The past two times I’ve went to the gym, I’ve warmed up with some OH squats with just the bar. Seems like after I’m done stretching and warming up, my left hand goes numb. Even an hour later, its numb.
I take a multi, creatine, fish oil, and drink 1/3-1/2 Spike shooter before I go (not sure if any of those have any connection).
Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else has ever experienced something like this, or if anyone knows what’s going on/what to do if it happens again or how to avoid it.
If you’re holding the weight overhead with your wrists flexed backwards you could be putting pressure on the heel of your hand and compressing the nerves.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
No way for me to state this as fact, but I bet it’s either in your shoulder or your back.[/quote]
9 times out of 10, overhead movements causing numbness in the hand will be caused by pathology at the neck/shoulder (thoracic outlet/scalenes…usually). Tribulus has it bang on.
I have had the same thing and it is not an issue of the shoulder or back. I’m sure you are right handed. Which means your left hand is weaker and you tend to not grab the bar as tight in that hand. Gripping the bar loosely increases the pressure on the small joints in the hand that tend to compress together, which transfers more of the force to the joints in the wrist. Repeating this causes inflammation in the wrist joints, which compresses the nerves causing numbness.
So what I did was:
Take more fish oil and glucosamine
Switch to dumbbell work instead of barbell for all pushing exercises. (Dumbbells require more hand strength, which helps to keep the small wrist bones apart while lifting.)
Stretch your wrists after lifting
Use wrist wraps
Do this for a month or so and you should get relief, I did.
Gotta go with Trib on this one. It might very well be long nerve track impingement. Personally, I have had this in BOTH hands, and for me it’s due to impingements where the nerve passes from the neck down through the shoulder girdle.
Is it the whole hand uniformly, or different sets of fingers?
I’ve had numbness in my hands for almost two years now despite taking fish oil and other stuff. A massage therapist told me that it was happening because of the muscle mass in my upper back compressing on nerve “railways”.
The last few months had gotten really bad and the numbness and tingling was becoming very annoying. I finally went to a chiro. After several visits I soon realized I was wasting my money. He finally admitted to the same diagnosis as stated above and that there was little he could. Popping my neck felt great but it wasn’t doing anything for the hand numbness. He just gave me some stretches and exercises to do to loosen it up. I’ve done them and they have helped to a small degree.
The numbness never interfered with training and I had plenty of strength in my grips. Once training was done then the numbness and tingling would start and would be worse when I slept.
I guess I’ll have to wait for the “magic cure” or just do what my doctor wants: stop training and only do aerobics!