Got a Bum Rod? Pain doesn’t just stop after you have hip arthroscopy
by Dr. Ginger Garner PT, DPT, ATC-Ret
What is a bum rod and do you have it? Well, it’s a sensitive topic. But it basically means you have pain that feels like a rod going up your, well, bum. It may sound funny, but it’s anything but that when you have it.
Bum Rod Defined
Bum rod is actually a phrase one of my patients came up with – and it really perfectly describes how many people feel when they have had a hip labral tear and hip impingement. The feeling can be like a stiffness in the tailbone area, pain up the back, or even a burning, hot poker-type feeling that starts around the tailbone and shoots up and out across the back and hips.
Not a fun feeling at all, and one that will persist or even worsen without treatment, here are a few possible contributors to it. And to get the full story, watch the video below as I elaborate on each point!
Here are a few (but not all) possible main contributors of a “Bum Rod”:
©2023 Ginger Garner. All rights reserved.
- Coccygeus tightness or spasm – see the diagram above and below, the coccygeus comes off the bottom edge of your sacrum, near the tailbone
- Sacral multifidi spasm – these muscles are located under your sacrum, below your low back, behind the little “holes” of the sacrum
- Pelvic floor tightness or dysfunction – these are the “levator ani” muscles, part of your pelvic “bowl” (see below)
- Obturator Internus tightness – this muscle is a hip rotator (see below)
- Tailbone rigidity – there is nothing worse than a tailbone that doesn’t move. It can wreak havoc on pelvic girdle (back, hip, and pelvic) health.
These aren’t the only reasons, but they are some of the top ones.
I recently shared a video on FB of some of the potential causes. Watch it here
Used with kind permission from the author (Garner, G ©2016) and Handspring Publishing Ltd, Edinburgh, UK.
Used with kind permission from the author (Garner, G ©2016) and Handspring Publishing Ltd, Edinburgh, UK.
Watch the video here
Workshops & Resources to Address “Bum Rod”
- Join the Conversation! Our closed, permission only private Hip Labral Tear & Impingement Physical Therapy FB Group
- Read more on Hip Arthroscopy Recovery
- Does Your Psoas Speak? Workshop
- Snarky Psoas: To Stretch or Not to Stretch? Workshop
- Hip Preservation, Not Hip Opening: Making Yoga Fit Your Hips Workshop
- Is it my SIJ, Back Pain, or my Hip?
- Do I have a Hip Labral Tear? Self-Care Tips & Self-Assessment Techniques
- Book a Free Consult with Dr. Garner
- Find a pelvic health therapist near you
