Fifty Plus (50+) - Ulnar numbness

I've been experiencing something new and "unnerving" for the past couple of weeks. The pinkie, ring finger, and edge of my left hand developed some numbness. It seems that would be caused by pressure on the ulnar nerve which runs up from the wrist towards the 2 numb knuckles.

Everybody has occasional numbness. Have any of you ever had persistent numbness like this? It is totally new to me. I haven't lost any strength, just sensitivity (I'm known as a "sensitive new age guy :rolleyes:") but I'd be interested in any other long term experience.

I occasionally have some problems with my right hand. My solution has been to put foot heel pads under my gloves for additional palm cushioning. The sorbothane ones work the best and pretty much solve the problem.

Change hand positions on the bars more often.
Perhaps raise your stem a tad as you are putting too much weight on the hands.
Better cycling gloves.

There are gloves that may help. Spenco Iron Man series of gloves (and several others including some from specialized) have two pads at the rear of the palm with a channel between them that is supposed to keep pressure off of the ulnar nerve. They may help.

I use this and it works for me. :thumb:

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=7148&category=831

This issue led to me buying my first recumbent. If no other solution presents you can still continue riding in comfort.

I use the Spenco gloves and they really seem to help.

I've done some experimenting with gloves - gel etc. I've also got my handlebars as high as they can reasonably be mounted with a short stem - my long torso and short arms are not designed for stock bicycle geometry.

My issue isn't sporadic or even recurring numbness, but rather continuous numbness for the past 3 weeks. It seems that I severely compressed the ulnar nerve during a ride. I was wondering if anybody else had any experience with such a chronic issue and how long it might have lasted. I'm being very careful NOT to spend much time in a position that compresses the nerve and I've always moved around on the bars a lot.

Thanks for the input.