I Have Numb Hands After My Workout—Should I Worry?

There are specific physical stuff you expect to occur with exercise, like getting breathless, sweaty, or fatigued. But when something out of the abnormal occurs—numb hands after a workout or tingly fingers and toes during your cardio session, as an illustration—it’s only natural to feel a bit of unnerved.

Possibly your foot appears like pins and needles halfway through your elliptical session. Or your hand loses sensation when you’re busting out a set of overhead presses. Perhaps you step off the stationary bike only to be greeted by a numbness in your toes. Regardless of the scenario, it’s comprehensible to feel caught off guard by it. In any case, why would your extremities feel like they’re falling asleep when, actually, they’re very much awake and dealing hard?

Though it could feel disconcerting when it happens, foot and hand tingling and numbness during workouts is definitely more common than you would possibly think—affecting exercisers in quite a lot of routines—and in lots of cases, it’s really nothing to fret about. As for numbness or tingling that persists or crops up after your exercise session wraps, well, that might be an indication of something more concerning, depending on what other symptoms (if any) you’re experiencing.

To get a greater grasp on that exercise-related pins and needles sensation, SELF chatted with experts to learn what triggers them, how you can alleviate them, and when it is best to check in with a physician. Here’s what you must know.

What causes numb hands when exercising?

Tingling or numbness within the hands is frequently an indication that blood flow to the nerves is being blocked—it’s generally not because of simply overworking your muscles, Alice Chen, MD, a physiatrist on the Hospital for Special Surgery in Latest York City, tells SELF.

The countless nerves that run throughout our bodies are super sensitive, sensory nerves—those that give feeling—much more so. Even a slight change in blood supply to those nerves can affect what we feel, leading to numbness and tingling (there’s an actual term for that feeling, by the way in which; it’s called paresthesia). “Probably the most common cause for changes in blood supply to nerves in a healthy person is positional,” Jeffrey M. Gross, MD, medical director at NYU Langone Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Associates, tells SELF. It’s the identical reason your arm may get numb in the event you go to sleep on it—that position blocks blood supply to the nerves.

Positioning issues are especially common during cardio. While you’re running, using the elliptical, and even vigorously walking, your arm is commonly bent on the elbow. Quick anatomy refresher: Your ulnar nerve—your “funny bone,” which yes, is definitely a nerve—runs along the within your forearm and all the way down to your pinky and ring fingers. When your elbow is bent, this position forces that nerve to stretch across the bone in your elbow. This cuts off its blood supply, which in turn makes your pinky and ring fingers feel tingly and numb. “Everyone’s anatomy is a bit of bit different, so some persons are more liable to this than others,” Dr. Gross says.