Diagnosing the cause of numbness in your hands is often like searching for the cause of an elusive condition. click or rattle Bicycle origins can have myriad causes, which can only be traced by process of elimination.
Often we try to solve hand numbness by wearing cycling gloves or trying different bar tape or grips. If that doesn’t work, you might want to test a different handlebar width or get a more detailed bike fit.
While all of these options can ultimately solve the problem, they’re missing an often-overlooked factor that can cause numbness and tingling in your hands while riding: your neck.
In the age of “tech neck” (a neck stress and pain condition caused by head tilted forward and shoulders hunched from looking at phones and devices all day long), many of us struggle with this compromised posture. Spending too much time in. Causes muscle imbalance.
“Simply put, the muscles at the front of the neck (muscles responsible for bending the neck) are stretched, and the muscles at the back of the neck (muscles responsible for stretching the neck) become stiff.” Joe Yun, CPT, LMTauthor of Stretch Better: Increase flexibility, reduce pain, and improve performance in just 9 minutes a day..
The scalene muscles are a group of three muscles that run vertically along the sides of the neck. If they’re tight, he says, they can have a direct impact on the brachial plexus, the network of nerves that run through it. This network controls the nerves that run down your arms, so if you’re experiencing numbness in your hands, the cause could be traced back to stiffness in your neck.
“Tightness or knots in these muscles can put pressure on the nerves going to the hands, causing numbness or tingling in the fingertips,” explains Natasha Vidal, CEO of LMT. fila massage In Philadelphia. “Addressing trigger points, commonly known as ‘muscle knots,’ through massage, self-massage, and stretching can release compressed nerves and reduce or completely eliminate numbness and tingling.” ” she says.
To reduce stiffness and tightness in the scalene muscles, you can correct forward head posture using a three-pronged approach: stretching, self-massage, and strengthening the deep neck flexors. “Often the best results are achieved by combining these techniques,” says Vidal.
The best stretches to relieve neck stiffness
Here are three exercises to stretch, massage, and strengthen your neck muscles to permanently eliminate numbness in your hands. You will need a chair and a massage ball. You can use lacrosse balls, baseballs, baseballs, whatever you have on hand. accumobility ballor even just your fingertips.
1. Scalene angle stretch
- Start by sitting in a chair with good posture.
- Place the fingertips of your right hand on the left side of your head.
- Look up and use your right hand to slowly guide your neck to the right so that your right ear falls onto your right shoulder. You should feel a stretch on the left side of your neck.
- Hold this stretch for 20-30 seconds.
- Repeat on the other side.
2. Scalene trigger point release
After stretching your scalene muscles, move on to trigger point therapy, a type of self-massage. This technique applies gentle, sustained pressure to tight muscles and muscle knots.
- First, look up, bend your head to the side, and use your hands to feel the muscles protruding from the sides of your neck to find your scalene muscles. (The muscles you’re looking for are the same muscles you felt stretched earlier.)
- Along the length of this muscle, feel for areas of tenderness or tension. Once you find one of these areas, apply light pressure to the area using a ball or applying pressure with your fingertips.
- Maintain this pressure on the tender area for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Repeat on the other side.
3. Deep neck flexor hold
Once you’ve relaxed your scalene muscles, work on strengthening the muscles that run vertically next to your windpipe, known as your deep neck flexors. Strengthening these muscles will correct your head posture and relieve tight scalene muscles.
“The neck flexors are always in a stretched position, so it’s a great idea to strengthen these muscles to reduce the effects of forward head posture,” says Yoon.
- Lie on your back, bend your knees, relax your neck, and tuck your chin to create a double chin. Make sure to keep the back of your neck completely straight and press it into the floor.
- From this position, slowly apply pressure to push your head and neck into the floor. This should be felt in the musculature on either side of the trachea, the deep flexors of the neck.
- Hold this pressure for 30 seconds.
- Release your hands and repeat for 5 sets.
Natascha Grief is Bicycling’s health and fitness editor. She started as a bicycle mechanic and went on to earn several professional mechanic certifications and a United States Bicycle Racing Mechanic license. After that, she fell in love with framebuilding and ended up interning with frame builder Brent Steelman in her hometown of Redwood City, California. She then worked for several years for both major and lesser cycling brands before transitioning into a NASM certified personal trainer specializing in corrective exercise and body positive personal training. She honed her skills as a trainer and coach for over 10 years before launching. inner shift fitness. During 2020, she began contributing regularly to Runner’s World and Bicycle as a freelance writer. Joined the Bicycle editorial department in 2022.
