How to protect your wrists?

[yonita]

Hi

I've been using my wrists an awful lot doing jump through to sit, and jump back to chataranga. My wrists are feeling tired, though not sore.

I don't particularly want to stop my daily routine. And I'd like to work on some arm balances a bit more. But I'm cautious of overdoing it and injuring myself.

My guess is that it's natural to feel tired wrists when you're always using them. At what point does tiredness become unacceptable strain?

What are some safe ways of strengthening wrists?

Really grateful for some wisdom. I don't have a teacher here and this one's been playing on my mind for a while.

A thousand thanks

Y

[yogivid]

i never hold on my wrist doing chaturanga nor hand stand nor any asanas that require hand power, we have to spread the palm of our hand, press firmly there, try to press the inner palm, feel the muscle pressing and pulling up, the problem with wrist feeling tired are maybe you are holding with your wrist ankle, which could result injury.

[suryadaya]

Sleep on your back. Side sleeping can cut off circulation to your arms and make it harder for them to facilitate healing. Also try holding your hands in the prayer position during the day and lightly pressing them together. Play around with it to stretch them appropriately. Google exercises for the prevention of carpal tunnel and incorporate those stretches to help protect the wrist joint and the rest of your arms. Good luck!

[yonita]

Thanks to you both. I'll pay extra attention to keeping my palms completely flat and will give the prayer position a go and see if it helps.

[Braxton]

Yonita,

Since you are not having pain, I expect that your wrist joints are moving well, and your technique is pretty good. A few things could help with the ongoing fatigue:

- During your practice, whenever weight-bearing on the hands, make sure your hands are pointed so that the crease of the wrist is straight across (not angled left or right).

The fingers and palm should be spread, but if you actually engage the muscles of the hand, it helps to fire the muscles in the forearm as well, which stabilizes and supports the wrist. Think of a strong tiger claw engaging the floor, together with a little suction or lifting of the center of the palm. I think this kind of action is what Yogavid was getting at. The point is, don't let your hands be passive/asleep, or much of your body weight with just dump into the wrists.

- After a practice, try bending your wrists the opposite way - like a reverse namaste, with the backs of the hands pressing together. Similarly, you can do the pose sometimes called "stand hands": in a relaxed standing forward fold, tuck your hands almost completely under your feet, palm up, fingers pointing to the heels. Ideally, the ball of your foot will be on the heel of your hand. Then you can gently pull up with your body, so you put gentle traction on the wrists, while they are bent in the opposite direction as your normal weight-bearing postures.

A little wrist, forearm and hand self-massage can help increase blood flow to the tendons and ligaments, too.

- For strengthening, you can try this: On your hands and knees, fingers and wrists properly aligned, lean forward until you have a medium stretch on the wrist. Then isometrically engage the muscles of your hand and forearm as though you were going to straighten the wrists back out (pressing against the stretch). Hold for about ten seconds, then relax, and repeat a few times. Finish by gently bending the wrists the opposite way as described above.

[InnerAthlete]

Hmmm.

Consider looking at the root rather than the by-product.
Biomechanics will go only so far when the practitioner cannot illicit change at the origin of the practice.

An over abundance of wrist extension, especially when weight-bearing and without an appropriate amount of wrist flexion can only result in imbalance.

Perhaps reconnect with your post of late July regarding forearm balancing.



gordon

[yonita]

Braxton - thankyou for helping me out again with those suggestions. I'll give them a go.

Gordon - you're speaking like Yoda . I don't understand! I'm not feeling sore in the wrists and just want to know how to strengthen then and how best to prevent injury - do you suggest I still slow down?

[InnerAthlete]

In asana the wrists spend most of their time in extension. That's obvious, right?

And the nature of that extension is shifted when the student is weight bearing - as is almost always the case. It is further exacerbated by a lack in appropriate action in the inner, outer, heal, and center of the palm as well as the finger mounds.

Certain practices appear to overdo certain poses mandating wrist extension. Taking that one step further, certain practices were originally conceptualized for adolescent males. Clearly the anatomy of an adolescent male is radically different than a 35 year old chap driving a desk 45 hours a week. Translation, some people should not be doing 20 "reps" of chaturanga (without the expectation of wrist and shoulder issues to follow).

Is that less yoDA and more yoGA ?

gordon

[yonita]

Gordon

Yes! got it. Much clearer now. A heartfelt thankyou

So where does one go from here? If the sequence is made for young men and I am neither a man nor a spring chicken?

I don't know about the ratio of men to women that practise ashtanga, but if the numbers of certified and accredited ashtanga teachers are anything to go by, then it would seem that there's one or two women to every ten males.

You've made me curious about experimenting. I really like ashtanga but probably haven't honestly tried enough styles to say it's a well informed choice. My studio in Beijing only does three styles and they're the ones I've confined myself to.

I'm heading off to Rishikesh for two months next week. Maybe I can go and sample a few different styles there.

Can you suggest more 'women friendly' yoga styles that are physically challenging? I'll keep an eye out for them.

Thankyou again.

Y

[InnerAthlete]

I want to clarify that I was outlining the creation and intention of that practice at that point in time. I am not nor was not saying that it is "unfriendly" toward this group or that group.

Many people find the practice you mention to be very fruitful and by fruitful I mean moving them deeper to their Selves, transforming their living, changing their mental habit of reaction (rather than slimming their physical form).

Many postures, done without proper alignment, done over and over again (past the point of muscular integrity) can be harmful to connective tissue and thus harmful to joint integrity.