22 Jul What’s cyclist palsy and how to prevent it?
Guyon’s Canal Syndrome (also known as Cyclist Palsy)
Cycling is a great way to stay active, but it comes with the risk of injuries. No matter if you’re a SRAM or Shimano groupset user, 12 speed or 10 speed, accidents do happen. While fractures from high speed falls are difficult to prevent, fortunately, other types of cycling related hand injuries such as Guyon’s Canal Syndrome (Cyclist Palsy) are preventable.
What is Cyclist Palsy?
Guyon’s canal syndrome is caused by compression of the ulnar nerve in the wrist, often due to vibration, prolonged pressure, and prolonged cycling with an awkward wrist angle.
Symptoms of Cyclist Palsy:
- Tingling, burning, or numbness in the ring and little fingers
- Hand weakness, reduced grip strength.
- Hand pain
- Advanced presentation: Clawing of ring and little fingers.
Tailored hand injury prevention tips for cyclists:
- Ensure proper bike fit – Get fitted professionally at your local road bike shop.
- Change hood angle if required to ensure wrist neutral position.
- Use gel padded gloves.
- Use thicker bar tape or add gel pads inserts while wrapping your bars.
- Change hand positions frequently – Hoods, drops, even tops with extra buttons for electric shifting!
- Selecting wider tyres for shock absorption.
- Strengthen core, shoulder, wrists, and hands to ensure good posture.
Padded bike gloves can help prevent hand pain and strain.
Treatment
At Melbourne Hand Rehab, we specialise in helping cyclists recover and get back on the road. If you experience symptoms, don’t hesitate to reach out for professional help.
Your hand therapist will collaborate and work closely with you to guide you in your individualised rehabilitation journey:
Assessment: Our therapists conduct a thorough assessment to evaluate the severity of your injury, identify contributing factors, and understand your goals and lifestyle.
Pain Management: We utilise various modalities, such as nerve desensitisation, nerve gliding exercises, soft tissue massage, heat therapy, graded exercises, and sometimes splinting to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation along the affected nerve pathway.
Education and Prevention: We can have a discussion on ergonomic principles, exercises, and injury prevention strategies to minimise the risk of recurrence.
Other hand and wrist injuries sustained from road cycling:
Wrist tendinopathies: Injury to your wrist tendons caused by prolonged cycling with your wrist in awkward positions, changes in your cycling routine, and sudden increase or decrease in frequency of cycling.
Injury to your Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC): Injury to soft tissues on the pinky side of your wrist that acts like airbags for your wrist.
Ligament injuries: A fall with an outstretched hand from a bike can cause injuries or complete tear of the ligaments of your wrist or thumb.
Fractures: Common fractures from cycling falls include:
– Distal radius fracture
– Scaphoid fracture
– Trapezium fracture (base of thumb)
– Thumb fracture
– Hook of hamate fracture
Custom Otoform silicone glove insert allows our cyclist client to grip without pain when squeezing brakes, while recovering from a thumb injury.
Your hand therapist will complete a thorough assessment of your wrists and hands, diagnose the type of injury, and develop a personalised treatment plan for you. If required, a custom thermoplastic splint can be made to allow your wrist to rest and heal.
For more information about fractures > I think I have a hand fracture, what do I do now
If you are experiencing finger, hand, wrist or shoulder pain, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to help you.
For Cyclists, hand injuries may be a significant barrier to achieve optimal aero positionings to impress your mates in the group ride. Let’s not let your hand injury stop you from getting kudos on Strava or gaining that extra 100 watts. Going to your hand therapist early on is crucial for timely assessment, early intervention, as well as prevention of further injury. We would love to collaborate with you to get you back to your full potential.
BOOK AN APPOINTMENT
For more information, call us directly on 03 9458 5166
