HOW TO support your WRISTs IN YOGA PRACTICE

Every time I warm up my wrists before yoga I hear my Osteopath in the back of my head ‘we are not designed to walk on our hands!’ There are 27 bones in the wrist and hand, and hundreds of ligaments and tendons, so it’s essential that we take care during practice. Wrist pain and mis-alignments in practice with impact over time can lead to much bigger issues later on. Things that may take time off the mat to heal, and have an impact on daily life.

Warming up the wrists at the start of your practice doesn’t need to be complicated, even a simple rolling of the joints is better than bearing weight without any movement prior. Correct hand placement is also key, ‘hasta bandha’ the hand lock, exists not just for energetic reasons but for support and safety too. Each finger and knuckle helps to stabilise a different part of the shoulder, so when the hands are correct, the shoulders are more supported. We stabilise from the ground up.

To make this blog post simple, I made a short video which talks about hand placement and gives you exercises to warm up and cool down the wrists. Wrist cool down is just as important as warming up, in the same way that a spinal twist helps release and unwind the abs from a heavy workout. If you have a strong practice, especially with inversions, arm balancing and handstand, then save an extra couple of minutes of practice time to cool down the wrists too.

Video below!

I hope you find this informative and and helpful for your practice. The content I provide in my blog is inspired by the questions I get asked by my students, so reach out if there’s anything you’d like me to explain in more detail!

Shell