Sore Fingers??

trackmaxi

Hi Guys/Girls,

I'm 30yrs old and have been riding since my DH race days in the late 90's. I have recently been to Morzine for a DH trip on my Rocky Mountain RMX 2.0. While I was there I started to suffer with my finger muscles/tendons? (My inner two) they were even sore to touch at one point (Never stopped my riding though!)
This was in July and I am still suffering with them after a ride now. I generally ride XC and trail centres these days on my Commencal Combi Delux with some DH uplift days thrown in through the summer, and I even resort to the road bike in the winter!
Will my fingers ever return to normal??
Any idea what's caused this and how to remedy the problem & stop it happening again??

Thanks in advance folks

Matt

bobbobadobob

I've recently started having a very similar problem with the little fingers on both hands, I've recently gone from long travel full sus to short travel hardtail so wondered if the harsher ride had caused it...

Steve_F

Wow, that's exactly the same as me. Sore fingers from Morzine in July!!

Mine were sore to touch as well, contsantly sore for the first few months and now only hurting when I ride.

I believe building up the strength of the fore arms with a powerball or stress/resistance balls is the way to stop is happening again but I've only just hit the stage I could actually do this.

Out of interest did you have issues with your brakes where you had to switch to two finger braking instead of just one (assuming you usually one finger brake)? My brakes were constantly cooked so I did a lot of 2 finger braking which is not usual for me and I was wondering if the different position caused the problems.

Even with the sore fingers are you still wishing you were there? I certainly am!

Shatner

I suffer from this too. Left hand ring finger seems to hurt the most - Its painful to touch sometimes. I certainly feel it on the downhills. Must be a bad technique or something. I just put up with it tho lol.....It will take more than that to stop me riding!

Anonymous

The more you ride big terrain, the less susceptible to it you'll be, and the effects won;t be as pronounced.
You can use finger strength excercises to strengthem up your forearms to help prevent it as well. Try something like those squishy rubber donuts, or a powerball.

CraigXXL

Sounds more like white finger caused by vibration, try lightening your grip and gloves with gel inserts. The symptons do go in time if rested but comes back just as quickly if you don't take measures to prevent it.

irvini

If you get pins and needles and loss of feeling in your middle finger then it could be carpal tunnel syndrome.
Steroid injections cured it for me but then if came back so I had an operation and that sorted it.


Having said that, it might be nothing

cycleactive

sore fingers can be sorted out by a change in the way you ride, in particular:

- how you transfer stress from the trail to your feet and legs rather than taking it through the bars and hands

- how you set up your bars, grips and levers

- bike setup like tyre pressures and suspension settings

this is something we cover in our skills courses and our coaching days, but I'm not gonna try and push product at you here - i'll take this topic and add it to the list of questions on the skills Q&A series I'm writing instead. Hope that will be of some help to you. It can be fixed so don't stress over it too much.
Chris@CycleActive

Harry182

My ring and pinky fingers on both hands were getting sensitive then numb within 20mins riding. I think it had something to do with my new lower handlebar position. Anyway, liked my new position so didn't want to change it. Alternative solution - new Ergon GE1 - Enduro grips (see below) sorted it out. Did an 8hr ride recently and was tired but hands were fine.