Road Cycling - hand numbness

Don't know whether this is the right place in the forum but here goes. I've always been used to occasional hand numbness particularly going down the little finger side of my hand. Wearing gloves with gel pads always reduced the effect significantly, but the effect would always go away after a few minutes. The last few days though it has taken over a day in some cases for it to dissapear and it flares up again really quickly.

Does anyone have any tips for how to deal with this? I recently moved my seat slightly down and back, would this have affected it? Would rest sort it out, or is more likely the nerve has become trapped in a problematic position?

You need to have a correct fit when riding. And the seat should be set properly from what I have been told some pretty important nerves run through that area and a poorly adjusted seat can cause numbness of the hands and other places. check with you lbs on the bike fit I marked my seat stem so I know where it should be at when I adjust it. The handlebar fit should be checked also. I try to move my hands to different positions when ridding for a long period that seems to help hands and wrists.

I've had some hand numbness in the past, but never bad enough where it takes a day for the feeling to come back. I was told to try to keep my wrists straight whenever the numbness starts and that works for me.

I have carpal tunnel syndrome, and if I put too much pressure on my hands while cycling, I have some numbness. My sports therapist (a veteran triathlete) recommended that I get aero bars, which would get the pressure off my hands and onto my elbows. I haven' tried this yet, but plan to when I can scrape together $100 for a good pair of aero bars. Of course, you can't use the aeros in all types of riding, but a variety of hand positions should help the numbness situation.

There's a wealth of knowlege to be searched on this subject within the forum archives.

Try: a professional fitting, thicker or different palm padding, moving the hand positions often, not locking the elbows, try not to lean hard on your hands and focus on using your abs a bit, shaking your hands occaisionally.

These have all helped me.

Hand pain is usually caused by too much weight on your hands. Try raising your handlebar and moving your saddle all the way back (and probably down a bit, too). This will shift your center of balance rearward and get some weight off your hands.

Ditto cycletourist. Another thing to check is saddle tilt. If the nose tilts down, it will definitely put more weight on your hands. Even if it is level, raising the nose a little (not enough to cause another kind of discomfort) may help.

I had the same problem last year. My little finger on my left hand became completely numb. I quit biking for 2 months because of the winter and I got complete feeling back in my finger after about 6 weeks. I am definitely buying the syntace c2 aerobar and getting gel gloves.

I had this same thing happen to me, to a larger extent. My entire left hand ended up almost numb and I couldn't control it in some cases, muscular wise. I went to some doctors (neurologist) and he said I had compressed the ulner nerve to the point that it was dead. Luckily it will regrow, but very slowly. It grows about an inch a month. He said I could keep riding, but I had to keep all pressure off that part of my hand if I wanted it to regrow. It eventually did, like 4-5 months later. It was pretty bad. I couldn't even cup my hand (like if you were trying to cup your hand to pour water into it).

He also recommended I get one of those squeeze balls. He said I should squeeze it as much as possible (while driving, sitting, watching tv, reading, etc). That strengthens the hand and helps.

I went back to my LBS and had them refit me in a more upright position so I didn't have so much weight on my hands and I got a higher stem so that my seat was about level with my handlebars. I also move my hands around alot (like every 5 to 10 minutes). There are also a few hand positions where you don't pinch anything, but they aren't the most comfortable.

If I feel any numbness now, I immediately take my hand off the bar and let it rest for a good 30 seconds.

I also suggest you look into what Greg said above. All good points.

PBW

All the above are valid. I had success by the following:
1. Bought a Niito 225 mm quill length stem which allowed my handlebars to be raised approx. 1 cm above the seat. This takes weight off your hands.
2. At least every 10 minutes during a ride, I take one arm off the bar. strech it out a few times, and also rotate it like a propeller forward 2 to 3 times and backwards 2 to 3 times. Repaet with other arm. This keeps the muscles loose and you can really feel in your shoulder and back. I find this very effective.
3. Bought a pair of the "body geometry" gloves from Speciallized which reportedly has pading for the 2 nervs in your hands. Gloves are better than past ones, although are not the entire solution. I bought the ones on sale for $10.

I tried these 3 things after riding 100 miles and having my right hand numbed fro 2 to 3 weeks. Thankfully, these 3 things seem to prevent reoccurance.

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

You should set the saddle, in relation to the pedals to give a comfortable perch, then move the handlebars in relation to the saddle to give a comfortable hand-hold. You may need to iterate through this process a few times to fine tune. If you have moved your saddle back, you may have to move your bars back the same amount to keep the same upper-body position.

Many fit-guides assume you want the most aerodynamic low position, but it is quite valid to seek a more comfortable touring position.
The shape of your bars and the position of your brake levers can affect comfort. Bars come in different length, drop radius and bend shape. See 3TTT website for some good variants.

The fit-guide I like best is Peter Whites:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

Originally posted by MichaelW
The fit-guide I like best is Peter Whites:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

Great information - I may have actually learned something, which is difficult fo me! Here's the part of the article that makes sense, but isn't generally covered in other articles I've read:

"You may have a bicycle for short fast rides, and another for long tours. Just as the two bikes will have different components so as to be well suited for their purposes, so might the fit be different. The rider hasn't changed. You are still you. But your purpose has changed. The light, fast bike for short rides will likely have a more forward and lower handlebar position than the tourer. And so the saddle may well be further forward too."

thanks for the help everyone, the link was particularly helpful. I think I may just play around with saddle position for a while. Other comments about the Specialized BG gloves, I'm already using those, and the adjustments people mentioned, it was just before I got these problems that I moved my saddle down and back and tilted the nose up more which should theoretically have made the pressure on my hands less.

I guess i've just got to work out a position that works for me and takes the strain off, oh and i'll try those exercises too, and look into an aerobar if uncle visa will let me. (p.s. do many aerobars fit oversized handlebars?)