Is Biking Good for Your Butt? Everything You Need to Know 

Let’s be real – everyone wants to have a nice-looking butt. It’s why you suffer through squats and glute bridges at the gym and why you never finish a workout without a set of walking lunges. What about cycling? What effect can it have on your butt, a good one or a bad one?

Cycling is largely beneficial for the glutes, which give the butt its shape. However, cycling can also lead to soreness, numbness, chafing, and even erectile dysfunction in some cases. Getting the right type of bike seat can reduce these risks.

In today’s informative article, I’ll take you through the butt benefits and downsides of cycling. There’s lots of great information to come, so check it out! 

The Benefits of Biking for Your Butt 

As I briefly touched upon in the intro, your butt muscles, as they’re informally referred to, are your glutes. You have three muscles here in all, and the biggest of the three is the gluteus maximus. 

Fun fact, the gluteus maximus also happens to be your largest muscle. 

I digress. The muscles on either side of your buttocks do have a purpose, and it’s for more than to make your posterior look good. These muscles allow each thigh to move. 

Cycling tones your glutes, actively strengthening and lifting them. Riding a bike also tones the muscles in your calves, hamstrings, and quads. It’s all lower-body, really. 

The more toned your lower half is, the more your posterior will stand out.

What if you’re trying to work your way to a bigger butt without the plastic surgery? Expanding upon the size of your glutes will give you the illusion of a larger rear, no surgeon required. 

You need to create resistance to grow your muscles, which means you’ll need to do a lot of uphill cycling. At least you can enjoy the thrill of riding downhill once you’re done! 

Now, there is a concern among cyclists that riding too much and getting in all that lower-body cardio can cause the rear to shrink.

If that’s something you’re cognizant of as well, then counteract cycling with squats and the aforementioned rear exercises. 

Lifting weight with your lower half can also keep your butt looking bigger and firmer even if you cycle regularly. 

Tips for Maximizing Glute Usage When Cycling

When a muscle is working, you can usually feel it. Thus, if cycling leaves your butt looking and feeling a bit flat, it’s time to change your strategy. 

Here are some tips that will have you working your glutes like never before.

Actively Trigger the Glute Muscles

Before you start riding, you’ll want to activate those glute muscles. The best way to do that is to squeeze and release and squeeze and release. 

Do this for a few days before your next ride so you can get used to activating your glutes.

Then, once you hop on the bike for your latest cycling trip, each time you’re stroking down on the pedal, I want you to squeeze your glutes. 

You’ll end up doing this a lot, but it’s how you get in a suitable glute workout! 

Stand Up When You Can

While you sit when cycling most of the time, admittedly, you get the most benefit when you stand and pedal. 

When you feel safe, lift yourself off your seat and stand up for a couple of moments. 

At first, you’ll have a hard time sustaining this for more than a few seconds. The more you keep it up though, the easier it will be to do. 

Obviously, you should not stand up in cycling situations that require a lot of your focus and attention.  

You should not ride downhill while standing either, as all your weight shifts towards the front of the bike, which could cause you to tip over. 

Push the Pedal with Your Heels

When you pedal on your bike, what are you pushing with your toes or your heels? For many people, it’s their toes.

Begin using your heels more as you pedal and you’ll work your lower half more effectively when cycling. 

Again, this will take some getting used to, and it’ll be a conscious effort to change your pedaling ways. You’ll get there with time.

The key is maintaining the proper form. If your knees are too far over your feet when you push down with your heels, then you could end up with knee pain that can even lead to knee injuries if you keep pushing through.

Your knees should not extend beyond your toes. Position your body like you’re doing a squat, but on your bike. 

If you have the right form, then pushing the pedal with your heels will not hurt. 

The Risks of Biking for Your Butt (and Related Areas)

As great as cycling can be for working your way up to a stronger, even larger butt, there are some downsides that you have to keep in mind. 

Cycling doesn’t always necessarily only affect the butt but possibly the genitals as well.

Here are the risks to be aware of. 

Discomfort 

Sitting on a bike seat might be fine at first, but if you’re into long-distance or all-day cycling, then by hour two, you’re going to start to feel it. That it, by the way, is pain or discomfort.

The seat feels like a metal box under your thighs and rear. You try to ignore the feeling and focus on the other sensations of the ride such as the fresh air, but the pain is distracting. 

You might even feel inclined to call it a day early because you’re in so much pain! 

Numbness

Perhaps you’re out cycling, and you try to knuckle through as best you can, gritting your teeth and ignoring the mounting pain in your lower half from your bike seat.

What you may find is that the longer you keep at it, the more pain you feel. Eventually, that pain gives way to numbness.

You can try to ignore that too, but the pins and needles sensation that starts in your rear eventually makes its way down your legs.

