Cycling can make your hands buzz like a beehive or, worse, put your fingers to sleep.
Hand discomfort is usually caused by improper bike fit. But poor riding technique also plays a role. Gripping the bar in one position for long periods is a sure way to make hands and fingers feel like an electrical current is running through them.
Give These Methods a Try to Prevent Tingling Hands from Bicycling
Check your bike fit. As noted above, it’s always tempting to make your bike look like your favorite pro’s mount. If your handlebar is low in relation to the saddle, or your reach to the bar is too great for your arm length coupled with your torso length, you’ll need to tilt forward excessively. This puts too much weight on your hands. The result is compressed nerves that cause numb fingers.
There’s no accepted formula for top tube/stem length on a road bike. It’s always safer to err on the side of a bar that’s too high and too close. Many road riders have evolved to a slightly more upright position for greater comfort. With a higher bar, more weight is borne by your rear end rather than your arms and hands. You can always change stems to increase the reach.
Move your hands frequently. Rest on the brake lever hoods. Move to the bends (as described next). Switch to the tops as if you are climbing. Go down to the drops. Then repeat the sequence. Move your hands in response to the terrain and road conditions. If the road is flat and straight, cultivate the habit of changing position every couple of minutes.
Use more padding. Consider cycling gloves with thicker padding or gel inserts. Some gloves are ergonomically designed to make a channel where nerves pass through the wrist into the heel of the hand. Check at your local bike shop for padded or gel handlebar tape or wrap padding (foam or cork) under the tape. Even a moderate amount of additional padding can make a big difference in comfort.
Consider aero bars for long solo rides. Aero bars are not welcome in pacelines and many group rides, but if you often ride by yourself, you might want to install a set. Aero bars eliminate all hand pressure because your weight is borne by your forearms on the armrests. As a bonus, your speed may increase by 1-2 mph on long rides with no additional effort.
Adjust your grip. Here’s the hand position advocated by 7-time Tour de France competitor Ron Kiefel. Ron puts his hands on the curve of the bar behind the brake hoods. Each index finger’s knuckle is near the hood but not quite touching. The thumb goes inside the bar and rests near the base of the hood. The index and middle fingers are wrapped around the bar under the brake hoods, while the ring finger and pinky are under the bar, too. Finally, the underside of the knuckles contacts the bar just behind the hoods. Notice that in this position, weight is borne by the bony part of the palm behind the knuckles. The wrist is in a straight “handshake” position. The result alleviates most of the nerve compression that causes numb hands. Try this grip to see if it helps.
Try the split-finger grip. When riding with hands on the brake hoods, put the hoods between your index and middle fingers. This is a relaxing position for cruising when braking won’t be necessary. It shifts your hands slightly inward where bar pressure is on the fat part of your palms in line with your ring fingers. Contact is shifted from the palms’ center where nerves lie.
Coach Fred Matheny is an RBR co-founder who has four decades of road cycling and coaching experience. He has written 14 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach Fred Matheny, including the classic Complete Book of Road Bike Training, which includes 4 eBooks comprising 250 pages of timeless, detailed advice and training plans. The Complete Book is one of the many perks of an RBR Premium Membership. Click to read Fred’s full bio.
I find the biggest issue here is that people don’t sense that their hands are going numb and so when they finally realize it, they are in pain and it takes a long time to get the feeling back. I get tingles and numbness all the time but then just move my hands or take the pressure off and they recover in a few seconds. When I was young I didn’t pay attention and had one experience where it took a couple of days to get full feeling back. Pay attention to your hands and you can deal with this issue much more effectively.
Hi, May i ask a question or tips if you don’t mind. I am feeling numbness in my right hand and a weak grip especially with the ring and little fingers after cycling for 20kms without gloves. I’m just worried if this might take time to recover. If there anything i can do about it or should i be bothered and consult a doctor? I’m very new in cycling and 20kms is my longest ride by far. Thanks.
Fred,
Question, how about too tight of jersey cutting off the axillary artery?
Question. is there a difference in fingers going numb between cyclists using the hoods or using the drops?
