Pain in hand

razocaine_07
razocaine_07 Posts: 9
edited January 2014 in Road general
Hi

I've noticed pretty quickly into a ride that I'm getting pain in the thenar (ball?) part of my hands. I'm assuming that this would indicate to the seat or bars being incorrectly placed. Could anyone shed any light on this? Thanks

Comments

  • rc856
    rc856 Posts: 1,144
    Are you new to cycling?
    If so, I think it could be down to position and you're putting too much weight on your hands.
  • diamonddog
    diamonddog Posts: 3,426
    RC856 wrote:
    Are you new to cycling?
    If so, I think it could be down to position and you're putting too much weight on your hands.

    ^^This and good padded gloves help.
  • Juddlinski
    Juddlinski Posts: 54
    I get numb hands from time to time. I tried a few mitts/gloves and have got ones that help now (I did start of using the cheapest possible ones so obviously they didn't offer much 'anti-numbing' protection).
  • term1te
    term1te Posts: 1,462
    Maybe you are holding to he bars too tightly? Try relaxing your grip and changing position on the bars and hoods every few minutes.
    The Master
    The Moser
    The VN
  • rafletcher
    rafletcher Posts: 1,235
    And, being new, perhaps your core strength is insufficient. Whatever, it's too much weight on the hands. And padding/gel masks the problem, doesn't cure it (when I started cycling I had "track" mitts with double thickness leather over the ball of the thumb, and minimal bar tape, and had no hand pain issues). So you may have (for you, at the moment) too long a stem, meaning too stretched out, or too big a difference between saddle and bar height (generally these days on new bikes caused by the very cut down steerers / very short head tubes, and few or no spacers to allow adjustment).

    Simplest adjustments might be to fit a shorter stem, with a bigger "rise" - more angled up. It may be enough just to flip your existing stem if it's fitted so it's horizontal at the moment.
  • ricky1980
    ricky1980 Posts: 891
    Juddlinski wrote:
    I get numb hands from time to time. I tried a few mitts/gloves and have got ones that help now (I did start of using the cheapest possible ones so obviously they didn't offer much 'anti-numbing' protection).

    my hands get numb but thats more from the freezing cold and inadaquate insulation/protection. geenrally don't get numbness...

    To OP:
    if you are experiencing numbness before the pain then it may be the following
    1) blood flow is cut off - too tight gloves or somehthing around the grip thats digging into your hand
    2) too much body weight being put on your hands and causing too much compression in your blood vessels

    if no number and just pain
    1) too much pressure
    2) too tight grip
    3) poor grip material/gloves i.e. not enough padding

    either way, you probably need to adjust your ride position to relief the load onto your hands
    Road - Cannondale CAAD 8 - 7.8kg
    Road - Chinese Carbon Diablo - 6.4kg
  • wishitwasallflat
    wishitwasallflat Posts: 2,927
    Could be loads of causes - many listed above - If it's just one hand the even slightly adjusting your grip position could solve it. FWIW I used to get pain and numbness but tried less padded gloves and it was better so I got a new set with no padding at all and it doesn't happen at all anymore. I use gel pads under the bar tape though and I like the feel of that with unpadded gloves.
  • Tom_UK
    Tom_UK Posts: 171
    More than likely saddle set up not supporting you correctly, make sure it is correctly leveled with the right amount of fore/aft. Also make sure you are resting on the boney part of your hand next to the ball not the soft part at the base of the thumb :)

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