Carpal tunnel syndrome- Recovery and Grip Training

[JPA]

Hi

There have been some topics about carpal tunnel syndrome, but i think not too much and not direct training and recovery tips. 

I do have this syndrome in my both hands. It was diagnosis from 3 years ago. Hands were numb after sleeping, driving car or even walking in woods. If i did some shoveling, worked on some car or other machine my hands were on pain and fire, when it was bad i could not keep pencil in my hand. After some test etc. they say it is bad, need to operate both hands, 3-6 month recovery/wrist. No guaranteed for better grip strength or mobility. Only pain and numbness will go away. Doctor would not say direct that i can do any strength sport after surgery, i did ask this several times, but no answer. So i did not go to "under knife". Since then my wrist are sometimes better sometimes worst. I can do some grip stuff like, farmers walk, dead hang from pull-up bar. But grippers, tearing, mostly dynamic moves are no no. My arms will burn and go numb, and wont recover in same day if they do get "burn".

My grip strength is weak -50kg both hands. I can do chin-up with 50kg from 43mm bar, hang on 43mm bar for +60sec with +90kg(i weight 98kg). But cant cut metal with grinder by one hand, twist water from towel multiple times,  do kettlebell swing for 60sec etc.etc.  Best for my hand have been ice, ice directly on forearm and wrist. Massage some times.. Worst is gripper, grinding(metal working), cut something with pliers or scissors, hammering, some times wood cutting and splitting. 

 

I ask help for my problem.

What would best way to recover my hands?

How can i train more crushing strength without get my hands sore and numb for days,weeks?

Is there some good stretch or mobility moves and routine to follow?

 

I believe that there is some one else who know somebody who has or have same problems but will still make progress in strength sport and gripping.

 

Thanks

[Shoggoth]

May need a bunch of rest by the sounds of it. That and see your doctor or physiotherapist. 

[Climber028]

Remove inflammatory foods from your diet, find a good body worker to get some soft tissue work done on your lower arms, contrast baths regularly, and take this time to train the rest of your body. 

[JPA]

9 hours ago, Shoggoth said:

May need a bunch of rest by the sounds of it. That and see your doctor or physiotherapist. 

Yes it does. There is this strange thing about rest, it might not always help. I mean that keep rest from everything that tax my grip, little move will recover hands faster, sometimes but not always. I try rest my grip little bit more. Have to say it is mentally hard right now, i do have rotator cuff tendonitis in left shoulder. That is still recovering, i do go physiotherapist 4 x month. Since November no log lifting, since December only back squat, core work and running. 

 

[JPA]

9 hours ago, Climber028 said:

Remove inflammatory foods from your diet, find a good body worker to get some soft tissue work done on your lower arms, contrast baths regularly, and take this time to train the rest of your body. 

Inflammatory food. I have never think or heard about healthy diet can help recover with wrist problems. Can you explain this little bit more? Clean food keep your "motor" clean and accelerate the metabolism(thank you google translate ) and muscle tissue will recover faster?

That i will do, after i get my shoulder fixed, its time to wrist. I have notice that after massage sometimes forearm can be in pain and numb more than a week. 

Contrast bath. I have done it wrong. I have not use hot water and cold, only ice. One cup ice melted it on forearm. Take 15min per hand. I try with hot n cold.

Is 60sec cold+60sec hot, good for so long that water remain cold ?

[Fist of Fury]

You should not be able to have your hands in the water for 60 seconds the first time you try. If so the water is not cold or hot enough. It should hurt in the beginning when you're not used to do it.

Regarding your wrist, it seems very strange to me that you can hang from a 48 mm bar with 180+ kg but not close grippers. You might have some type of injury?

Have you tried very light grippers? Also try very light wrist levering exercises. It should help, if it doesn't, then you must have some type of injury.

[Climber028]

4 hours ago, JPA said:

Inflammatory food. I have never think or heard about healthy diet can help recover with wrist problems. Can you explain this little bit more? Clean food keep your "motor" clean and accelerate the metabolism(thank you google translate ) and muscle tissue will recover faster?

Inflammatory foods are sugar, refined carbohydrates, processed meats, dairy, and industrial seed oils. The short version is, yes diet has a major impact on injury healing and inflammation. Ice alone is only helpful for acute injuries, first 12-24 hours. After that heat or heat/cold should be used. This helps dilate blood vessels in the area and better blood flow = better healing

Here's a broad overview

http://healevate.com/10-health-benefits-of-an-anti-inflammatory-diet/

There's tons of books and websites that say pretty much the same thing in different ways

The very short version of a great diet is 

"Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much".

