Hand pump????

[syko]

Not sure if there is such a thing as hand pump but if there is i got it bad!

My arms are fine generally and so is my all round leve of fitness. but my hands are stopping me riding hard and fast.

I get intense pain and numbness in both hands after just 3 or 4 laps which is kinda ridiculous. funny thing is this something new to me. i've never suffered with it before and now all of a sudden It really riuns my races.

I dunno what's causing it or wha to do about it.
Any ideas?

 

[Glitch]

It could be as simple as you're squeezing way too hard with your hands, know as white knuckles. Next time your out, try squeezing more with your legs and keeping your hands loose, try to concentrate on doing it for acouple of laps and see if theres a difference. If not, then maybe you have carpal tunnel or something, I doubt it but I dont know too much about that. Did you buy new gloves and they're too tight around your wrists? just a thought. good luck

 

[trakkerman]

Do you have new grips? This weekend my throttle hand/forearm started cramping. I found the throttle grip had slid to the left and was rubbing on the cable housing. It was binding on left had turns causing my problem.

 

[SpeedyManiac]

Another question, did you recently put on new grips? I switched to a soft compound and found that my hands cramped up after riding some gnarly trails. I'm going to go back to medium compound grips when I replace them.

 

[rm_racer]

Do you have a death grip? I know that is more associated with arm pump, but when I had a bad grip and I used the clutch and brake alot, my hand would cramp up, sometimes to the point of not being able to move my fingers.

 

[High Lord Gomer]

My hands and forearms pump up and cramp when I first start riding, but after a rest, they feel better and, oddly, as the day goes on they give me less problems.

For MX, I usually get it out of the way during practice, but the first part of an enduro or HS sucks!

 

[syko]

hi guys. thanks for the replies, appreciated.

I use medium compound grips, i don't like soft, there too sticky and hard compound just hurt bad.
my grips are a few weeks old too.
I usually get arm pump for my first practice for a few mins then i don't get it again. but my hands hurt really bad every time i go out, to the point i can't pull in my clutch cause my fingers are just frozen and numb. it basically means I can only do 3 or 4 laps and thats it. it's all over.
Maybe it is my grip but i do try and take care not to grip too hard. also i've only suffered this since i moved onto a 250f. i've always been on 2 strokes which i've never really had any probs with.

also, as part of my training i use hand grippers/squeezers. i don't use them a lot but when i do within 1 minute of doing it, it hurts my hands bad. the pain always seems to stem from the base of my thumb/ ball of my hand and then the pain just engulfs my entire hand.

 

[highflyernick]

Is it cold outside, because I can't ride when my hands get cold or else my hands like "freeze up."

 

[Masterphil]

syko, I have the same problem. It isint arm pump at all, but just your hands. I havent found a way to prevent it from happening, but this make it better.
Don't hold on so tight.
Make sure to stretch your hands before doing anything.
Don't hold on so tight.
Make sure your gloves arent too tight, especially at the wrist.
Don't hold on so tight.

 

[syko]

So...I'm guessing that holding on too tight could be key in this?

Your probably right.
I think it's a combination of most of the things you said. I'm pretty hopeless at warming up before races/practice etc so stretching properly just doesn't happen.
Alos, I am paranoid about my gloves slipping off my hands as it happened to me once many years ago so I probably do strap em on a bit too tight and as this is my first stroke and i've always been used to light flickable 2 smokers I'm probably gripping to tight to compensate for the extra bike weight.

I'll try stretching, adjusting the gloves and loosening the grip and i'll let you know how i get on.

many thanks for the tips.
Simon