Weakness in hands after several long days on the bike?

[eBAUMANN]

So after the 2nd day of my little tour i noticed that the outside of my hands, pinky finger, and maybe half of my ring finger felt pretty numb. Today I am noticing that my hands/fingers (all of them) are lacking in the sort of strength they usually have.

For example, engaging the cage lock on a SRAM clutch RD, normally I can push the cage down and click the lock button quite easily with one hand...it felt MUCH harder doing that today.

Is this normal? Anything I can do about this?
I am hoping that its just a matter of rest..
Its just a little alarming.

[grawk]

It's normal muscle fatigue in all likelihood. If it's still bad after another couple of days, I'd see someone about it.

[guido]

Many riders get this with long rides like brevets, double centuries and the like. This is why many who focus on these distances bring their bars up to seat level, use gel tape or under tape inserts and use aero bars to provide a lower hand stress position.

You may want to try stretching the wrists and ice and/or anti-inflammatories to help bring things under control.

Good luck!

[achurch]

So after the 2nd day of my little tour i noticed that the outside of my hands, pinky finger, and maybe half of my ring finger felt pretty numb. Today I am noticing that my hands/fingers (all of them) are lacking in the sort of strength they usually have.

For example, engaging the cage lock on a SRAM clutch RD, normally I can push the cage down and click the lock button quite easily with one hand...it felt MUCH harder doing that today.

Is this normal? Anything I can do about this?
I am hoping that its just a matter of rest..
Its just a little alarming.

We need a trip report!

[MattTuck]

We need a trip report!

Check out his thread (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=188868). He had a couple reports of his ride in the last few pages, and a link to his instagram account that had pictures and more text :)

[tiretrax]

Sorry to hear about the issues that prevented you from completing the trip. Stretch your neck and back. Long rides can impinge on nerves and create numbness, tingling, etc. I've had some issues in my lower back and tingling in my feet since I completed Ride the Rockies.

[Hilltopperny]

I've had this happen on long days in the saddle before. Sounds like muscle fatigue. Having the bars up a bit and in the right position for you may alleviate your symptoms. I would take it a bit easier for a couple of days and then try out some different positions for the bar and stem for longer days in the saddle. Good luck :beer:

[eBAUMANN]

I've had this happen on long days in the saddle before. Sounds like muscle fatigue. Having the bars up a bit and in the right position for you may alleviate your symptoms. I would take it a bit easier for a couple of days and then try out some different positions for the bar and stem for longer days in the saddle. Good luck :beer:

Yea I had the bars 20cm higher that i normally would...which would have been for cx racing purposes but still, i moved em up, maybe not enough though.

Im off the bike completely today thanks to the knees, hopefully able to muster my 5mi commute tomorrow so I can stop burning vacation days on recovery, as important as i know it is.

[ColonelJLloyd]

I deal with this a lot. I've always attributed it to too much weight on my hands and minimal padding.

[maxdog]

Amazingly enough, sleeping without a pillow can often relieve trigger finger and hand numbness, as related to your neck in the above post.
With regard to your tour fail, to be brutally honest, you did (as I"m sure you're well aware) not properly train. Your bike was actually much lighter and your route no harder than many tours. I will say that I think that bike-packing gear puts your center of gravity higher than I would like. I've clocked myself at 62 mi/hr down the mountains in No. Cal. on my fully loaded touring bike (about 88lbs) and it was stable as hell. To each their own of course.
Good luck with a speedy recovery.

[eBAUMANN]

Amazingly enough, sleeping without a pillow can often relieve trigger finger and hand numbness, as related to your neck in the above post.
With regard to your tour fail, to be brutally honest, you did (as I"m sure you're well aware) not properly train. Your bike was actually much lighter and your route no harder than many tours. I will say that I think that bike-packing gear puts your center of gravity higher than I would like. I've clocked myself at 62 mi/hr down the mountains in No. Cal. on my fully loaded touring bike (about 88lbs) and it was stable as hell. To each their own of course.
Good luck with a speedy recovery.

Oh yea, ill be the first to admit I don't train...for anything, I just ride my bike. Some cycling disciplines punish this approach more than others...distance/endurance touring certainly seems to be the one that exposes it the most. I have no doubt that I could have ridden the daily numbers (and then some) given a road bike and proper sleeping/eating habits...ive done it before...but the circumstances of this trip were just enough to push myself past a point I hadn't seen yet. One way or another, I learned a lot and will be far better prepared the next time I attempt such a trip.

An 88lb bike would have been the end of me (hell, a 50lb was the end of me haha), mentally I just cant deal with the spinning/pace required to haul that much stuff up grades...im already trying to figure out every possible way to make things lighter the next time around.