I use a heel gel pad inside my left bike glove as I have some troubles with numbness on that side. The one I use has slight tackiness which helps it stay in place. I place it against a plastic bowl lid between rides to keep it sticky. It lasts for a few dozen rides or so. It’s a big help for me!
https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-gel-heel-pad/ID=prod6220752-product
Bike Fitness Coaching—That would require a really tight jersey! The contact points when using drops and hoods are different so it seems that different nerves would be affected. I can’t recall any studies that deal with this issue, however.
In addition to the techniques mentioned in the article and comments, I ride with one hand and (1) dangle the other hand and shake it at the wrist for a half minute; or (2) hold the free arm behind my back horizontally and spread the fingers for a half minute.
Two techniques I’ve used and successfully recommended to others while riding as a Ride Marshall. First is avoid a severe bend in your wrist. Keep a straight line from your forearm through the back of your hand. This keeps the corporal tunnel tendon sheaths aligned and allows for better blood flow to the hands. If you go numb, instead of shaking your hand off the handlebars, bend the palm of your hand toward your forearm. This will open up the blood flow. Second tip is to change your saddle position forward or back. There are lots of blood vessels in your bottom and often a single unchanged position tends to constrict the blood flow.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the possibility that hand position may have nothing to do with this issue. In some people, it may actually be a cervical spine issue: there could be compression of one or more of the spinal nerves coming out between the cervical vertebrae, causing numbness and tingling. This is likely an uncommon problem, but I know for a fact it can happen. Professional evaluation by a medical doctor (perhaps a neurologist) would be indicated.
This is one of my issues!
Since trying some gravel riding and wider bars the position change helps to delay the onset of numbness.
I’ve been riding over 35 years. During this time I fell into the “hit by car” statistics, back surgery, and left torn rotator cuff repair.
I downsized from a 56cm to a 54cm frame to accommodate options for more flexibility. However, after all I’ve done for a better fit, my right hand ALWAYS goes numb for nearly the whole ride (30+ miles).
I raised my saddle, and changed the position of my cleats. This helped tremendously, but my right hand stills falls numb. Now I wear a wrist band across my knuckles to help keep my hand cupped. I understand a cupped position open the blood flow to the median nerve. Am I missing anything else?
Thank you, Fred! I’ve been doing much longer rides since April and have numbness and tingling in my hands after about 45 minutes. Breaks help. I have padded gloves, drop bars with some padding, and I change positions often. Nothing really fixed it. Today, thanks to you, I kept my hands in the split-finger grip around the brake hoods, with my weight on the fat part of my palm, and I had ZERO tingling and numbness. First time.
Reasons you find your hands tingling when wearing gloves. 1. The gloves might be too tight. 2. You probably have an allergic reaction to the glove material. 3. The gloves might not be breathable enough. 4. You might currently wear compression gloves to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. 5. You often handle vibrating machinery with the wrong kind of gloves.
Pins and needles in my left hand only and only when I climb hills!, I have a pacemaker fitted so I wandered if it’s a blood flow issue ?
Worth article! I just want to say thank you for sharing.
For myself, the more padding in my gloves, the more tingling. It has been many trials and several errors before finding gloves with just the right amount & placement of padding.
you found gloves with padding on the palms? Where?
Sorry, but from my experience I must disagree with the “more padding” idea. I had numb areas on both hands for months and tried to go with progressively more padding in several pairs of new gloves. It only got worse. I finally solved the problem by using a basic pair of gloves with almost no padding.
Nagging hand numbness and painful tingling started happening in both of my hands regularly in my 70’s after many decades of virtually trouble-free riding. Then it started happening to me at night for no apparent reason which woke me up in pain. Tried a lot of different remedies. A wrist brace gave me the most relief at night but not on the bike. My doctor sent me to a neurologist for testing. Found that it was carpal tunnel syndrome. Had simple surgery by a good hand surgeon on each hand two years ago and the problem was solved and still seems to be. I suggest seeing a neurologist sooner rather than later, especially if you are an older person.
in 2005 padding was placed by the wrist and the fingers and no padding on the palm where it matters whose bright idea was that