Hand Numbness With Cycling? Here’s How To Fix It

Feel like you’ve got pins and needles in your hands when you ride? It’s annoying to have to stop and try to shake those suckers out every 20 minutes. There are several reasons why you may be experiencing hand numbness with cycling. Some of them have to do with bike fit and some have to do with how we use our muscles on the bike. We’re going to cover all these bad boys in more detail, but here’s the quick list of the most common issues that drive hand numbness with cycling:

On the bike:

1.Your bars are too low.

2. Your saddle is tipped down too much.

3. Your reach is too short.

With the body:

1. You may need to improve your neck strength.

2. Your diaphragm may not have full range of motion.

3. You may not be using your serratus anterior efficiently.

Let’s dive into the bike:

Issue #1: Bars too low

 If your bars are too low, this will push your body weight forward and down, resulting in increased pressure through your hands. Bar height is different for everyone, but the rule of thumb is you should be able to hover your hands over your bars while pedaling (preferably, on a trainer) and be able to hold that position for a few seconds. If you immediately slide forward or collapse onto the bars, your drop may be too low.

Issue #2: Saddle tipped down too much

Like above, if your saddle is tipped down, it will cause you to slide forward and down on the nose of your saddle constantly. Most people end up pushing themselves back up the saddle using their arms. The excessive pressure through their arms causes them to overuse their shoulders and pecs, resulting in hand numbness with cycling.

 Issue #3: Reach too short

If your reach is too short, it places you too far on top of the bars. This results in too much pressure straight down into your hands, and can cause numbness while cycling.

Your shoulder angle should be around 100 degrees; a more acute angle will cause excessive pressure through your arms and hands

 Now, let’s talk about how the body can contribute to hand numbness

Hand numbness results when there is decreased blood flow or neural communication into your hands. This will happen if too much pressure is placed on the hands, without emphasizing the use of the muscles further up the chain. The muscles that are most important in helping decrease pressure through the hands are:

1. The deep neck flexors

These are the muscles that help keep our head on top of our shoulders, instead of drooping down and forward (ever heard of the term “tech neck”, from looking at the computer all day? Those are the same muscles implicated here). These need to be strong and have endurance to maintain solid neck positioning as we ride.

 Strengthen them with this exercise:

2. The Diaphragm

The diaphragm is the muscle that helps us inhale and exhale, but, since it works on autopilot for most of us, we typically don’t use it to the full range. If we aren’t able to inhale (or exhale) as much as possible, we end up using our neck muscles to help move our ribs. Excessive use of our neck muscles causes tightness and can result in pressure on the nerves that run from our neck down our arms. That can cause numbness down into the hands.

Teach the diaphragm how to move to its fullest extent here:

3. Serratus anterior

This muscle doesn’t get as much love as it should. Due to its insertions, it not only helps stabilize the shoulder blade on the ribs so you can use your arms more appropriately, it also helps move the ribcage and position the trunk in a more advantageous position. Without this, our chest droops between our shoulders, putting excessive pressure through the nerves running down the arm. It also aids the diaphragm in respiration so that it too can work as effectively as possible.

Strengthen your serratus anterior with this exercise:

Hand numbness while cycling is usually a sign that something’s off—whether it’s your bike fit or biomechanics, the key to fixing it is reducing pressure on your hands by optimizing both your position on the bike and how you use your body when you ride. Want to ride pain-free and maximize comfort? Download my Ultimate Bike Fit Checklist now and get the exact steps to dial in your setup and keep your hands happy on every ride!

My next steps for you:

1. Read my blog: Neck Pain While Cycling and How To Fix It

2. Check out my video on Instagram for a bonus exercise for numb hands

3. Join my newsletter below 👇👇 to get the latest in info on bike fits, PT, exercises, and everything else movement related!