At the end of last year I received treatment from an osteopath for my saw hip. He felt the problem was primarily in my right gluteus muscles. A lot of the treatment involved deep massage – working on the tender muscle. He was trying to loosen the knotiness.
When he did a similar deep massage on the left glute, it wasn’t painful. So it was reassuring, in the sense that he found something which wasn’t right. The interesting thing is that when cycling, the problem manifested itself near the hip. (sacroiliac joint was mentioned a lot.)
A few years ago, I bought one of these massage foam rollers from Amazon. Trigger Point Performance Foam Roller (£30)
roller-massage
Initially I bought to work on some tight hamstrings. But, it was recommended by osteopath for working on the glute as well.
It’s fairly easy to use, just roll around and work the muscles you want to give a bit of a massage.
At around £30, it is certainly much cheaper than paying for a daily massage. It was useful to use over Christmas holidays when I was abroad.
Conclusion
For those of us who do not have access to daily sports massage (like the pros) this is a good second-best solution. I feel the massage of glutes has helped to work through the problem. It is still there a little, but I will persevere with steady training and a bit of self-massage.
In retrospect, I wish I had used more massage back in June after big mileage month and the 12 hour.
Seconded on the rollers’ effectiveness. I had some IT band issues last winter but since getting one in March had no problems, despite increasing milage a lot.
If you watch Premier League Rugby on the tv, you see these rollers in most dressing rooms. I have 2, the one shown and another with more pronounced ridges.