Mountain Biking - The wrist pain solution thread.

I've noticed of the last few days that there is an increased amount of threads complaining about wrist pain. Post some suggestions in here to be added, so there can be a list of possible answers to these problems. Here are the first two suggestions.

1)Loosen up that death grip. You are not going to die if you fall off the bike. Just get a grip on the grips just enough that you can control the bike. A death grip puts alot of strain on the muscles and ligament connecting the wrist to the hand. Most cycling related cts cases are with people who always ride with a death grip on the handle bars.

2)Loosen up the arms in general. Put some trust in soaking up the rough stuff with the legs the legs can take more abuse than the arms can, when through this rough stuff, stay loose, let the bike go in the direction it's going in, worry about correcting the direction when your out of the rough section. Same goes with smooth surfaces keep the arms loose, keep arms and legs loose when landing a drop or jump.

learn to brake less. Most of the time people spend to much time riding the brakes when they could easily ride without using them. This is especially true of a lot of newbie downhillers. You will be surprised how quickly you can take corners if you just release the brakes a bit more :)

Grip size matters to. Due to a signifigant size difference in my hands I have a larger grip for my right hand than my left. This reduced some of the hand fatigue for me :)

Buy a set of Ergon Grips. They are very comfortable and designed to elimate wrist fatigue. http://www.ergon-bike.com/home.php?la=en

Make sure your brakes are adjusted so they engage when the lever is as close to the bars as is practicable.

Wear gloves too. My specialized catalogue has some hooey about wearing gloves and reducing stress on a certain nerve in the wrist. I'm sure it's partially true.

I've been riding with wrist pain (carpal tunnel syndrome) for 4 years now. Caused mostly by work, not by riding.

After much trial and error, I use gloves with minimal padding and ODI Rogue grips. Staying loose and moving your hands around on the bar definitely help. Probably most important is bike fit and ergonomics on the bike. Make sure your bike is the right size for you, otherwise you are either riding in a poor position, or you've made extreme adjustments to get comfortable. Make sure you've got your bike fit so that your weight is properly distributed between your saddle and your bar (less on the bar). Make sure you are able to keep your wrists in a neutral, flat position while riding. If you are constantly bending your wrists up or down, it will make things worse. Make sure you are not straining to reach the levers. You can vary these factors in several ways: move your saddle up/down or forward/back, switch to a seatpost with more/less setback, change the length or angle of your stem, rotate your brake/shifter levers to a better position, adjust the reach of the brake levers, get a bar with different rise or sweep or length.

I've also tried several different types of gloves with padding supposedly designed to reduce pressure on the median and/or ulnar nerves. I found that the Pearl Izumi version actually made things much worse, the Specialized version was relatively ineffective to slightly worse, and the Louis Garneau version works pretty well for me, but it all depends on how your hands are built. This has always been a bigger problem for me on the road than on the trail. Because of it, I switched to a carbon fiber road bike to reduce road vibration, and I have an ergonomic carbon fiber bar with Specialized Bar Phat under the tape. I have ridden 100+ mile rides with little or no pain or numbness in my hands and wrists.

2)Loosen up the arms in general. Put some trust in soaking up the rough stuff with the legs the legs can take more abuse than the arms can, when through this rough stuff, stay loose, let the bike go in the direction it's going in, worry about correcting the direction when your out of the rough section. Same goes with smooth surfaces keep the arms loose, keep arms and legs loose when landing a drop or jump.

Got something to add on this one. Learned this from BMX and dirtbike. Never lock you elbows. If your normal riding stance has your elbows lock, something is wrong. If the bike is too long, then get a shorter stem. Locking the elbows is just useless jarring.

Side note, for the hardtails...when out of the saddle, never lock you knees either.

I have a question/clarification. I tried moving my saddle forward, and lowering the seat post a bit, and I noticed that the wrist pain is virtually gone (I'm using flat bars). I just want to know if it's okay that my legs aren't 90% extended on the downstroke (since I lowered the seatpost)? At the moment I'm doing mostly road riding.

I have a question/clarification. I tried moving my saddle forward, and lowering the seat post a bit, and I noticed that the wrist pain is virtually gone (I'm using flat bars). I just want to know if it's okay that my legs aren't 90% extended on the downstroke (since I lowered the seatpost)? At the moment I'm doing mostly road riding.
Put the saddle back up and get a riser bar

I sprained my wrist after falling because I couldnt clip out of my new mallets in time. Loosening up my arms, or getting smaller grips cant really help there...

I sprained my wrist after falling because I couldnt clip out of my new mallets in time. Loosening up my arms, or getting smaller grips cant really help there...

I have seen wrist guards for sale that are similar to what rollerbladers wear. I have been thinking about getting them. Do you think this kind of thing may have helped you when you fell?

Wear gloves too. My specialized catalogue has some hooey about wearing gloves and reducing stress on a certain nerve in the wrist. I'm sure it's partially true.

Specialized gloves are nice. I bought some fully gelled up gloves and they paled in comparison to the Specialized gloves with the single pad near the outside of the wrist.