Creatine usage and carpal tunnel syndrome

R

Ruhl

New Member
Some people experience carpal tunnel syndrome or other nerve compression problems upon using creatine.

Creatine makes muscles swell up with water. Is this kind of enlargement due to creatine just as likely to press on nerves as enlargement that occurs through pure muscle fibre hypertrophy? As an example of what I am asking: would a 12 inch forearm built with creatine, be as likely to pinch nerves running through it as a 12 inch forearm built without creatine usage?
 
Rather interesting or amusing perhaps, this post...

But let me reply :D

"Some people experience carpal tunnel syndrome or other nerve compression problems upon using creatine."

>>>> It isn't my style to demand for references, but for this, I would really love to see some evidence... but to date, I have yet to read anything about nerve compression problems caused by creatine. I could think of certain situations where muscles can occlude nerve supply, but those are perhaps, unusual and certainly cannot be seen as the norm.

"Creatine makes muscles swell up with water."

>>>> To a certain extent, yes. They don't just balloon up like that though.... your body has regulatory controls that prevent such swelling.... you really can't "volumize" a cell by 700% overnight with creatine use... or is the market rate 100000% now :D

"Is this kind of enlargement due to creatine just as likely to press on nerves as enlargement that occurs through pure muscle fibre hypertrophy? As an example of what I am asking: would a 12 inch forearm built with creatine, be as likely to pinch nerves running through it as a 12 inch forearm built without creatine usage?"

>>>> For some reason, I can't help but read this paragraph as "is a 2kg pile of feathers lighter than a 2kg pile of wood". But to answer your post, if 12 inches is going to cause nerve impingement, then does it matter how the 12 inches came about? Therefore, it matters not the factors leading to the size increase since it is the size increase that causes the problem, not so much the different means that lead that size increase.

Ruhl, I recall your mentionomg certain nerve problems before. Is this the reason for this post? Do you experience pins, needles, coldness, numbness or a combination of these down your limbs? To your fingers? At your toes? On any region of your body? If you experience any of these, you should see a doctor or chiropractor, especially if sich nerve problems appear to be there all the time.

If you wish, PM me. I will be glad to discuss things with you. The last thing I want is for you to suffer in silence, some form of undiagnosed neurologic lesion. Our discussion will be totally confidential. I leave it to you :)

Godspeed, and happy HSTing :)
 
I thought there might be some difference to hypertrophy with or without creatine. Say, different distribution of the size increase throughout the muscle? I mean: maybe creatine causes swelling distributed equally alone the whole length of the muscle? I don't know, just wondering.

Nerve pinches. Have tried everything that I know of and no relief. I am not going to have surgery as stopping weights stops the pinches. I don't know what you could possibly do to help me where no one else has been able to. I don't really want to describe the pinches again. I just know that they are agravated by exercise and stretching, massage, nerve mobilization does little to help them.
 
Dear Ruhl,

Allow me to reply in specific:

"I thought there might be some difference to hypertrophy with or without creatine. Say, different distribution of the size increase throughout the muscle? I mean: maybe creatine causes swelling distributed equally alone the whole length of the muscle? I don't know, just wondering."

>>>> Well, I would say that creatine increases size quite evenly throughout the muscle. Creatine itself supports growth. Growth, on its own, whether creatine-boosted or otherwise still will mean the same thing - an increase in size. I don't suppose some parts of the muscle might absorb creatine better than other parts - but this is complicating the issue unnecessarily... so for all purpose and intent, in normal circumstances, I would say that a muscle grows evenly, and creatine is absorbed evenly throughout the muscle. Interestingly, a muscle can be receiving multiple innervations, and in the same muscle, you can see regions of denervation atrophy if supply to that particular region is affected. By this token, yes, a muscle can appear to exhibit uneven hypertrophy.

"Nerve pinches. Have tried everything that I know of and no relief. I am not going to have surgery as stopping weights stops the pinches. I don't know what you could possibly do to help me where no one else has been able to. I don't really want to describe the pinches again. I just know that they are agravated by exercise and stretching, massage, nerve mobilization"

>>>> Nerve mobilization? That's somthing new to me really. Well, it's hard to think of anything if you won't describe in certain detail your symptoms and situation. But I tell you this - there is no such thing as "cannot be helped". Whoever you have consulted before probably couldn't be too bothered with your case. A neurological examination is not too hard to do. I would do it for you free if you lived near me... I'm currently in Perth, Western Australia. If I can't help you, I will find people who can. Again, PM me with more details if you are uncomfortable with sharing your medical history and such things on the forum.

Get well soon I hope.
 
I can empathize with people suffering from "nerve" pain. I came down with a chronic pain in my legs 5 years ago. It became very intense over several months. The many medical professionals I dealt with were not able to identify the cause after many tests, scans, and treatments. (I really felt like a guinea pig when doctors would say:" let's try this and see what happens"). Physio proved to have the most positive effect, even if it was short lived. Because of that, however, I joined a gym and began working out. It was mainly for my legs, but since I was there, I decided I might as well do a full body workout. It took more than a year, but I finally was about to go for a walk of a several km/miles without feeling severe pain. My legs still feel sore at times, but they feel worse if I miss my workouts. SD time is when I'm using the elipitcal machines to keep the pain at bay.
If you are dealing with pain, try to find the cause and ways to relieve it. Body pain affects your mental health as well as your physical enjoyment of life.
 
Pinch feeling on inner forearm, just below thumb when doing bicep curls.

Pinches in inner forearm, just below wrist in the center of forearm when doing wrist curls.

Funney bone pinch when doing tricep curls (ulna nerve in slipping so I think I'm stuck with this one forever).

Maybe my past training will explain the reason for the pinches. I used to extreme overtrain. Would do as many pullups as possible (worked up to 24 reps) every 2 hours whenever I was at home. Did this for about a year. Then for about another year, I stopped the pullups and started weights. Did 18 sets per bodypart every 4-7 days. So, morning of one day, I would like do say 18 sets for biceps and 18 sets for rear delts, then maybe next day 18sets of abs and 18 sets triceps. I would do like 10 sets of deadlifts and shrugs until I could no longer hold the bar. I ended up doing Mike Mentzer's (spelling?) 'omni' reps. I had all sorts of techniques to do this for every bodypart nearly. I would start off with side laterls, and move the weight closer to the body every rep until I was doing upright rows. If you get my drift, I would go from flyes to benchpresses, straight arm rows to normal rows, etc. For quads, I did machine hack squats with feet positioning changing every rep. So I was doing 1RMs for a whole set, for 18 sets per bodypart. I often did negatives only, for instince I went two arms up, one arm down for biceps for 18 sets of negatives. Did this for other bodyparts as well. The reason for nerve pinches being confined to the upper body may be because I did not have the equipment to work my power body for some time after I first started weights. So maybe the extreme overtraining is the reason for me having the nerve pinches.
 
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