Numbness in hand

After doing some crack climbing this past weekend, the back of my right hand has some numbness. I don't know if that is good or bad thing. Never had it before. Been climbing a long time, and I don't recall having numbness...pain yes, but never numb.

Weird because I can see myself touching the hand, but I do not have a corresponding feeling in it.

Anybody else have this happen to them? Anything to worry about?

I had this happen to me after jamming on a crystal before. My hand was numb to the touch and it went away in about a week and a half. Do you recall a particularly painful jam? And just to be clear - you're not having any numbness along the fingers or anything? Just the back of the hand?

Did you have tape/a glove on? I found that that can sometimes cause some nerve deadening.

yep, i had it in my right hand after climbing a crack a few years ago. it went away by itself in a week or 2, but it was annoying. honestly, i never really looked into it...

John L wrote: I had this happen to me after jamming on a crystal before. My hand was numb to the touch and it went away in about a week and a half. Do you recall a particularly painful jam? And just to be clear - you're not having any numbness along the fingers or anything? Just the back of the hand?

Same here. If you compressed a nerve or something it does this. It can take a few days to come back. I've had it on my fingers too when hanging out on sharp bi-finger pockets for too long.

Cheers,

There are all sorts of reasons things go numb, from "no big deal" to "get yourself to a doctor right now."

If it comes back, I wouldn't worry about it unless it keeps happening.  If it persists, you probably want to check with your doc soon.  I have stenosis in my neck where the nerves exit the spinal column and run down my arm.  Depending on how I hold my head, I can crimp off the passage and it makes my left arm go numb.  My options are to fix it now or live with it and fix it later, but it isn't doing any permanent damage unless it starts to persist. I just manage it with body mechanics (I have a slight head tilt).

It was super hot and humid, so I may have had to apply a little more pressure to a thin hands crack .10a than I usually would.

Never wear tape, or gloves, until my skin tears and I have to.  

I have had similar with the big toe(s), but that generally goes away in a day or two. This is from crack climbing specifically. I never get it from sport climbing.

I've experienced this before when I was first learning to hand jam.  I think I was overgripping.  The sensation came back in a couple of days.

I'd get this after climbing in the creek. Numb thumb-tips from ring locks and numbness along the back of the index fingers and hands from jamming. It always came back...eventually. :)

I'm normally pretty good about not over camming my fingers in finger cracks, or over flexing in hand cracks. I can't remember the last time I even got a scab from jamming.

Toes get abused, since if you do it right they are taking most of the weight.

On one of my first rattly hand cracks I cammed my hand really hard in an insecure jam, and cranked a crystal down right into a nerve, rendering my fore and middle finger numb for about 10 days before gradually coming back.

9 months later it still seems sensitive if I crank down too hard on that spot. 

Meh, you will be fine. numbness is better than pain and it will go away. happened to me before and is weird at first. happy sending!!