Ok so I just finished a nice four day minitour. Rode the road bike and hauled my single wheel cargo trailer for the four day weekend. Now my legs are fine but my HANDS are shot. They are weak and clumsy, I know this is muscle fatigue from saturday when some unwise route selection on my part had me on gravel and soft sand a good part of the day including pushing the whole rig for 3 miles. Anyone else ever experience this? if so how long for them to recover? I feel like I am typing with mittens on and buttoning my shirt was a major chore today. For the record i have suffered from carpal tunnel in the past and it felt a lot like this except there is no pain with this. Also my carpal was worst in my right hand and it is my left that is decidedly weaker today.
You may have some ulnar nerve palsy. Not uncommon after several day cycling events. Is it worse in fingers 3-5, and do you have numbness along the outer edge of the palm on the pinkie side?
It should resolve on its own, but it could be a couple weeks.
Yes does seem to be worst in my pinkie and ring fingers, also I do have a little numbness on the outside edge of the hands. It’s not bad just annoying. I just took some anti inflamatory hoping that would help.
Would massage be useful for this?
I’m not sure about the technical name but I’ve had similar. I talked to my PT and he explained it pretty much like a carpal tunnel deal. Mine went away slowly over 2-3 weeks.
In my case I believe it was cause because I was mostly in the drops with my wrists bent rather than straight. Since that time if I’m in the drops I’m sure to keep my wrists straight as possible and I’ve never had the same problem again.
~Matt
I believe mine mostly stems from trying to keep it rubber side down on gravel and sand with the trailer in tow. I had a death grip on the hoods for quite a few miles.
You are dealing with a problem that caused me to start using of aerobars in 1992. I wasn’t concerned with achieving the aero position at that time but to take the pressure off my hands and wrists. At that time the line through my shoulder and hip was about 20 degrees above horizontal whiched seemed to be ideal for removing the pressure off my neck and shoulders while I was on the aerobars.
Anyone got anymore info on this? It’s really annoying and made working on the computer painful by the end of the day.
This happened to me before. Ulner Palsy, AKA handlebar palsy. Mine happened from my aero postion… but got it fixed. Almost completely gone… but it took about a 1.5 months.
It’s called looking at too much bike porn…
Seriously, I have had this. Cobb’s wrist relief armrests are good at preventing this.
I had this happen to me about 7 years ago after the first day of the 2 day MS150. My right pinkie was sproinged out to the side and I could not keep it in next to my ring finger. I would push it in and it would sproing right back out. Made eating dinner that night rather interesting! I could not even hold a bar of soap due to numbness and the pinkie and ring finger not moving and overall hand weakness. I could not even start my car with my right hand as my hand was too weak to turn the key!
When I got back home from the ride I went to the doctor who sent me to a neurologist for an EMG. The neurologist said I had partially paralyzed my ulnar nerve and that it would come back over time. It did after a few weeks. I was freaked out to say the least as I am right handed. The neurologist asked if I had been riding my mountain bike and I said no, I had been riding my road bike. He said he sees this quite a bit in mountain bikers if they do not have bar ends as they cannot change hand positions much without the barr ends to relieve pressure. I had ridden the 75 miles pretty much on my hoods and had been resting the outside of my hand on them which placed all the pressure on the ulnar nerve. Since then I make sure I change hand positions frequently when riding. Even if I am still riding the hoods I just change the angle of my hand position to change the pressure point every so often. I have not had a problem since then luckily. Just remember on long rides or multi-day rides to change it up and you should be fine!
Don’t worry if it takes a few weeks to recover.
Still bugging me two weeks later, not painfull anymore but the numbness is annoying.