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603
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1/23/2019
Location
Egg Harbor City, NJ, USA
Edited Date/Time
10/28/2024 6:58am
Curious how many people deal with numb hands while racing and riding? Ive never been an arm pump guy, thankfully. But my hands do pump up/cramp during early laps, mostly behind the thumb in the palm but that usually subsides. What does subside is the numb hands. I can slow down and shake them out and be good for a few minutes but it comes back. This is something that is seemingly getting worse as i get older. Looking for possible suggestions to help. I should add that this started as a moto/mountain bike thing but has progressed to waking up at night with numbness and tingling as well.
1. Determine better Bike Setup
2. Ride more
Many threads on carpal tunnel, search for them and take a day to read through all the BS. Basically wrist braces at night and if that doesn't work then surgery. Braces helped me out quite a bit for 3 years but I still ended up having surgery in September on both hands and elbows. No numbness driving since, I've ridden my mountain bike several times and it's night and day better than before! First time really riding my race bike was on Saturday and no numbness at all. My hands, wrists, and ribcage are sore, but I haven't ridden in two months so I was expecting it. I'm 38 and wish I would have had surgery 10 years ago!
My hands go numb, especially in long 2 hour + off road races.
The main thing I’ve noticed that has helped that for me is more cardio, more water intake, and rowing machine.
Also riding more. Ride through the numbness if you can.
Big feat for me this last weekend was I did my first 30+ 2 moto on a MX track at pace. My last 2 laps were kind slow compared to the rest but overall it was a solid 30 + 2.
Trust me, I remember when my hands would go numb/arms pump up after 2 laps. I’ve been there 😂
Couple of other things to check, gloves and grips. I had a pair of gloves that had a sewing seam in the palm and I while I didn't think there was any way that it was big enough to cause problems, it seemed to go away once I switched gloves. Maybe the fabric was bunching up at the seam and cut off circulation? I have no clue.
One other thing is check to see if your bar bend is comfortable. On my MTN bike, I had a flat/straight bar bend and my hands went numb ALL THE TIME. Once I switched to a little more natural feeling bend it helped tremendously.
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Ironically, i used to get arm pump when i was younger and would you believe i completely cured arm pump by switching to renthal full diamond soft compound grips?
I appreciate your input, ill be 37 in the next couple months. Many people have recommended carpal tunnel surgery but ive also heard it can be a dangerous surgery. How do you feel about that?
Probably carpal tunnel. I had it. Is it thumb and forefinger mainly or 3 small fingers that have it the worst. I got surgery and gone. Try to loosen grip and not out pressure on the lower part of the palm where the carpal tunnel is. Get the softest grips yoi can find and cushy gloves
PHDS mounts, Twisted engineering flex bars + steering stabilizer
Since wrist and elbow surgery for nerve compression/tunnel issues on my left. My left does pretty good. My right hand goes numb quickly. Especially rough hard pack, like riding single track or rough fast trails. Anything that requires gripping the bars a little tighter. With that said my right goes numb in my palm. Where my left would be fingers. At the track my right starts going south after about 3 laps but recovers quickly. So I make a few laps, take a break and go back out.
I’ve put vibration bar mound dampeners on my Beta 300 RX. Billy at Luxon helped me with that and it helped felt vibration on my Beta quite a bit. Half waffle grips like comes on a Beta seem to help a little. Not sure those pro taper waffle grips do much good, like I have on one of my Honda’s.
I try to change my grip to see what helps but when you are riding rough hard pack, ya got to hang on at some point. I’ve never been good at griping with my knees but I’m trying to learn hoping that will help my right hand.
I’ve come to the conclusion I need to learn to ride with just one hand on the bars lol!!!
Surgery should be a last option not first, as others have said try set up adjustments (one thing at a time to try narrow down what is causing it), some time in the gym if your not already and seek a good physio or someone that specializes in non-surgical treatments.
Get 04 cr125 oem sticky grips. My left pinky is 100% numb next finger is 80% numb , threw my left side of hand into my wrist. From elbow nerve surgery. It doesn’t effect riding . I barely hand on with my hands tho. Use 2 sided tape on levers also.
i added PHDS mounts and it definitely helped felt vibration in the bars but this is something that has gone on through many different handle bars, grips, bikes, and suspension settings.
did you have numbness and tingling during sleep as well or just while active?
I finally went in to a specialist and they diagnosed it as carpal tunnel. I’m still waiting a EMG test before surgery but I was given wrist braces to wear at night. Shockingly they are effective. I rode 4x with kids (so relaxed pace days) with zero numbness, and one ride last weekend with the bros and made it over 10mi before my throttle hand got numb. Left hand never went numb on the 32mile ride. I had arm pump, but it’s interesting to see the difference between pump and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Before the braces, I would go numb within the first mile no matter the pace
My mileage may be different than yours, but a few years ago at age 31 I had a whiplash event in the dunes and pinched a nerve in my neck. herniated C4-C6 and for a period of about 8 months, lost dexterity and grip strength in both arms. Lots of PT later, and having regained what I lost with only a few minor complications with my neck, I don't have arm pump, just pure numbness in my hands after a few laps. Taking my hand off the bars and shaking it out a few times typically subdues it momentarily. I run stock Husky ProTaper Evo bars with half waffle ODI lockons, luxon mounts. Probably some room for improvement on the grips, but I haven't liked flex bars when I tried them. Lever position is also key, making sure that your wrist is in line with your forearm when reaching for the levers in the attack position.
