Hand Pain

[Savra]

Ok, new question as a newbie since everyone was so helpful with my other questions. When out riding the fleshing part of my hands and thumb start to hurt and no matter how I move them around on the handle bars I can't get them comfortable. Any suggestions?
Of course, it may be a left over from hurting my one hand on my first day out.

[Blueberry]

I'm just guessing, but it sounds like a bike fit issue maybe?? I had that until we shortened my reach and raised my stem. Otherwise, try different gloves? I have to have less padding to be happy - others love big gel pads

[OakLeaf]

I dunno. Numbness is usually either a fit issue, or something having to do with the body's predispositions. Pain in fleshy parts of the hands may be just a conditioning issue. How much pain? Is it the same or similar in both hands? Is it more in the joints, or closer to the surface, or in the muscles? When you fell the other day, did you hurt both hands, or just one?

[redrhodie]

Are you wearing gloves?

[solobiker]

I agree, sounds like a bike fit issue. You should not be putting too much pressure on your hands.

[Kano]

When I got my Roubaix last spring, I had hand pain.

I had been wearing gloves the year before, and of course, continued to wear them. FIRST thing I tried was new gloves. That made a difference, but did NOT fix things.

As suggested by my bike guys, I rode a couple of hundred miles before we made any changes to the bike. Raised the bars a bit. That helped, but did NOT fix things.

What FIXED things was FIXING ME.

Core strengthening exercises, so that I was using my hands to steer and balance myself more than to hold myself up.

It's a problem again now that I'm starting the new season -- didn't think I'd let myself slack off THAT much through the ski season!

(I do need to look at my glove fit too: nothing else fits this spring, jewelry included, so they could be big this year too, but still gotta do the core work!)

Karen in Boise

[Savra]

I think I'm going to have to agree with the idea of it being a conditioning thing. I've had numbness with my mountain bike and that is definitely a fit issue since I have to reach really far to the handlebars. But I don't reach on my new road bike. I will admit to lacking "core" strength or even any muscles there at all. In fact, it's a little big and needs to be toned a lot. I'm also starting to wonder if my hands are just weak and need to get used to the positioning of the handlebars.
Thanks for the advice. Again, very helpful.

[Savra]

I dunno. Numbness is usually either a fit issue, or something having to do with the body's predispositions. Pain in fleshy parts of the hands may be just a conditioning issue. How much pain? Is it the same or similar in both hands? Is it more in the joints, or closer to the surface, or in the muscles? When you fell the other day, did you hurt both hands, or just one?

It is in the muscles and seems to be similiar in both hands even though I only hurt one hand. I had a thought that one hand hurts because well... it hurts and the other hurts because I am overcompensating for the hurt one. But they hurt in the same manner. Today, my 5.5 mile ride hurt quite a bit.

[wackyjacky1]

Gloves with gel padding have made a world of difference for me.

[tulip]

Pilates really helped my riding. My strong core allows me to relax my arms, keep my elbows slightly bent, and keep weight off my hands.

[Kano]

So, Sunday night, I was watching this "Blimp Brides" show, where they get these women who buy their wedding dresses two sizes too small, and six weeks before the wedding, they get in a panic and have a trainer beat the crap out of them and a nutritionist making them eat grass and drink grass tea or something, to hurry up and get weight off and inches lost so they're not bursting their seams on their wedding days.

This particular blimp -- who cheated horribly on the diet part, and CONSTANTLY said "I can't do this" during the exercise parts -- wasn't even that big, I think 5'7 and 138 pounds to start, but anyway... The trainer put her through all kinds of wicked things, like, he sorta put her in a harness and had her dragging him behind on runs. But a cool thing he had her doing was to do a plank pose on a balance ball. "Toes" on the floor, hands on the ball, and keep your body straight. (plank, not warped board!)

HOLY COW this is one HECK of a good work out! Pretty much my entire core "aches" from doing this thing a few times to try it out while watching the Blimpy Brides, and then to really do it last night for a while. I held that blasted pose as long as I could, as many times as I could -- more than I expected! I also did some push up ones, figuring arm strength can't hurt either...

Something I was glad of: I can move my hands around on the ball, to optimise their position so I'm not bending the wrists uncomfortably. And collapse is onto something relatively squishy, rather than the hard floor!

(took a while to realize WHY muscles ache today, and then I was delighted that they do!)-

Karen in Boise

[cyclingnewbie]

Try to find gloves you like first and, give it some time. I can't ride without gloves. I recently got back out after a long time off my bike. I imagined falling off, cardiac arrest, aching legs, etc. The only thing I did notice was sore hands. They need to get used to hanging onto the bar just like your backside needs to get used to the saddle. Good Luck!

[SadieKate]

Padding design in gloves can make a huge difference, almost more than the padding material. Gloves with padding applied in segments causes a great deal of pain for me. PI Gel Lites come to mind. The edges of the gel pads are excruciating. Think of sitting on the edge of a chamois or saddle.

Assos and Etxe Ondo both make road gloves with thin and even padding, no edges - love 'em. Fox makes mtb gloves with the similar pad design.