Cycler's Palsy.....Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?

[fortmental]

I've been biking some 40 years. Now that I'm officially an "old guy", my hands get number and number on my rides, be it road riding, MtB, or on the tandem with the old lady. It's gotten to the point where I can't even tell if I'm squeezing the brakes or not.

Recently, however, one of my hands hurts non-stop. I've got no strength left in the pinky and ring fingers and can barely close the hand, much less squeeze anything like when opening a tight jar.

I've googled the problem and it's clearly "Cycler's Palsy", likely some severe form. In any case, I can't seem to find any therapy other than resting it. I can't believe that I'm only one suffering from this....anybody else dealt with this before?

What's worse?: staying off the bike and losing my mind, or riding one-handed?

[BeDrinkable]

'fraid not. I just have the drinkers palsy. After 5 or 6, I just can't hold my bottle anymore!

Seriously though, rest always seems like the best medicine for almost anything.

[Aaron]

Is the pain/lack of strength only present on the bike? If not, maybe see your doctor and get a referral to a WARNING: This post is considered spam by MbPost. All links on this post are considered dangerous..
If it is restricted to the bike, you might be able to troubleshoot it yourself, especially given your experience on the bike.
A few things I thought of:.
Have you changed anything on your bike or with regard to your kit, recently (shoes, pedals, stem etc.)? From my experience very small changes to how things are set up can have a tremendous affect on my comfort?
Have you sustained any (major or minor) other injury before/since you noticed the problem with your hand? A physical problem or imbalance remote from the source of pain could be the culprit. A year and a half ago I injured my left knee while running and the injury brought to the fore the fact that while on the bike I favored my right leg (slight leg length discrepancy). The injury exacerbated the stress on my left leg to the point it was painful to ride more than 1/2 an hour. I've had great success by using shims b/w the cleat and sole of my right (short) leg and also by religiously stretching (so that the underlying problem isn't made more so by general tightness).
As an aside, cycling forums seem to emphasize leg/core stretches; you might look to climbing forums for shoulder/upper arm/lower arm/hand stretches.
If you don't have access to a good sports physical therapist you could also shoot the guys at cyclingnews.com (fitness@cyclingnews.com) an email and see what they have to say. They have a panel of 'experts' who answer questions such as yours and are much more qualified than whatever anecdotal info I can give. You might even find an answer in their archives.
Best of luck and in the meantime keep riding but ice your hand afterwards!
Aaron

[fortmental]

Thanks Aaron,

The only change I made recently was to ride without my gloves because they didn't fit under the warm gloves I was using for wintertime commuting. But it seems that this was a problem long in coming. Last summer, my MtB rides seemed to make my hands pretty useless after an hour or so of riding. I'll check out some of the resources you mentioned.

[Treetrimmer]

Here is an interesting article that sounds exactly like what your experiencing.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/43p2ga8jmdly5vd9/

My brother started getting numbness during rides and changed his bars to medium rise carbon fiber. The carbon fiber dampens quite allot.

Hope this helps,

Treetrimmer

[jesseahouser]

i've had excellent results with ergon grips. they are designed to help alleviate problems associated with numbness in the hands.
http://www.ergon-bike.com/

i use the gp1:
http://www.ergon-bike.com/us/grips/gp1.html