The Funny Bone

Have you ever hit the inside of your elbow in just the right spot and felt a tingling or prickly kind of dull pain? It doesn't really hurt as much as it feels weird.

 

Would you believe I have a "funny bone" injury??

 

Breaking class was tonight, and thought that I would try and be creative with a break technique. Elbow strike breaks have always been done primarily with the forearm... driving the force of the forearm forward towards the board.

 

I thought I would like to try and do a speed break (single 1-in board)by doing a turning back elbow strike (as if striking to the jaw bone) and hitting with the tricep portion of the arm. Did the break but afterwards an incredible shooting pain down the length of my arm to my 4th and 5th finger.

 

The "funny bone" is not a bone. Straighten your right arm with palm facing up. Feel the inside bone of your elbow. That's the ulnar. The large, center bone of the elbow is the humerus. The channel that runs between them is called the medial condyle of the humerus.

 

Rather, this "funny bone" is really the ulnar nerve. Running down that channel, encased in a tunnel of muscle, ligament and bone is the ulnar nerve. The ulnar nerve runs down the side of the neck, through the armpit, down the arm and into the hand. It supplies movement to the small muscles in the hand, and feeling to part of the arm, pinky and half the ring finger.The bone in the upper arm is called the "humerus." Because "humerus" sounds like "humorous," people began calling it the funny bone. When the ulnar nerve is struck, it creates the pins and needles sensation that people find "funny."

 

Well I still have no feeling in my 4th and 5th fingers and probably a bruise and swelling ... but this numbness is tough when typing!

 

I just thought this bit of info was interesting.... I never really knew what caused that tingling, "pins-and-needles" sensation (which by the way is called Tinel's Sign. There's nothing that can be done to stop it .... you just have to grimace and wait until the sensation goes away, usually within a minute..... but not when you use your "funny bone" to break wood!

wow i didnt know that stuff! hope your arm gets better! i hate pins and niddles! ouwch!

Actually I get a very similar sensation caused by some of the nerves that the ms has damaged. And it does run through that area. To this day I still have a lot of atrophy in that side of my hand. But I do have enough strength in the last two fingers to type with; something I did not have for several years.

The ulnar nerve runs down the side of the neck, through the armpit, down the arm and into the hand.

 

Well I got hit on the side of the neck during a choke technique and it felt like I got shocked by a 110 volt line...I know cause I got shocked wiring something in my house two days before. It was the exact same feeling. Could this be the nerve?

"It doesn't really hurt as much as it feels weird. "

 

Oh, are you KIDDING? Getting hit hard at the right angle there can be unbelievably painful.