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How to avoid wrist pain in yoga and bodyweight exercises

1. Warming Up with these Mobility Drills are CRUCIAL

Warming Up with these Mobility Drills are CRUCIAL

Anytime you are going to have a ton of weight on your hands, whether it’s for pushups, planche, crow pose and handstands, it is IMPERATIVE that you warm up the wrists each and every time if you feel they are weak or prone to injury. I stress this because it’s made wrist sprains a thing of the past.

The following list are clips to act as a “cheat sheet” of the wrist stretches/movements from this quality video by Ryan of GMB. Use this as a convenient reference until you memorize the movements.

  1. Finger Pulses
  2. Palm Pulses
  3. Side to Side Palm Rotations (lean/push away)
  4. Front Facing Elbow Rotations
  5. Side to Side Wrist stretch
  6. Rear Facing Wrist stretch – palms down
  7. Rear Facing Wrist stretch – palms up
  8. Rear Facing Elbow Rotations (do the star trek vulcan salute to slide fingers in)
  9. Forward Facing, Lean Forward as much as possible
ProTip: In between any of the above stretches, if I feel my wrists need a break, I do these wrist rolls!
2. Strengthen your Wrists with Palm Pulses and Back of Hand Wrist Pushups

Strengthen your Wrists with Palm Pulses and Back of Hand Wrist Pushups

Warming up and stretching your wrists is great for improving their mobility, however, to get them even stronger, I recommend you follow these 2 exercises I made videos of and follow the progressions as you move up the ranks.

Palm Pulse ProgressionsBack of Hand Wrist Pushup Progressions

Palm Pulse Progressions:

  • Palm Pulse on Hands and Knees
  • Palm Pulse, Slow Negatives in Plank
  • Palm Pulse in Plank

Back of Hand Wrist Pushup Progressions:

  1. Back of Hand Wrist Pushups on Hands and Knees
  2. Back of Hand Wrist Pushups with you standing against a wall.
    • The more you bring your hands down the wall, the harder it gets.
  3. Back of Hand Wrist Pushups in Plank Position
3. Follow this Picture To Know How To Distribute Wrist Pressure Properly

Follow this picture to know how to avoid putting all your weight in the heel of your hand!

This infographic by Candace helps you understand how to properly distribute the weight on your hands.

how to avoid wrist pain in yoga

Basically try to press the knuckle of the index finger firmly into the ground. If that part is lifting off, it’s dumping all the pressure into your carpal/wrist bones (the “heel” of your hand).

To exaggerate that effect (just for demonstrative purposes), you could try going into downward dog, and try to lift the heel of your hand off the floor so that all the weight is supported by the knuckles, you should find that there is zero wrist pain.

4. How To Do Pushups Without Wrist Pain

How to do push ups without wrist pain

As a follow up to my “How to do Push Ups” video that went viral, here’s some more footage that may help you out in regards to push ups:

If your wrists hurt, do pushups on your fists with slightly more weight on the front 2 knuckles. Or you can do them with your hands on dumbbells or parallel bars/parallettes (or rings if you’re more advanced). These alternatives make it so you can perform the wrists in a neutral position and allow you to go deeper as well.

For a fantastic follow up with way more tips, read: Dealing with Wrist Sprains

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