How to Eliminate Wrist Pain in Yoga

Your hands and wrists are a crucial part of your yoga practice.

If you are a yoga lover, you probably have discovered that by now. 

We spend so much time with our hands on the mat, holding our entire body weight up on our tiny wrists....

And we rarely (if ever!) think about them!

Do you ever get off your mat and start shaking and rolling your hands?
I know that move!

It looks like you are fighting flies but you are actually trying to get rid of a nasty feeling in your wrists that kept building up as you were having fun on your mat.

And you start asking yourself “What did I do today? Why are my wrists hurting during my yoga practice?”

I know what you might be thinking: “It’s because my wrists are not strong enough!”

Wrong!

Inside Yogi Flight School, I always stress the fact that having your wrists feel GOOD while you practice  is not a matter of strength. 

You can practice yoga and arm balances and inversions with the body you have today (including your wrists) but as always, knowing the mechanics and HOW to use your hands properly, is fundamental.

Here's something you might not be doing that could be a game changer for you.

Most of the time, when we practice, we're dumping all of our weight in the heel of our hand, and that is what causes wrist pain.

Pressing solely on the heel of the hand transfers all the weight straight to the wrists leaving the front of the hand and the forearms inactive and unable to help...

To make that weight lighter and avoid pain, you need to make sure that you:

Engage your fingers and grip the floor.

Think about gripping your mat with your fingers.

It's okay if your knuckles lift up a little bit, but grip the mat with your fingers so much that it might even feel like you could lift the heels of your hands up.

I don't want you to actually lift the heels of your hands, but grip with your fingers so much that your hands COULD lift just enough to slide a sheet of paper under them.

That is the amount of juice that we wanna give to the fingers to take pressure away from the wrists and distribute the pressure more towards the front of the hand, also activating the forearm muscles.

That's going to keep your wrists out of pain, and that applies to your whole practice!

Not only arm balances and inversions but also downward facing dog, plank pose – anything with your hands on the mat.

Grip with your fingers and think, "What do I need to do to lift the heel of my hand using only my fingers?"

Don't actually lift it, but use the energy of that lift to transfer the weight into your fingers.

That will save your wrists a bad day and help you work with your body instead of against it!

Check out my UnF*ck Your Wrists mini-course if you want drills and techniques to activate the hands, protect your wrists, and eliminate wrist pain in your practice FOR GOOD.