Take Care of Your Wrists in Yoga.
Your yoga practice can cause significant wrist pain if you aren’t careful. It’s essential to know how to distribute your weight on your hands to avoid injury, learn some simple stretches to increase strength and flexibility and discover ways to modify yoga postures like cat/cow stretches, cobra, plank and down dog.
If you have any pre-existing conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoarthritis, or a previous injury in the wrist area, you must be extra careful with the yoga postures that place pressure on your wrists. If these conditions are currently active and if modifying the poses does not ease discomfort, it’s best to skip them until your wrists feel less painful. If you are experiencing wrist pain off the mat with an unknown cause, I advise obtaining a proper diagnosis and treatment plan from a physiotherapist.
A few weeks ago, for a few days, my daily yoga practice consisted of practising six rounds of the sun salutation. I did not perform my usual warm-up stretches or prepare my wrists and started to experience discomfort in my left wrist. Interestingly enough, the pain was in the area where I fractured my scaphoid bone more than 40 years ago. Now I’m convinced that our bodies never forget.
Correct Hand Position
The hand and wrist are aligned with the elbow. The forearm is straight, and the hand is in a neutral position. Fingers are spread wide like a starfish, and pressure is placed on the mounds of the thumb, index and pinky fingers. There should be a small space in the middle of the palm, large enough to put a small marble.
Incorrect Hand Position
The hand and wrist are not aligned with the elbow. Fingers are not spread wide enough and the hand is in an awkward angle.
Wrist Care Video
This video covers correct hand position, wrist exercises that will strengthen and increase the mobility of wrists, and provides examples of how to protect your wrists by modifying specific yoga postures.
Hand and Wrist Anatomy
Your wrist is a small and vulnerable part of your body. It has many small tendons, ligaments, nerves and seven small carpal bones. When we practice down dog, plank and even table pose, our wrists are in extension and weight bearing; an unnatural position and angle.
Keep your wrists healthy! .
See you on the mat.
Anita
Resources:
Hand and Wrist Anatomy picture credit: https://handsurgeonsnyc.com/hand-anatomy/