There are particular bodily stuff you count on to occur with train, like getting breathless, sweaty, or fatigued. However when one thing out of the peculiar happens—numb fingers after a exercise or tingly fingers and toes throughout your cardio session, as an example—it’s solely pure to really feel a little bit unnerved.

Perhaps your foot looks like pins and needles midway by way of your elliptical session. Or your hand loses sensation whilst you’re busting out a set of overhead presses. Maybe you step off the stationary bike solely to be greeted by a numbness in your toes. Regardless of the situation, it’s comprehensible to really feel caught off guard by it. In spite of everything, why would your extremities really feel like they’re falling asleep when, in actual fact, they’re very a lot awake and dealing exhausting?

Although it might really feel disconcerting when it occurs, foot and hand tingling and numbness throughout exercises is definitely extra frequent than you may assume—affecting exercisers in a wide range of routines—and in lots of circumstances, it’s actually nothing to fret about. As for numbness or tingling that persists or crops up after your train session wraps, effectively, that might be an indication of one thing extra regarding, relying on what different signs (if any) you might be experiencing.

To get a greater grasp on that exercise-related pins and needles sensation, SELF chatted with consultants to be taught what triggers them, find out how to alleviate them, and when you need to examine in with a health care provider. Right here’s what you could know.

What causes numb fingers when exercising?

Tingling or numbness within the fingers is often an indication that blood move to the nerves is being blocked—it’s usually not as a result of merely overworking your muscle tissue, Alice Chen, MD, a physiatrist on the Hospital for Particular Surgical procedure in New York Metropolis, tells SELF.

The numerous nerves that run all through our our bodies are tremendous delicate, sensory nerves—those that give feeling—much more so. Even a slight change in blood provide to these nerves can have an effect on what we really feel, leading to numbness and tingling (there’s an precise time period for that feeling, by the best way; it’s known as paresthesia). “The most typical trigger for modifications in blood provide to nerves in a wholesome particular person is positional,” Jeffrey M. Gross, MD, medical director at NYU Langone Bodily Medication and Rehabilitation Associates, tells SELF. It’s the identical purpose your arm might get numb for those who go to sleep on it—that place blocks blood provide to the nerves.

Positioning points are particularly frequent throughout cardio. If you’re working, utilizing the elliptical, and even vigorously strolling, your arm is usually bent on the elbow. Fast anatomy refresher: Your ulnar nerve—your “humorous bone,” which sure, is definitely a nerve—runs alongside the within of your forearm and right down to your pinky and ring fingers. When your elbow is bent, this place forces that nerve to stretch throughout the bone in your elbow. This cuts off its blood provide, which in flip makes your pinky and ring fingers really feel tingly and numb. “Everybody’s anatomy is a little bit bit totally different, so some individuals are extra vulnerable to this than others,” Dr. Gross says.