[maxdog]

I dig it, and I'm with you. I've never formally trained either, you know intervals and all that. I'm just a bike junky. Even when I raced I didn't "train", I just rode nearly a 100 mi a day. Hell I would have ridden to the bathroom if I could have, and if I didn't have to run a company, i would have ridden more.
Either way, you might want to consider issues related to neck positioning with regard to your hand problem and any other nerve related issues. Best of luck.

[druptight]

Not sure if you did anything different glove-wise, but sometimes I find that the prolonged usage of gloves that push into the crevices in your hand or have padding that press into the palm can cause hand numbness issues.

[AngryScientist]

dude,

achy knees, weak hands? you're falling apart man. maybe take up golf :banana::banana:

[moose8]

I had this after a 200k recently without having ridden much this year even though I'd done the same ride on the same bike multiple times before without any issue. It woke me up in the middle of the night the first two days after, then after a week it was totally fine.

[staggerwing]

Not sure if you did anything different glove-wise, but sometimes I find that the prolonged usage of gloves that push into the crevices in your hand or have padding that press into the palm can cause hand numbness issues.


For me too. I have some carpal tunnel issues, and any half glove will lead to a flare up. Pinkies go numb first, then progressively towards my pointer fingers. Much better going entirely gloveless. I can wear full gloves, with far fewer issues, when the weather turns colder.

[eBAUMANN]

Not sure if you did anything different glove-wise, but sometimes I find that the prolonged usage of gloves that push into the crevices in your hand or have padding that press into the palm can cause hand numbness issues.

I stopped wearing gloves on the road cause they would just make my hands sweat and not really do much else positive for me...so no gloves were worn on this trip.

also, funny tan lines ;)

[Jgrooms]

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160706/e32bc95387bcf3e85ab880c3395407cf.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eBAUMANN]

just to be clear...there hasn't been muscle LOSS, it was 3 days of riding and I'm feeling this 2 days after that. it feels more nerve related, not sure if a grip thingy would have any benefit.

[seanile]

1/4th of the riders on my bike&build group had hand numbness appear after about 800 miles of the trip, and it sustained itself up to a month and a half after the trip completed/they had stopped riding. some of them couldn't grip a pencil. it's a matter of how you hold your bars, and how much weight your put on your hands, leading to a nerve impingement...aka bike fit stuff. i hadn't considered the neck angle thing that someone else mentioned, but that makes sense too. fingers are more noticeable than than arms when they fatigue, so test your arms to see if they're similar to your hands..then it might be a head-angle thing rather than a hand-pressure thing.
it'll come back slowly, but it'll come back.

[ripvanrando]

So after the 2nd day of my little tour i noticed that the outside of my hands, pinky finger, and maybe half of my ring finger felt pretty numb. Today I am noticing that my hands/fingers (all of them) are lacking in the sort of strength they usually have.

For example, engaging the cage lock on a SRAM clutch RD, normally I can push the cage down and click the lock button quite easily with one hand...it felt MUCH harder doing that today.

Is this normal? Anything I can do about this?
I am hoping that its just a matter of rest..
Its just a little alarming.

I just completed nearly 4,600 miles in 29 days. Your problem is not normal.

Aside from proper fitting, tire volume and lower pressure is the next best way to avoid nerve damage. Third best is using aero bars. Beyond that there are a lot of little things that help.

[thwart]

Ulnar neuropathy symptoms like yours can respond to rest and different positioning on the bike, especially the way you grip your bars.

[Joxster]

The way you're sitting on the bike is wrong and putting too much weight on your wrists, I'm guessing that you've a bit of a tight lower back too. An extra 1cm on the stem could be the answer, I would also check your saddle position and where it is on the rails. Use a plumb bob (spanner on a string) and make sure the centre of your knee passes directly through the centre of the pedal axle.

[marciero]

Mostly has been said here, but some more recent discussion.

http://www.bikeforums.net/tandem-cycling/1071146-numb-hands.html

[eBAUMANN]

The way you're sitting on the bike is wrong and putting too much weight on your wrists, I'm guessing that you've a bit of a tight lower back too. An extra 1cm on the stem could be the answer, I would also check your saddle position and where it is on the rails. Use a plumb bob (spanner on a string) and make sure the centre of your knee passes directly through the centre of the pedal axle.

Yes that would be the obvious conclusion to make, too much weight on my hands, and its likely considering I was probably compensating for my compromised knees, shifting weight off my legs/feet.

Every other part of me feels fine - legs, shoulders, neck, feet, back, etc etc - just my knees and hands feeling a little funny.

[bobswire]

Yes that would be the obvious conclusion to make, too much weight on my hands, and its likely considering I was probably compensating for my compromised knees, shifting weight off my legs/feet.

Every other part of me feels fine - legs, shoulders, neck, feet, back, etc etc - just my knees and hands feeling a little funny.

Compensating for your knees was my guess also depending on how much descending you did on this ride where your weight is forward and working/feathering the the brakes more than normal.