I am a newbie to running longer distances. During my first full 5k run, my hands and forearms went numb at about the mile 2 mark. Is it normal for hands and forearms to start going numb?
Sounds like you just need to relax. Don't clench your hands. Keep yourself loose. Shake out your wrists periodically. Basically, you should pretend that your holding a potato chip in your hand that you don't want to break.
Interesting, I used to get numbness on the backs of my hands, and little fingers toward the end of a long run (10 miles ish) in combination with a strange feeling in my face and slight light-headedness.
At the time I put it down to low blood sugar, and worries from stretching myself, but it may have been that I had my hands too high (I carry them much lower now) and I was not eating good whole foods.
Eat your greens, and try carrying your hands lower.
Hi teayers, I used to get numb hands to and I used to just try and shake it off. I dont know what caused it but eventually it just went away and I never even thought of it again until now. Maybe the better conditioned you become the less it will hapen. Either way I wouldnt worry to much about it and try not to think about it to much. Ignorance is bliss. =)
If the unclenching your fists doesn't work or if it doesn't go away soon, you may considering getting your back checked out. Sometimes if the nerve root is being compressed it can refer down your arms... not a good thing. running may initiate it due to the stress it places on your spine...
if you focus on losely cupping your hands and relaxing just your hands, then the rest of your arm will become more relaxed too.
what you can do is, before you run, purposefully tighten all the muscles in your arms, one muscle group at a time, and hold them tight for a few seconds, and then focus on relaxing them completely.
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