does anyone else have experience with thumb pain?

[workingToBeFit]

I am desperately searching for a reason for why I have pain in both thumbs - and a way to get rid of it.

My doctor checked it out and says it doesn't look like arthritis and he has no idea what it is. A massage therapist I go to checked it and said the same thing.

Anyway both thumbs hurt, in the joints below the thumb and the area around that. I do use a computer a lot, but I am a right-handed mouser, and my left thumb hurts worse than my right.

I am wondering if I am doing something wrong in the way I hold my weights. I really noticed it today lying on my back on the step and doing bench press with dumbbells. The pressure on the "thumb crotch" area was really bothering me.

Thank you in advance to anyone who answers. Oh and I am nearly 51 now, thin, healthy and work out regularly and often, cardio, weights and flexibility. A total Cathe fan as well

~ Ann ~
Aim for nothing, and you'll hit it every time!

 

[Beavs]

Sorry Ann...I only have middle finger pain...on both hands and my thumb crotch has been fine :7 :7 :7 :7 :7

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! I do hope someone can answer your question and I do hope the pain goes away.

 

[chachi]

ROTFL Beavs :7 I can't stop laughing!!


Ann, if I'm lifting heavier, especially chest work, I will experience some pain the next day but it not ongoing like yours.

Hopefully you can figure out what's going on

http://www.picturetrail.com:80/chastgirl0205

 

[workingToBeFit]

I am glad some other people got a laugh out of the "thumb crotch" - I couldn't think of what to call it and was laughing myself when I wrote that LOL

~ Ann ~
Aim for nothing, and you'll hit it every time!

 

[Sunshine 1528]

OK Beavs - there ya go again

I have to say that I sprained my thumbs in high school while playing volleyball - the ball would push them backwards. They are still a bit loose, but basically healed.

I am 50 and have been athletic most of my life and am pretty healthy also.

I find that when I am doing the chest work sometimes and even with shoulder presses I find that my thumbs get very tired - I am sure it is the way I have to hold the weights tight enough to keep them from falling out of my hands.

Not sure if that is what is happening to you too.

 

[jodijodi]

I apologize in advance for how long my response is...see below.

I have thumb problems, the right more than the left, but some with the left as well. A couple of years ago it got really bad, especially on cold days, and I went to see a hand specialist. After asking me over and over again how I injured it (I hadn't...I cannot remember any acute injury at all), he decided that I had torn the ligament and that I needed surgery right away or I would end up arthritic in the joint. I freaked out and went for an MRI and a second opinion. The second hand specialist did not think that I needed surgery, but he too was convinced that it was not an overuse injury, that there must have been some specific injury to do that kind of damage. I still think they were both wrong about that...there was no injury! My personal opinion is that I have very loose ligaments which probably don't protect my joints as well as they should, and my crummy joints seem to be sensitive to overuse and injury. Lifting heavier weights several times a week was making the joint hurt, and the aggressive way I crack my knuckles probably doesn't help.

Anyway, the second doc put my hand/wrist in a cast for a few weeks, in which I managed to hurt my wrist trying to do things with no thumb, so he had a thumb brace made which immobilized my thumb but allowed me to move my wrist. After several weeks of rest, including almost no weights, the thumb seemed healed.

Since that time, I have had to be very careful about how I do upper body weights. One thing I had noticed was that the neoprene dumbbells have much thicker handles than the hex dumbbells. The thicker handles seem to be much harder on my thumbs, especially in the heavier weights. Tricep kickbacks and chest flys seem to be the worst. I did get some weights with contoured handles (they get narrower where the thumb wraps around), and some more hex weights, and that seems to have helped. Doing fast reps with heavy weights is also hard on my hand joints. It's one of the reasons that you will see me posting about how much I like Slow and Heavy---it feels so much easier on my joints to move the weights that slowly! Also, holding a barbell seems to be harder on my hand joints as well, so I stick with dumbbells.

My overall advice would be to rest your hands whenever possible, maybe even taking total break from weights for a few weeks. I was skeptical that it would help when the doc recommended it, but it really did. Giving the joints as much rest as possible in the short term means a better prognosis in the long run, I think. Also experiment with different kinds of weights to see what feels more comfortable to hold. Different lifting gloves may also help...a more secure grip means you don't have to grip the weights as intensely. I also have to remind myself not to clench the weights so tightly as I get tired. When you do have pain, there are Thermacare heat wraps made for the wrist/hand that can help.

Sorry that was so long...hope I was at least a little helpful!

 

[workingToBeFit]

Please don't apologize for a long message - this was all VERY HELPFUL! I really appreciate your taking the time to write about all of your experiences with this. The first thing I am going to do is replace some of my dumbells with hex. I have about half-hex and half-neoprene right now, and now that you mentioned this, I can see the coated dumbell handles are much thicker.

I also prefer Slow and Heavy to many of the other weight workouts!

~ Ann ~
Aim for nothing, and you'll hit it every time!