support hand thumb pain

[Nick29]

I'm getting back into shooting/carrying after not doing either regularly for a few years (lived in an extremely anti-gun area for a year and life got in the way when I came to a more gun friendly place). In shaking off the rust, I've noticed that if I try to use anything more than what I'd call moderate pressure with my support hand, I get a shooting pain that seems to originate in the meaty part of the thumb and run to about the last joint. It feels more like nerve pain than a repetitive use injury (I just dealt with tendinitis in my strong hand elbow earlier this year). This happens with dry and live fire, seems to happen regardless of the gun I'm shooting (PX4 CC, G19, or M&P9C).

I searched the forum and found several threads about hand pain, but nothing that sounded like what I'm feeling.

Has anyone had this kind of pain before, or have an idea of how to prevent it?

[Jared]

I'm Interested to see what others say on this. When. I started with the thumbs forward grip, if I aggressively rotated my support hand wrist forward, my left thumb would start to tingle and go numb after around 300 rounds. I eventually changed the grip up a little, letting that wrist take a more natural angle and didn't experience the problem anymore. My numbness and tingling originated in a similar location to yours, and the thumbprint area would eventually become almost totally numb as the range session progressed.

[JustOneGun]

You could have something wrong with your hand that is showing up just now. Don't discount having to see a doctor.

Many new shooters report discomfort in the wrist above the thumb when learning to shoot thumbs forward. But other than an injury I don't know why it would hurt now. If you are shooting thumbs forward, my suggestion is to play around with different grips that change the angle of your wrist. Perhaps starting with what many call a stacked thumbs grip where the wrist is neutral. For most that means the support hand thumb ends up along the slide about opposite of the trigger finger when it is safely up on the slide.

If that helps then you could over time slowly move the support thumb forward with the associated cant to the wrist.

[SC_Dave]

I have pretty severe arthritis in the proximal thumb joint of my support hand. It's very painful when shooting SHO but it creeps in shooting after 200-300 rounds freestyle. I'm not sure if this is what you are experiencing or not. My Doctor prescribed Mobic (Meloxicam) for this and other joint pain. It helps but does not eliminate it.
SCD

[Lomshek]

Your thumb pain sounds identical to mine (in both thumbs) which I attribute to my thumbs hovering over a keyboard waiting to hit the space key.

Tendinitis may not be correct but some kind of atrophy/tightening issue is exactly what it feels like.

The cure has been range of motion movement exercises (rotational and back & forth) plus stretching. If I slack off it comes back and if I work it it gets better quickly.

[Nick29]

Your thumb pain sounds identical to mine (in both thumbs) which I attribute to my thumbs hovering over a keyboard waiting to hit the space key.

Tendinitis may not be correct but some kind of atrophy/tightening issue is exactly what it feels like.

The cure has been range of motion movement exercises (rotational and back & forth) plus stretching. If I slack off it comes back and if I work it it gets better quickly.

it's funny you mention this. I just bought a few Captains of Crush grippers and a set of their elastic bands to help with grip strength and as a prehab for work. I'm a dentist, so carpal tunnel issues are pretty much inevitable, and the tennis elbow earlier in the year was really annoying.

have you talked to your physician about it? I hadn't seriously thought about calling my GP because I'm thinking that since it's such an activity specific pain, he's going to say "don't do that activity."

[Lomshek]

Nick in response to your deleted posts I did not go to my family doctor.

I have a bike riding friend who's an orthopedic surgeon and saw him years ago for the initial onset of my problems which included golfer/tennis elbow problems. Besides some cortisone injections as an immediate temp fix he sent to a physical therapist for some help on rehabbing the parts.

I'd hope an MD would be more helpful than "don't do that" but it probably will be more productive to see an ortho specialist or just hit a sports PT directly if that's allowed.

I own a bicycle shop and spend a lot of time turning wrenches. I don't doubt that your profession is part of the problem as I can feel my thumbs screaming when I'm doing fine motor (Uh oh I said it!) work like turning a small screwdriver between my thumb and index finger. You holding the tools of your trade like you have to would similarly stress the thumb muscle.

I'm not sure if atrophy is the correct medical term but the act of holding a muscle in constant tension seems to stress and weaken it and the related tendons.

My PT said the ROM work was the best he'd found to limber up the joints and gentle stretching before and more aggressive stretching after warming up helped.

[Nick29]

Nick in response to your deleted posts I did not go to my family doctor.

I have a bike riding friend who's an orthopedic surgeon and saw him years ago for the initial onset of my problems which included golfer/tennis elbow problems. Besides some cortisone injections as an immediate temp fix he sent to a physical therapist for some help on rehabbing the parts.

I'd hope an MD would be more helpful than "don't do that" but it probably will be more productive to see an ortho specialist or just hit a sports PT directly if that's allowed.

I own a bicycle shop and spend a lot of time turning wrenches. I don't doubt that your profession is part of the problem as I can feel my thumbs screaming when I'm doing fine motor (Uh oh I said it!) work like turning a small screwdriver between my thumb and index finger. You holding the tools of your trade like you have to would similarly stress the thumb muscle.

I'm not sure if atrophy is the correct medical term but the act of holding a muscle in constant tension seems to stress and weaken it and the related tendons.

My PT said the ROM work was the best he'd found to limber up the joints and gentle stretching before and more aggressive stretching after warming up helped.


Thanks for the info. Holding a muscle in a given position under tension can definitely cause problems. It's not as noticeable with my non-dominant hand, but there's definitely some pressure put on the thumb joint when holding a mirror and retracting.

Not sure what's going on with the posts. I assumed I goofed something up the first time around. Second time, I got a message along the lines of "your post needs to be checked by a moderator before it's posted." Is this a newbie thing to prevent spammers? I promise my intentions here are good :). I've lurked off and on for 5+ years and was a big fan of Todd's blog.

