Numbness in arms

[John Sapinoso]

I occasionally wake up and both arms are completely numb, almost as though they had lost circulation. This would make sense if it was just one arm and I were sleeping on my side, but it's both and I'm sleeping on my back. Any idea what causes this, is it harmful?

[Razz]

Are you sleeping on a slight incline? Are arms above your head or laying down by the side?

[John Sapinoso]

I sleep flat. My arm position varies from night to night, but it seems to have no effect on the numbness. Usually my arms lie by my side.

[gymgreg]

I read about a possible cause of this when I was still bouldering.

The Problem was constantly training the wrist /arm flexors but not the antagonist muscles. Causing the flexors to grow and slowly starting inhibit blood circulation by putting pressure on the blood vessels. Together with your arm resting under its own weight while you are sleeping I can see how this effect could be amplified. But of course this is just a guess.

So how much do you focus on antagonist training and prehab right now?

[John Sapinoso]

in terms of hypertrophy id say my wrist extensors are more developed than my flexors, my arm extensors more so than my flexors

in terms of strength i'd say my wrists are about equal or slightly toward extensors, in my arm id say my flexors are stronger (relatively) of course this is guess work, I have no benchmarks I'm using just a personal idea on my strength levels based off performance

in terms of volume I do more wrist flexor work, but i try to balance it with prehabing the extensors. in my arm I'd say gymnastics is inherently more flexor work than extensors

I spend 15 to 20 minutes once (or more) a day on prehab.

this hasn't happened since my last writing here but nothing in my training has really changed. diet has changed a little bit (a little cleaner and the addition of coconut oil) but i don't see how the difference would merit the difference in numb and not numb.