Carpal Tunnel

Weight lifting actually helped my carpal tunnel and helped increase my grip strength. Mine wasn't as severe as yours sounds. I just woke up every morning with my hand asleep all the way up to my elbow and now it rarely goes numb at all.

I was able to do push ups with mild pain after they were done but it wasn't so bad that it kept me from doing them.

I would definitely consult with your doctor before doing any lifting and dont be afraid of taking it slow and easy, especially in the beginning and the strength will come with time.

Weight lifting will indeed help this issue TREMENDOUSLY. However, you have to be smart. To start you may want to wear wrist wraps or some sort of wrist brace to help support your wrist. Avoid exercises that bend your wrist badly too. Even after a couple years I still do not do push-ups for this reason. If I do them, I grip a dumbbell (or similar implement) to keep my wrists straight. Having palms flat on the floor and my wrists bent will hurt them quickly. Even then, doing heavy bench press or shoulder press I will put some wrist wraps on for my maximal weights.

Do what you can and slowly work up in intensity. Definitely involve your doctor if your CT is that bad. I can tell you that my symptoms are non-existent after 2 years and I only have to be careful under the heaviest of exercises.

I definitely didn't have it as bad as you do. I did develop carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel syndrome because I allowed my first baby to sleep in my arms for hours until my arms were numb. I started strength training to build up my strength. And it got better completely. It used to feel like pins and needles all the time, and it would really hurt if I banged my arm and when I was out in the cold. In dance I had to do a lot of spider crawls and things for long periods of time (for performance). And lifting weights helped balance out all the overuse. It helped a lot because I have very tiny wrists (also broke my wrist in the past in a biking accident).

Have you been to the doctor for a diagnosis and discussion about your options based on the severity of your CT? I had to have surgery because the nerve was no longer sending signals to the muscle to move (certain directions). Weight training would have been downright dangerous without the ability to control the muscles enough to grip a bar. I had no grip strength because the nerves didn't work to send signals to the muscles-no amount of training would have fixed that. I don't know how severe your symptoms are, or if your CT has progressed to the stage of impacting muscle control, but unless your symptoms are mild and intermittent and controllable through careful positioning/etc, I would hesitate to do anything requiring your ability to hold something without talking to an MD first.

I wouldn't nix strength training though. There are lots of ways to strength train. Not all of them involve using barbells and dumbbells. Depending on the severity of your symptoms, you may be fine to do anything (or anything with some modifications). I would talk with the doctor first though. You've waited this long to start strength training, waiting another couple of days to talk with the doctor isn't going to hurt. And may keep a 45lb barbell from rolling out of your hands and only your toes.