Warming Up Is CRUCIAL!
This is true not only for push ups but most especially if you’re doing any hand balancing like crow pose and handstands!
Below is another quality video by Ryan of GMB for prepping/warming up your wrists
After you watch the video a couple times, you can just write down this “cheat sheet” below and always have it by your side for reference until you memorize it!
- Finger Pulses
- Palm Pulses
- Side to Side Palm Rotations
- Front Facing Elbow Rotations
- Side to Side Wrist stretch (lean/push away)
- Rear Facing Wrist stretch – palms down
- Rear Facing Wrist stretch – palms up
- Rear Facing Elbow Rotations (star trek vulcan salute)
- Forward Facing, Lean Forward as much as possible
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.
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.
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 more help with wrists, read: Dealing with Wrist Sprains