[JPA]

On 21.1.2018 at 10:54 AM, Fist of Fury said:

You should not be able to have your hands in the water for 60 seconds the first time you try. If so the water is not cold or hot enough. It should hurt in the beginning when you're not used to do it.

Regarding your wrist, it seems very strange to me that you can hang from a 48 mm bar with 180+ kg but not close grippers. You might have some type of injury?

Have you tried very light grippers? Also try very light wrist levering exercises. It should help, if it doesn't, then you must have some type of injury.

I will try with hotter water. Need to be +50c.. Rule of thumb do not burn your self?   Now in winter time i could use sauna for this. Ice,snow+water mix in bucket, put hand there, after time throw more water and lift hand up in hot steam.. Could work or be too brutal.

Question about hot and cold. Is it worth to try some liniment for forearm and wrist? I have use some horse liniment days ago. I can remember that it help keep muscles warm, but sting and burn every time i stop moving, keep moving no burn and sting. 

I thought i don`t have injury, i do have broke my wrist but that did heal and was long long time ago. Way before i did have any problems with wrist or grip.

I can do grippers, once but not like 7 reps. Open-close-open move is worst, start to burn in forearm, hand go numb and cant really feel my hand. Usually little finger and ring finger. When i do farmers walk, no problem cos i keep hand closed. Wait and do it again. 2-5min wait is ok between closing hand and gripping hard. So rep work is hard. Lighter gripper no so bad if i keep reps low.

Pull-ups and Chin-ups are little bit same, if i do them latter patter, my grip will give up. Curl move will effect my grip negative, curls with barbell, dumbbell dont matter, grip will give up. Low reps, usually no problems.

 

Levering exercises.. never done these. I can feel the burn and pain just watching on youtube. Will these give more room for nerve in wrist? Stretch and build ligaments?

[Fist of Fury]

4 minutes ago, JPA said:

I will try with hotter water. Need to be +50c.. Rule of thumb do not burn your self?   Now in winter time i could use sauna for this. Ice,snow+water mix in bucket, put hand there, after time throw more water and lift hand up in hot steam.. Could work or be too brutal.

Question about hot and cold. Is it worth to try some liniment for forearm and wrist? I have use some horse liniment days ago. I can remember that it help keep muscles warm, but sting and burn every time i stop moving, keep moving no burn and sting. 

I thought i don`t have injury, i do have broke my wrist but that did heal and was long long time ago. Way before i did have any problems with wrist or grip.

I can do grippers, once but not like 7 reps. Open-close-open move is worst, start to burn in forearm, hand go numb and cant really feel my hand. Usually little finger and ring finger. When i do farmers walk, no problem cos i keep hand closed. Wait and do it again. 2-5min wait is ok between closing hand and gripping hard. So rep work is hard. Lighter gripper no so bad if i keep reps low.

Pull-ups and Chin-ups are little bit same, if i do them latter patter, my grip will give up. Curl move will effect my grip negative, curls with barbell, dumbbell dont matter, grip will give up. Low reps, usually no problems.

 

Levering exercises.. never done these. I can feel the burn and pain just watching on youtube. Will these give more room for nerve in wrist? Stretch and build ligaments?

The hot water should not destroy yout skin of course but your skin should definitely get red and it should hurt. Heat dissipates over time so it gets easier and easier and you'll get used to it also. The skin adapts to it, like it does to any other type of stress.

Seems like you have really bad blood flow in your arms or maybe you just have very low lactic acid thresehold, I don't know, I'm no expert. Have you tried to do very high reps with very, very easy grippers? Like a plastic gripper or something? Maybe that can help you?

You should definitely start doing levering exercises. Yes it helps you with everything you said and it will prevent you from getting injured, it will help with both hypertrophy and strength. It's a must do, it should be the base of any type of grip training if you ask me.

Start with very low weight, as you would do with any other exercise you try the first time.

[JPA]

On 21.1.2018 at 3:15 PM, Climber028 said:

Inflammatory foods are sugar, refined carbohydrates, processed meats, dairy, and industrial seed oils. The short version is, yes diet has a major impact on injury healing and inflammation. Ice alone is only helpful for acute injuries, first 12-24 hours. After that heat or heat/cold should be used. This helps dilate blood vessels in the area and better blood flow = better healing

Here's a broad overview

http://healevate.com/10-health-benefits-of-an-anti-inflammatory-diet/

There's tons of books and websites that say pretty much the same thing in different ways

The very short version of a great diet is 

"Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much".