[Lomshek]

Tom_Jones Tech help in aisle 1 please.

Nick29 is having some kind of posting issue where the forum is deleting his posts.

I got a notice of the posts because he quoted me but when I click on the link it says they were deleted and they are not in the discussion.

Here are the two posts. The first one he actually tried to post twice and I got two notices with dead links.


it's funny you mention this. I just bought a few Captains of Crush grippers and a set of their elastic bands to help with grip strength and as a prehab for work. I'm a dentist, so carpal tunnel issues are pretty much inevitable, and the tennis elbow earlier in the year was really annoying.

have you talked to your physician about it? I hadn't seriously thought about calling my GP because I'm thinking that since it's such an activity specific pain, he's going to say "don't do that activity."


Thanks for the info. Holding a muscle in a given position under tension can definitely cause problems. It's not as noticeable with my non-dominant hand, but there's definitely some pressure put on the thumb joint when holding a mirror and retracting.

Not sure what's going on with the posts. I assumed I goofed something up the first time around. Second time, I got a message along the lines of "your post needs to be checked by a moderator before it's posted." Is this a newbie thing to prevent spammers? I promise my intentions here are good :). I've lurked off and on for 5+ years and was a big fan of Todd's blog.

[gomerpyle]

Out of curiosity does your thumb feel stiff in the morning? No this is NOT a double entendre!!!

How does it feel when typing on your cell phone?


I'm getting back into shooting/carrying after not doing either regularly for a few years (lived in an extremely anti-gun area for a year and life got in the way when I came to a more gun friendly place). In shaking off the rust, I've noticed that if I try to use anything more than what I'd call moderate pressure with my support hand, I get a shooting pain that seems to originate in the meaty part of the thumb and run to about the last joint. It feels more like nerve pain than a repetitive use injury (I just dealt with tendinitis in my strong hand elbow earlier this year). This happens with dry and live fire, seems to happen regardless of the gun I'm shooting (PX4 CC, G19, or M&P9C).

I searched the forum and found several threads about hand pain, but nothing that sounded like what I'm feeling.

Has anyone had this kind of pain before, or have an idea of how to prevent it?

[txdpd]

I'd go see a hand specialist. I was having back of the thumb pain that my doctor thought was DeQuervain's Syndrome. Got a referral for physical therapy and she tracked the problem up my arms to my brachialis and brachioradialis, and had relief in one session with dry needling and massage.

If you think you have a nerve problem that could a problem in your neck or somewhere in between.

[Nick29]

Out of curiosity does your thumb feel stiff in the morning? No this is NOT a double entendre!!!

How does it feel when typing on your cell phone?

No stiffness in the morning. I only use my dominant thumb to type on the phone.

Now that I think of it, I have had issues in the past when doing pressing exercises in the gym (bench and overhead) where I gota similar sensation but going from my hand down my elbow. The origin seemed to be ina similar location to what I'm feeling now.

I want to give the mobility exercises a little more time, but i think I'll be checking with my doctor in the next week or two

[gomerpyle]

I'd go see a hand specialist. I was having back of the thumb pain that my doctor thought was DeQuervain's Syndrome. Got a referral for physical therapy and she tracked the problem up my arms to my brachialis and brachioradialis, and had relief in one session with dry needling and massage.

If you think you have a nerve problem that could a problem in your neck or somewhere in between.
I was about to say it might be stenosing tenosynovitis-commonly known as trigger finger (seriously!) or trigger thumb when your thumb is involved.

[jeep45238]

Bringing this up from the depths a bit - I'm experiencing something similar but not as sever and I'm trying to nip it in the bud before it gets worse.

I work a physical labor job where's I've swung a maddox for 6 or so hours/manually hauled brush for the last 2.5 weeks or so 5 days a week. I get a pain at the basil joint of the thumb when going into a thumbs forward shooting grip on my support hand when the thumb area contacts the frame. I get a bit when typing on a phone as well (dull), and occasionally get it sharply when I grab something 'wrong', and after a re-grab or reposition I have no pain.

The best descriptor I have for the hand positioning is do a knife hand, and with your other hand push the thumb up towards the top of your hand a little bit while keeping the thumb aligned with the rest of the fingers.

95% sure it's an over-use deal, just looking for some relief to get back into dry fire and ease my daily work day a bit.

Thanks!

[CraigS]

I can't recommend a sports doc strongly enough. 15 yrs ago I got tennis elbow in right arm. A shot fixed it for a year or so and then back so another shot. OK good. Then I started getting neck pains. Did 3 months of exercises after I was trained w/ 3 visits to a therapist. Fixed it permanently. Got tennis elbow in the left arm & went to a different doc since we had moved and asked for a shot. Uh we don't do that automatically anymore because it was found the shots were causing some problems long term. OK what? Gave me some exercises so simple I could grab a can of soup and do them while serfing the web. I was thinking yeah right. Did the exercises for 6 weeks and pain went away. That was 4-5 yrs ago and I am pain free. Exercises work.

[BN]

I've cured a bunch of different aches and pains in my hands using stuff like this. Better and longer lasting than shots.

https://www.amazon.com/Therapy-Putty-Resistive-Exercise-Strengths/dp/B01KWDGIEQ/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=exercise+putty&qid=1575081327&sr=8-10

https://www.amazon.com/Vive-Hand-Exercise-Balls-Strengthening/dp/B0725SN7GB/ref=sr_1_26?keywords=hand+exerciser&qid=1575081409&sr=8-26

https://www.amazon.com/5BILLION-Finger-Stretcher-Resistance-Assorted/dp/B00MA8M454/ref=sr_1_25?dchild=1&keywords=finger+exerciser+bands&qid=1575081590&sr=8-25