Bike grips for carpal tunnel: comfort and health

If you are experience discomfort and numbness on your fingers, it is probably due to carpal tunnel syndrome which is caused due to excessive pressure on the nerves of your hands and wrists; Cyclists are one group that is prone to this condition, especially all-mountain riders who are constantly exposed to intense rides. There are bike grips for carpal tunnel with specific features to help relieve pressure on the nerves and reduce associated symptoms caused by repetitive wrist movements, restricted blood flow, shock, and vibrations which are all detrimental. In this article, we highlight specific features of AMS grips and point to the particular recommendations you should follow to minimize the symptoms of carpal tunnel. 

How can AMS-style grips help for carpal tunnel?

Although AMS-style grips are not explicitly designed to help with carpal tunnel syndrome, they include features that can help ease the symptoms. The soft padding helps absorb a great deal of shock and vibration from the trails. For instance, our foam grips are as comfortable as it gets; the soft padding feels very comfortable and attenuates vibrations reducing sore hands, numbness, and arm pump. In addition, the grippy surface and textures provide a solid connection to the handlebar requiring less strength and tension from your muscles.  The tapered profile of the BERM grips is meant to provide a larger surface beneath the fourth and fifth fingers which agrees with the fingers’ natural shape and curl.

Tips to ride if you suffer from carpal tunnel

Riding should get you a nice workout of your muscles, but you should be riding with joint pain or discomfort. If you are looking to change to a set of bike grips made for carpal tunnel, be sure to take into consideration the following tips:

• Properly size your grips to your hand size. If the grip is too small, the lack of contact area will cause you to grip harder than is needed. This will create more tension and affect your endurance. If the grip is too big, your grip won’t be optimal and you may fall short on the distance to the break. To get the correct grip size, simply measure the distance from the crease of your wrist to the tip of your middle finger and then calculate 18% of your measurement.
• Watch your body posture while riding; it is critical to avoid too much pressure on the nerves. Always try to stay relaxed with straight wrists, and bent elbows. In this way, you will absorb pressure and shock in a better way.

• Firstly, your body posture is critical to avoiding pressure on your median nerve. Bent elbows, straight wrists, and lessened tension in your muscles help absorb pressure and road shock in a better way.
• Wear padded gloves for even more vibration absorbance. When choosing your grip size make sure to account for the gloves.
• Make sure your life off the trails is also ergonomic. Watch your lifestyle habits and repetitive activities; they may be exerting unwanted pressure on the nerves.

As you can see,  eliminating discomfort and wrist pain is not entirely dependent on bike grips for carpal tunnel; special grips can certainly help, but other factors need to be considered as well. We encourage you to browse our selection of bike grips; they are all made for high performance without losing comfort.