Thank you. Everyday learn something new. I should register here and ask this way before, i have putting ice on my hand and thinking this will recover them. 

Good reason more about eating habits. I have pretty clean diet but not perfect. Should eat less and more plants. I do eat plans every meal, but when on road trip it is more peanuts and protein bars than beans and cucumbers. After visiting Israel i did find that vegan food can be really tasty and still can lift weights by eating "rabbit food". But still, i am meat lover, cow to rhino, everything goes.

[JPA]

2 minutes ago, Fist of Fury said:

The hot water should not destroy yout skin of course but your skin should definitely get red and it should hurt. Heat dissipates over time so it gets easier and easier and you'll get used to it also. The skin adapts to it, like it does to any other type of stress.

Seems like you have really bad blood flow in your arms or maybe you just have very low lactic acid thresehold, I don't know, I'm no expert. Have you tried to do very high reps with very, very easy grippers? Like a plastic gripper or something? Maybe that can help you?

You should definitely start doing levering exercises. Yes it helps you with everything you said and it will prevent you from getting injured, it will help with both hypertrophy and strength. It's a must do, it should be the base of any type of grip training if you ask me.

Start with very low weight, as you would do with any other exercise you try the first time.

awesome, thank you. Start doing levering.  I do have 45lbs gripper, i give it try. If it is too hard, gonna pick up some plastic one from market. 

Is it better do levering after or before grippers? 

"Seems like you have really bad blood flow in your arms or maybe you just have very low lactic acid thresehold" Sometimes i think i have them both, built more for easy long distance running and collecting post stamps than wrestling or timber work.

[Fist of Fury]

4 minutes ago, JPA said:

awesome, thank you. Start doing levering.  I do have 45lbs gripper, i give it try. If it is too hard, gonna pick up some plastic one from market. 

Is it better do levering after or before grippers? 

"Seems like you have really bad blood flow in your arms or maybe you just have very low lactic acid thresehold" Sometimes i think i have them both, built more for easy long distance running and collecting post stamps than wrestling or timber work.

Always start your workout with the excersice/event you want to excel the most at. You really need to be able to put most of your energy at that. Levering would be like assistance work for you at this point.

[Guest]

On 1/21/2018 at 8:15 AM, Climber028 said:

Inflammatory foods are sugar, refined carbohydrates, processed meats, dairy, and industrial seed oils. The short version is, yes diet has a major impact on injury healing and inflammation. Ice alone is only helpful for acute injuries, first 12-24 hours. After that heat or heat/cold should be used. This helps dilate blood vessels in the area and better blood flow = better healing

Here's a broad overview

http://healevate.com/10-health-benefits-of-an-anti-inflammatory-diet/

There's tons of books and websites that say pretty much the same thing in different ways

The very short version of a great diet is 

"Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much".

I’ve heard that about dairy.... I drink a lot of milk and eat a lot of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Never had a problem.... how can one tell they are causing inflammation? What are the signs and symptoms if any? If it was true that it was causing inflammation I would cut them out. My main diet is fish, beans, oatmeal, apples, bananas, spinach, almonds and walnuts lots of hard boiled Eggs  and I drink unfiltered apple cider vinegar with water once per day.

[Climber028]

17 minutes ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

I’ve heard that about dairy.... I drink a lot of milk and eat a lot of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Never had a problem.... how can one tell they are causing inflammation? What are the signs and symptoms if any? If it was true that it was causing inflammation I would cut them out. My main diet is fish, beans, oatmeal, apples, bananas, spinach, almonds and walnuts lots of hard boiled Eggs  and I drink unfiltered apple cider vinegar with water once per day.

You very well might be fine, some people have no response but it's common enough to be an initial culprit. The easy way to find out is to do an elimination diet, go a month without an item and then add it back in, look for any issues that may arise. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Climber028 said:

You very well might be fine, some people have no response but it's common enough to be an initial culprit. The easy way to find out is to do an elimination diet, go a month without an item and then add it back in, look for any issues that may arise. 

Yea makes sense. I eat it and drink it because it’s good tasting protein

[slazbob]

You mentioned your ring and pinkie fingers; they would not be affected by CTS. Maybe half of the ring finger would get numb. Grippers dig in near that area...i’d Stay away from those for a bit. 

