Strong Hands & Wrists for Yoga

You ask a lot of your wrists in yoga class. From inverted positions to bearing a lot of weight on small joints, if your wrists are feeling sore and achy after a session on your mat, you may need to build up more strength to keep your yoga practice comfortable. Of course, as with most yoga poses and techniques, there are modifications and methods to help strengthen your wrists and care for them during class so you're thinking less about pain and more about inner peace.

Importance

• While you might be focusing on the straightness of your back, the power in your core or the strength in your thighs when holding a pose, it's the smaller muscle groups and joints -- like those in your wrists and hands -- that play a vital supporting role in your yoga practice. Without strong, steady wrists, you might not be able to hold some of the most basic and beneficial poses, such as Downward Dog. Strong hands give you the ability to properly support yourself during inverted poses, and both wrists and hands can help you to improve your steadiness and alignment so you can concentrate more fully on your mind -- not just your body.

Proper Form

• Before you work on strengthening your hands and wrists, check to make sure you use them in proper form during your poses, since poor alignment and balance could be causing pain. When supporting yourself by your hands and wrists, the weight should be in the pads of your fingers, not in your palms, which is a common beginner mistake. Check your wrists and create a straight line from wrist to elbow. If a pose feels uncomfortable, reduce the angle between the hand and wrist.

Strengthening Poses

• Any pose that requires you to support yourself on your wrists can help you build up hand and wrist strength, but that doesn't mean you need to perfect your pose right away. Ease yourself into perfect form. Sun Salutations, for example, require hand and wrist strengths, thanks to poses like Downward Dog, plank, Cobra and Up Dog. Instead of swan diving right into a full plank, try staying on your knees for the first few rounds until your wrists feel warm and strong. As you continue to practice and maintain proper alignment, your hands and wrists will naturally become stronger over time.

Modifications

• If you're doing everything right and still find yourself in pain during class, swap your usual sticky mat for a foam mat layered under your sticky mat. This will help you get the traction you need, but also provide extra padding for your hands and wrists. Or, invest in a yoga wedge, which you can place under your palms, with the wedge pointing forward. This forces you to put more weight on the pads of your fingers for less pain and better posture.