Left hand cramping, is it from holding a steering wheel so long?

Well, 1st of all, we don't make fun of anyone here, although the sooty stacks tested me, and gloves won't help. I'd have to consult our sites resident doctor, but anytime you do unusual duties, that muscles aren't used to, you are bound to get cramps. I get that with thinking sometimes. Maybe bring a tennis ball to work with, and if not along with tingling or numbness, hopefully will get better with time. It is possible wifey is right, you may be squeezing the color out of the steering wheel, RELAX!!

 

If you don’t have any other neurological deficits, 201 is right RELAX, if you are rather new to this you are probably squeezing the wheel hard from nerves or stress, my first year my shoulders and hands would cramp up and then one day it all stopped because i relaxed and wasn’t trying to squeeze the life out of the steering wheel, gloves are great…. for fueling

 

You are likely gripping the steering wheel too tight and for too long. Gloves might not do much to help. First, focus on NOT gripping the wheel so tightly. If it's reasonably well aligned you should not need anything like a "death grip" on the steering wheel to go straight down the road. You can also take turns putting a full fingers around the steering wheel rim with one hand and putting the heel of your other hand on the rim and applying some pressure to take some of the load off your gripping hand. Then every few minutes, switch the resting hand to gripping and the gripping hand to resting. ALSO, whether you to the grip/rest cycle as I described, vary where on the steering wheel your hands are located. If your steering wheel has an airbag you don't want your hands above the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock position. so vary where your hands are located in the bottom half of the steering wheel. You would like to move your hands every few minutes. I made a mistake for most of my career by thinking I will find the one perfect seat height, and hand placement on the steering wheel and gear lever and then everything will be perfect. WRONG. By doing that one perfect location strategy whatever stress remains is focused on the exact same spot for hours or days or months or years. That leads to things like tendonitis, carpal tunnel, etc. You want to vary slightly where you sit, how you grip the steering wheel, etc every few minutes so whatever stress comes form doing the job is spread among the body parts and at different angles, etc so you don't get tendonitis, etc.

Being new, you also need to work up your strength in your fingers, arms, shoulders, etc since that is now your new normal.

 

Yes, 100% of newbies death-grip at the start. Now you need to focus on seeing how light you can grip. For the possibility of a steer tire blow-out you need at least one gripping hand on the wheel at all times. Find the place on the steering wheel where an arm of the wheel connects the rim to the center, like a bicycle spoke on the steering wheel. I would usually grab above or below that "spoke" so that if a steer blow-out and the wheel jerked to left or right the wheel could only spin so much before my grip stopped the "spoke" from passing through my grip. Like shoving a stick into a spinning bicycle wheel.

 

I had the same issue when I started driving. Eventually I also got tendonitis in my right elbow from gripping the gear lever all of the time and not just when I was shifting.

 

Carpal Tunnel Treatment | Treat Carpal Tunnel At Home

 

Carpal Tunnel Symptoms: Numbness, Tingling & Hand Pain