[kendra]

Not sure where to ask this so if the mods need to move this, go ahead.

I've been starting to exercise on a regular basis. Tonight when I was exercising I noticed and felt myself retaining water-mostly in my hands. What causes this? The only thing I could think of is not drinking enough water. It also happened to me the other day. It was during the heat of the day. Today I've only had 20 ounces of water so far. Any ideas????

*It is starting to go away now since I have been inside in the cool air and drinking some lemonade and tea. Just would like to know why so i can try to prevent it from happening again.

[TJFitnessDiva]

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hand-swelling/AN01403

Hand swelling during exercise is a fairly common problem. Unfortunately, the cause usually isn't clear.

During exercise, your heart may redirect blood from your hands to the exercising muscles. This cools your hands. In turn, the blood vessels in your hands may overreact — which could lead to more blood flow in your hands and possible hand swelling. Hand swelling during exercise is unlikely to be caused by an electrolyte imbalance, weather conditions or drinking excess water.

There's no proven way to prevent or reduce hand swelling during exercise. Before you exercise, you may want to remove your rings and loosen your watchband. During exercise, it may help to do occasional forward and backward arm circles. You might also stretch your fingers and then make fists several times during exercise.

Hope this helps!

The more I lost the better this was for me...my hands used to swell really bad when I exercised

[kendra]

Thank you so much!! I was getting worried. I thought it can't be normal for this to happen. What a relief.

[kaplods]

I tend to retain water (not just in my hands) for a variety of reasons, so I'm always on the lookout for tips to get rid of it. I haven't found anything that always works, but I've found some things that help.

In my experience, fluid intake is the most reliable. Tea or seems to work better than plain water. With the tea, it might be the caffeine.
Lemon or lime added to the water or lemonade made with real lemons seems to help too, but that may just be because the flavoring encourages me to drink more.

I gain a lot of water with TOM, and last month was worse than most, and although I'd been careful with my calories (so I knew it wasn't "real" weight gain), even after TOM was over, the weight wasn't coming off. I attributed it to the hot weather (because I also seem to retain more water in hot weather).

I happened to have checked out several books from the library on water exercise and water exercise for fibromyalgia and arthritis... In one of the books, I read that being in the water can reduce water retention. Something about the pressure of the water on the skin, actually "pushing" extra water out of body tissues and into the bladder (where it will be removed when you pee).

I was skeptical, but figured it was worth a chance (especially since I like swimming anyway), and I dropped all the extra weight (about 4 lbs of it) by the next morning.

Coincidence? Quite possible, but it has given me another reason to use swimming for exercise.

It's not a really practical solution if you're not fond of swimming or don't have easy access to water, but if you do like to swim (or tread water), it can't hurt.

[asharksrevenge]

This happens to me too! My hands swell so badly during exercise I typically can't even make a fist. It is painful and embarrassing (sausage fingers ) and I wish it would stop. It usually goes away after an hour or so.

[Rosinante]

I'm glad you posted this! My fingers do this if I walk longer than about an hour. I thought it was just me.