I've been focusing on doing nerve glide exercises in my neck/shoulder/elbow/wrist and hoping it will help.
Have you tried non-lock on grips? Sometimes lock ons can be a bit harsh and a glued on grip can give a better feel
They don't even have to knock you out, I had them knock me out though because I declined the local block on my left arm. I didn't like my right arm being completely dead for the rest of the day, so left was just anesthesia and I could move it when I woke up. Each one of my surgeries was around 25 minutes long and I had cupital elbow surgery as well. I returned to work the next day after each surgery and with an apprentice it wasn't too bad at all. 600mg ibuprofen at night to help me sleep when needed, nothing during the day to help keep me from overdoing it. Rode my mountain bike 2 weeks after my right arm, and my CBR 2 weeks later, so 2 weeks after my left and 4 after my right. Rode my dirt bike on Saturday which was 6 weeks after my right and 4 weeks after my left. Definitely still building strength back, thumb to pinky squeeze is the most noticeable loss, but most people are 100% by 6 months after surgery. I'd recommend anyone who needs it to just get it done!
Note: every time you experience numbness, you're damaging the nerve. Eventually you'll kill enough nerve fibers that you'll notice loss of muscle mass between your hand and thumb, I noticed this in July and it's why I made an appointment. If you go way too long then you'll notice loss of muscle between the metacarpals. Once you loose the muscle fibers they're dead and gone forever. You can build up the remaining fibers, but the dead ones never come back. This is why you hear stories about the surgery not helping, a lot of people wait too long. It's better to get it done than let it go, my grandpa and my mom both waited too long and regretted it.
Putting pressure on the palm isn't the issue, bending the wrist either direction compresses the nerve because there's not enough room in the tunnel due to inflammation of the flexor tendons and possibly a tight transverse carpal ligament. If you ride after surgery with stitches still in you'll be surprised that the carpal tunnel part of your palm doesn't actually touch the grip except during hard braking. Not that I did that, my wife would totally not approve so my stitches were definitely out....
Pit Row
Setup doesn't do shit for carpal tunnel or cupital syndrome because the only way to stop it is to not bend the joint, wrist for carpal and elbow for cupital. I tried all the different grips, stretches, diet and then talking to an actual specialist you find out your options are surgery or stop doing what makes them go numb.... In my case that would be living so I chose surgery 😂.
In my case it was my neck and posture causing numb hands.
You can get a nerve conductive test done to see exactly where you're nerve is being restricted. Might be in your neck, shoulder, elbow, or wrist. Then you can have a more focused approach to your exercises.
Next time you go out, check if you're squeezing your shoulder blades together or bringing your shoulders up to your neck, could be as simple as restricted blood flow or impaired or pinched nerve. Easy to fix by adjusting your cockpit or body position.
What is nerve glide exercise? All my disk in my neck r ruptured and a nerve inside my shoulder blade makes my rt arm go numb on the 2nd lap. I do 4 lap sprints wo & make them count. I had injections in the neck & inside the shoulder blades , different areas of the shoulder too. My shoulder is ok it the nerve. The injections didn’t go deep enough I had 2-3 a week for a couple months earlier in the yr. My rt arm & hand got real bad the last few weeks working . I couldn’t lift a lb. Pain threw arm & hand. 3 weeks off lots of pt on my own . I had to cancel the hospital injections . No money to wait around for the injections.
Not so much when I ride but just everyday stuff...if I have either arm bent at 90 degrees for more than couple minutes my hands go completely numb. I gotta go get something done..lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPXaQFC6xT4
If you ride a KTM, get rid of of the Neken bars. Use the Husky Pro taper.
I have had the elbow surgery for nerve issue. Also helped a lot.
Can you post a pic of the braces?
Yes. Numbness so painful when I was sleeping I would almost wake up crying. Numbness just holding the steering wheel driving. Severe carpal and I was only 30. No non surgical procedures were going to fix it. The earlier you get the surgery the higher the success rate i was told. It was a life saver. Not sure why anyone would try bandaids when you're just prolonging the inevitable
Yep, wait too long and the damage is not reversible!
My hands would wake me up multiple times a night, wrist braces helped a lot, but I also have issues with my ulnar nerve, so just bending my elbows would cause issues in my pinky and ring fingers. For what's it's worth I still wear the braces at night even after surgery so I don't stress the median nerve while sleeping. Side sleepers tend to kink the wrists for long periods at night which causes pressure in the carpal tunnel. Wear the braces at night, but not during the day. Some people would try to wear them 24/7 and all it does is cause weak stiff wrists. They're nothing fancy, I tried the shorter ones but I link this longer style better, just generic wrist braces.
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