn't last as long as you would like.

So, what's the problem? What is actually going on? Even if you go to the doctor, unless they do a thorough examination, they may not find out the cause. You may have had a MRI or x-ray, but nothing showed up. How are you going to figure out what's causing you this pain?

Sometimes finding out what's causing your problem will take a little more involved searching. You may have to have someone start poking around to see where the pain is actually coming from. Many times, little things can cause big problems. But, the fact that are little things make them hard to spot right off the bat.

Much of the time pain like this comes from a sore tendon. As a reminder, the tendon is the part of the muscle that attaches to the bone. When it comes to muscle pain in the back and hips the typical offenders are the following:

• The Gluteals


• The Piriformis


• The Erector Spinae

That's because the above muscles are usually the culprits in low back pain and sciatica. They are frequently strained when lifting something heavy and/or weakened because you may have a pretty sedentary lifestyle.

However, the one muscle group that really causes a pain in the rear when sitting down is the hamstrings. They are generally thought of as leg muscles. Most people think of the "pulling a hamstring" injury to be one that only athletes get.

But the hamstring can be injured or sore in anyone. And, the reason that it may be causing your pain when you sit is because when you sit down, you expose where the muscle attaches your pelvic bones. People who do yoga actually call these bones the "sits bones".

When you bend at the hip, the bony part of the pelvis called the "ischial tuberosity" moves really close to the surface of the skin and there's not much padding down there. Even for bigger people this is true. If the tendon is really inflamed, this can be a pretty excruciating situation.

To Find out if this is the case, you can lye on your side and bend your hip forward. Then have someone, or you can yourself, palpate the area and see if it's tender. Generally you can locate one pretty tender area between your buttocks and thigh. This is probably the hamstring thats tender where it attaches to the bone. For a second opinion, it's best to consult your doctor, or at least, a physical therapist.

One of the easiest ways to calm this down is with an ice massage to the area. Icing the area can relieve the inflammation and reduce the relative swelling in the area.