A Flex Bar can help with light twisting negatives. Great blood-flow comes from using them. Stretching your thumbs a few times a day goes a long way, too.

ice water can make your nerve more sensitive! Even hot, can. Warm water while squeezing a sponge lightly will be a better practice. 

Thats a tiny area that doesn’t get enough room for things to slide through...and inflammation just tightens it all up. 

Hope some of this can help.

[Guest]

On 1/20/2018 at 4:26 PM, JPA said:

Hi

There have been some topics about carpal tunnel syndrome, but i think not too much and not direct training and recovery tips. 

I do have this syndrome in my both hands. It was diagnosis from 3 years ago. Hands were numb after sleeping, driving car or even walking in woods. If i did some shoveling, worked on some car or other machine my hands were on pain and fire, when it was bad i could not keep pencil in my hand. After some test etc. they say it is bad, need to operate both hands, 3-6 month recovery/wrist. No guaranteed for better grip strength or mobility. Only pain and numbness will go away. Doctor would not say direct that i can do any strength sport after surgery, i did ask this several times, but no answer. So i did not go to "under knife". Since then my wrist are sometimes better sometimes worst. I can do some grip stuff like, farmers walk, dead hang from pull-up bar. But grippers, tearing, mostly dynamic moves are no no. My arms will burn and go numb, and wont recover in same day if they do get "burn".

My grip strength is weak -50kg both hands. I can do chin-up with 50kg from 43mm bar, hang on 43mm bar for +60sec with +90kg(i weight 98kg). But cant cut metal with grinder by one hand, twist water from towel multiple times,  do kettlebell swing for 60sec etc.etc.  Best for my hand have been ice, ice directly on forearm and wrist. Massage some times.. Worst is gripper, grinding(metal working), cut something with pliers or scissors, hammering, some times wood cutting and splitting. 

 

I ask help for my problem.

What would best way to recover my hands?

How can i train more crushing strength without get my hands sore and numb for days,weeks?

Is there some good stretch or mobility moves and routine to follow?

 

I believe that there is some one else who know somebody who has or have same problems but will still make progress in strength sport and gripping.

 

Thanks

It might not be CTS... May be cervical nerve compression from your neck. 

[JPA]

7 hours ago, slazbob said:

You mentioned your ring and pinkie fingers; they would not be affected by CTS. Maybe half of the ring finger would get numb. Grippers dig in near that area...i’d Stay away from those for a bit. 

A Flex Bar can help with light twisting negatives. Great blood-flow comes from using them. Stretching your thumbs a few times a day goes a long way, too.

ice water can make your nerve more sensitive! Even hot, can. Warm water while squeezing a sponge lightly will be a better practice. 

Thats a tiny area that doesn’t get enough room for things to slide through...and inflammation just tightens it all up. 

Hope some of this can help.

They did test my both hands back in 2015. Test was CTS or EMG, not sure anymore. The test is quite simple, you get some needles in your arm and palm. Then you get some electrical shocks from needles and this give some kind "scale" and specs that goes to monitor and there to paper, like EKG. 
But it is possible that i do have something else, just man made test and diagnosis. 

Doctor did say almost same, pinkie and ring finger should be the worst if you have Carpal tunnel syndrome.

Have never heard this flex bar, but looks worth to test. Maybe daily or for evening recover training after grip work. Stretching is helped a lot. Some time after i could feel that there is nothing wrong in my wrist, but after a 30 min feels like before stretching.

Warm water is easy to test, let see what happens. 

Thank you

[JPA]

7 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

It might not be CTS... May be cervical nerve compression from your neck. 

I remember when i broke my wrist in motorbike accident. After splint was removed and start to training strength levels back were they was, my grip was bad. Could not move fingers and grip even pencil. Physiotherapist did "crank" my neck 2 times, and that make huge difference. Fingers start to move and strength came back. 

Right now i`m back in physiotherapist cos my rotator cuff have some problems. My shoulder is in wrong place, it have been many years from other accident. This is causing shoulder tendinitis and some nerve from neck to bicep get too much pressure and have not enough room to move.. There could be some connection between this and wrist problems. 

[JPA]

Ice and hot water bath worked fine. After training i can feel my hands are not so sore and recover faster.  Big difference for between ice only vs. cold water+hot water. AWSOME

Long time since deadlifting and even more time since i have done some grip work or train my wrist. I did some levering and give a try for beginner program that i found in here. Let see what happens in couple month, maybe some serious grip work at summer? cant wait.