I like free

Forgive me if this is the wrong forum. But I hope some one here can point me in a direction as I have had no help from Dr's so far.
I cycle (road bike) about 100 miles a week. When I really crush the pedals like climbing or into the wind I get pain in my right groin area. Not down low like a bad seat but in the leg crease (don't know the exact term for thar area) and it radiates to my quadracep at times and if I go further it goes to my back. I also do yoga and stretch frequently. Funny thing is as soon as I get off the bike and stand up straight to pain seems to just go away which makes it really hard to describe to a Dr. They have taken x-rays, poked around, and I went to PT for 6 months. Nothing has helped. I have tried every stretch I can find to no avail. ANyone else have similar pain? If so what was the diagnosis? Doc has sad I don't have a hermia which I tend to beleive because it hurts no other time than cycling. I can lift, run and pretty much do any other activity without pain. I will admit that the only fit I have ever had is just a cursory one and the guy said everything looked good. Heck I rode for years on the same setup with no pain but I have gotten faster and do push harder so I don't know if that is a good barometer.

Any help is appreciated.

ftwelder

I have painful tendons in my upper leg. It only hurts when I lift my foot to put it on the clutch of my automobile. I treat it like tendonitis and jam my thumb in there and press on it or if at home, I jam my heel in there and press hard. It will go away for a day or two.

GeorgeBMac

It almost sound like something is getting pinched in there -- and there are lots of big, fat nerves running through that area.

I am thinking that your hips may be out of alignment -- or get that way as you work harder and get more tired.

My own case may serve as an analogy: As I got stronger and stronger and pushed harder and harder on the bike I started getting pain right below my right knee. The sports doc took a bunch of X-Rays & MRI's and such and saw nothing structurally wrong -- so I got sent to PT.

What I discovered during that process was:
First, as I tired, my upper torso began to slump.
Then, that pulled my lower hip/pelvic bone back into the saddle
Then, that pulled on the adductors of my leg
Then, that pulled my knee in towards the top-tube.
Then, that changed the equilibrium of the muscles and placed additional strain on the medial quads -- which got strained and sore...

Obviously, that is not your specific problem -- but the general idea may pertain: Where, as you tire your body adjust and changes -- which causes something in your hip area to be 'not quite right'.

A fitting might help -- but I suspect that may be difficult if your body is shifting and changing as you tire (as mine did).
... So, observe your body carefully as you ride and try to observe ANY & ALL of the changes in position that may trigger additional changes elsewhere in your body.

In addition, I have to wonder if some cross training focusing on strength would help. Yoga and stretching are great -- but do not do a lot for strength. For me, that was one of the things that helped me to avoid the pain -- strengthening my core (with Pilates) and strengthening ALL the muscles in my legs with ankle weight exercises. It wasn't that the additional strength caused me to avoid the pain directly -- but now it is easier to keep everything in line as I ride.
( I have also become more mindful of what my overall body is doing on the bike)

... Hope that helps!

2manybikes

I have had hip and leg pain all my life, started missing work from it at age 27 I'm now 63. A crushed disc showed up in an x ray. Surgery was suggested. I tried everything except surgery, PT. sports doc who thought it was in the hip, (gave me hip injections), acupuncture, chiropractor, anything. I got so bad I could not walk to another room at one point. All the doctors said they could help me. None did.

Until I went to a neurologist with modern knowledge and sophisticated equipment. He sent bursts of electricity from my lower back through my body to different places where he pit the other electrode pin.He was checking the resistance of the nerves. The first thing he said was "you don't need surgery".
He discovered it was pinched nerves in my lower back in the muscles, not the disc. Now if I turn the wrong way, or bend over etc. and hurt my back, that shows up as hip pain, I get "trigger point" injections of a muscle relaxer in the lower back, and I'm fine for a while. He figured this out in a couple of visits. No one else got it right for decades.

Find a good neurologist. If it's not pinched nerves at least you ruled that out,

I like free

Thanks guys! That make sense about posture when tired. I have really been trying to focus on what I'm doing when it occurs. I know that I'm right leg dominant so I really try and ease up on that side and let the left do some work. I suppose there was a time when the lungs would quit long before the legs so it may be an issue that has always been there it just didn't show up until the last 2-3 years as I have train on the road bike more. And it may be time for another fit since I'm sure my posture and style have changed since I started.

Carbonfiberboy 

My guess is that you strained a ligament. I did that racing XC skiing in my youth. It took literally years to completely heal. Couple things you could try: ibuprofen therapy. Take 600 mg 4X/day or about every 6 hours for about 10 days. See if that helps or even fixes it. If it fixes it temporarily, it's just tendinitis.

I assume you ride clipless? If you don't, get clipless and learn how to use your pedals. Either way, change your pedal stroke so that you hardly push down at all, even when going hard. Do 2 minute one-legged pedaling intervals, either on trainer or rollers or on a slight incline. Do them until you can't anymore and do them about once a week for a few months. Then when you pedal normally, push forward at the top, pull back at the bottom, and unweight the pedal on the upstroke. Try to feel like you're not pushing down, but rather spinning the pedals evenly like a turbine.

berner

There is a possibility it could be your saddle causing the pain. I say that because I have a saddle, no longer in use, that causes similar discomfort. I found that, for me a saddle with a very narrow horn works best. The saddle I no longer use is only 4 mm wider than the saddle that works fine. These two saddles are nearly identical Specialized models. By eye one cannot detect a difference and I'm amazed a mere 2 mm per side can make such a difference.

I like free

It may have been a saddle/reach issue. I flipped my stem and lowered the nose 1 notch on the saddle and the last ride seemed better. I don't do well at 1 legged drills on the road but I did try a trick another rider showed me. Count your pedal strokes but count on the weak leg. Just doing this tends to draw your focus to the weak leg and uses it more. I've only done it on 2 training rides so far but it seems to work better than the 1 legged drills for me.

hermanchauw

Get another more qualified rehab therapist.

Machka 

1. Have you tried a chiropractor?

2. Have you tried a different saddle ... or several different saddles?

3. Have you been to a bicycle shop to work with them to get you fit on your bicycle?

Dirt Road

Have you tried rotating the saddle a degree or two left or right to see if that changes anything? It may be addressing the symptom instead of the cause, of course, if it does alter your experience, especially since you're light in the saddle when climbing or powering down, but it's easy enough to try once.

achoo

Sounds just like a strained hip flexor.

Ice it - with big bag sitting on it for a good 30 minutes, a couple of times a day. Better yet, climb up to your waist into an ice-bath whirlpool... In my experience - and the experience of my college football training staff - heat is counterproductive. At best.