Hand pain !

[kevin01041961]

Hi guys well it may seem a strange question mine often are but here goes, On my quest to become the odonis i once was { who am i kidding} i have as you know taking up cycling. now no matter how far we go my hands hurt, i wear padded gloves i try and not grip the handlebars and rest my hands on the to but the pain in both hands is excrutiating , its mainly in the palm area, As my previouse post have stated i'm 6 feet 8 inch tall but the bike fits or does it? i have had the handlebars raised to what i think is correct.
On trails i put on my suspenssion and on roads i take it off, so why the pain? not straight arms i dont put my weight on my hands . dont get me wrong it wont stop me cycling but it is a concern.
Any help please . oh by the way its going great 12 miles is nothing now and one day 20 will be within scope
Thanks all

 

[Katherine]

Well done for building up the miles but sorry to hear about your hand pain. I don't know what to advise but I wonder whether a sports physio might be able to help.

 

[vickster]

I expect you are putting too much weight on your hands. What type of grips do you have, you might find an ergo grip from specialized or Ergon is better than the usual round ones on an MTB...or there's an injury there. Is it only when cycling? What happens when you kneel and rest on your hands for example? Same?

 

[fossyant]

Do you just have straight bars. If so, get bar ends.

It's an old fashioned thing, but they are essential in my opinion. I am a road cyclist so used to moving hand position. Straight bars kill me. Bar extensions allow me to move my hands and take pressure off key nerves.

 

[Saluki]

+1 on bar ends. I would give a bike fit some serious thought as well.

 

[kevin01041961]

i know you cannot see on the bike but they are rubber moulded ergonomic grips, i can do push ups no problem , when on the bike though i try not to grip and rest my hands on top of the bars, my thanks the help is always greatfull

 

[Sbudge]

I have a lot of issues with one hand/wrist and a few things help to try (note I'm not in any way qualified other than many years as a patient etc):-

1. Try bars where your wrists are rotated by 90 degrees (so thumbs 'up' rather than thumbs pointing at each other). You can do this with the right bar-ends, alternative bar shapes (like bull-horns) etc.
2. Gel bar wrap. I've actually found that better than many ergo grips as you can layer is as needed to suit your hands and it gradually moulds to your grip style.
3. Get a wrist support wrap. Stress on the wrist joint can make the ulna nerve in particular more sensitive to impact. If you ever get any numbness in your little finger that's a good sign of ulna nerve issues.
4. Not all padded gloves are the same. I must have tried half a dozen with no effect until I found a pair that suited me...and the difference was night & day.
5. Work on your grip strength. A squeeze ball/bar to help build up some muscle tone makes a huge difference but takes a while.

Good luck, I feel for you.

Budge

 

[howard2107]

I may be slightly off track here but, are your gloves the right size, and are you wearing them correctly? Sounds daft, but i once had an ankle that ached like hell, and it turned out to be the "cheap" socks i was wearing that weren't stitched straight and they were try to twist my foot round, and the warmer my feet got the tighter the sock got the worse the ache got. The ache went away within 5 minutes of taking the socks off, new socks from M&S problem solved.