Pain in hands/fingers?

Farvinpop

Hey all, never posted here before. I have not been riding actively for that long. I started riding regularly since late 2006, with a short break during february. Since I have started again I have been going longer distances at greater speeds for longer durations and I have noticed that I have been experiencing pain in my hands and fingers off and on, but it is most noticable in my left index finger. It hurts in the middle joint and also where my finger meets my hand. I haven't gone to a doctor yet, was hoping it would subside but it has not.

Is this a normal part of conditioning your body to ride regularly? To try to give my hand/finger(s) a rest I have been riding without grabbing the handle bars at every opportunity I can. The pain still seems just as bad. I have always been a 'knuckle-cracker' but I don't know if that has to do with it. If anyone has any similar experience/problems I would love to hear from you.

j.r.hawkins

Sounds a bit like an issue I had a few months ago.

I had probs with the big knuckle at the base of my left thumb. The discomfort would slowly build up to hurt like blazes by the end of the week.

After watching closely for likely causes over a few weeks I worked out it was from a combination of upshifting against the heavy spring on the upgraded front derailleur on my MTB commute bike and squeezing the drink bottle hard when stopped at the lights. The drink-bottle squeeze was what tipped my tendons over the edge, gradually accumulating into a severely inflamed repetition strain injury.

So I changed the drink bottle to the other hand to give my thumb a break. The problem subsided and then went away. I can now do both with the left hand no problems - so long as I don't squeeze that bottle too much!

As silly as this sounds, I suspect your issue might be something similar... a little quirky something you're doing without realising it that's subjecting your anatomy to more than it's used to at this early stage.