At that point, you can’t pretend anymore. You’re uncomfortable, and not being able to feel your legs means you can’t pedal to your full effectiveness.

You might end up causing a bike accident (with other cyclists or at the very least, yourself) if you ignore the numbness. 

You need to pull over, get off the bike, let your legs regain sensation, and then make a beeline for home.

If you don’t, the numbness will return! 

Saddle Sores

Saddle sores sound like something that only horse riders need to worry about. Despite the name, it’s actually cyclists who should be wary.

So what is a saddle sore? It’s a lesion that develops if you spend too long sitting on the bike seat. 

As you know if you’ve ever gone riding, you sweat as you cycle. Even if there’s a cool breeze or the overall temperature of the day is not that warm, you’ll still sweat.

Runners sweat when jogging outside, so a cyclist who’s on anything more than a leisurely joyride will do the same. 

The sweat and friction cause saddle sores, which can develop on some very sensitive areas. I’m not talking only your butt but possibly your inner thighs as well. 

For a few days, or maybe up to a week, you’d have to take a break from cycling. In the meantime, you should apply a topical ointment at least once per day every day.

If the saddle sores don’t heal on their own in about a week or two, then you need to see a primary care physician or a specialist to get the sores looked at. You may require a more involved treatment. 

Labial Swelling

Ladies, this one’s for you.

A bike seat isn’t only where you put your butt. For women, depending on the seat and how they’re sitting, parts of the vagina also connect with the bike seat.

Hopefully, there’s not a lot of rubbing going on, or chafing could occur. Many women complain of labial swelling as well. 

Bike seats can be rather unforgiving, and hours upon hours of pressure on the labia from the bike seat will leave them swollen by the time you go home. 

The swelling, although temporary, can be quite painful, as the labia is a rather sensitive area of the body. 

Leaving the area be and giving the bike a rest for a while is recommended. The swelling should go down on its own within the same day.

If you want to help the swelling and reduce pain, place a cool compress on the area and take an over-the-counter painkiller. Be sure to wear loose clothing until the swelling goes down.

Avoid further vaginal irritation as well such as by douching. 

Erectile Dysfunction

It’s not only women who can deal with pain between the legs when cycling. 

According to this article in WebMD, when a man sits on a bike seat, he might compress nerves and arteries in the perineum. This is the area between the anus and the scrotum. 

Those nerves and arteries are connected to the penis. If the nerves are injured, which is likely from prolonged pressure, then a man might at first feel tingling or numbness when he rides a bike.

Eventually, if you keep ignoring the symptoms, erectile dysfunction could result.

The WebMD article notes that this is only a risk for men who cycle for over three hours every week.  

Tips for Cycling with Less Discomfort to the Butt

To wrap up, the following tips should help you enjoy cycling again for what it is, good exercise and a chance to spend time outside. 

Sit Up Straight

How you sit when riding a bike influences how your weight is distributed, and which parts of your body feel it most as you pedal.

When you practice proper form, you’ll also notice that your shoulders, wrists, and hands hurt less because you’re not straining them as much.

Now, I must say, when you sit upright, you are cutting down on your speed because you’re not as aerodynamic. 

That said, unless you’re training for or participating in a cycling race, then speed should not be your goal.

Comfort and enjoyment are your goals, and you’ll have neither if your posture is incorrect. 

Try the No-Nose Seat 

No-nose bike seats are recommended for men dealing with cycling-induced erectile dysfunction, but any man or woman can and should consider switching to one.

This seat style has two long arms or forks but no nose. When using a no-nose seat, your sit bones have more contact points with the seat. 

That should lessen pain and numbness, and, for the fellas, reduce their risk of erectile dysfunction. 

Don’t Use a Saddle That’s Too Small

Bike saddles or seats come in a myriad of sizes. To determine which size you need, you should measure your sit bone distance.

The best way to do that at home involves corrugated cardboard or aluminum foil. Take the cardboard or aluminum foil and put it on a stair. The stair should ideally be carpeted.

Sit on the stair the same way you would sit on a bike, including lifting your feet. 

Now stand up and look at the cardboard or aluminum foil. Do you see indentations? Those came from your sit bones. You can now readily measure the space between them. 

If your bike seat is too small, then it’s no wonder you’ve found cycling to be as painful as it is. A seat that’s too large can make riding difficult, especially for more petite female cyclists. 

Limit Your Ride Time

Although a new seat should hopefully make cycling more comfortable, you still don’t want to overdo it. 

After riding for a couple of hours, at least take a good, long break if you’re not yet ready to retire for the day. 

Conclusion

Biking can be quite good for your butt, as the activity tones, strengthens, lifts, and possibly even enlarges the glute muscles. 

However, cycling has its downsides, including pain, numbness, and possibly genital damage to both men and women.

Using a comfortable seat is critical when biking, as is holding yourself correctly and taking breaks.