Why does yoga hurt my wrists?  Is it OK to have pain in my wrists?  My wrist pain seems to be getting worse, is that normal?  These are not uncommon questions yoga classes.  Yoga asks a lot of the wrists and when they're tender or injured, your practice can be challenged.  In vinyasa-flow-type classes, each down and upward dog, chaturanga (and there's millions of those), arm balances, lift-up (if you're so able), jump-through (and the multitude of attempted-jump-throughs), as well as backbend (and every variation thereof) puts the wrists in full extension (90 degrees) and more.  All of these poses are weight bearing on the small, delicate collection of nerves, bones, and tendons that make up the wrist.

One of the most critical of junctions in the body is the top vertebrae at the neck which connects your head to your body (damage in this meet-up leads to, well, it's not good).  Next is the wrist which connects the arm (forearm) to the hand and which sends very critical nerves through a small area providing us with such fine motor skills as playing the uke, searching for The Black Eyed Peas on your iPod or nimbly fishing through the bottom of your overstuffed purse in search of your car keys.  This coordination of our digits sets us apart from our dog, for example. 

There are 4 anatomical movements of the wrists-adduction (moving the thumb toward the thumb side of the forearm), abduction (little finger toward the little finger side of the forearm), flexion (fingers toward the underside of your forearm) and extension (moving your fingers up toward the ceiling).  The majority of our daily activities find the hand in slight extension.  In this alignment, the hand grips, mouses, reaches and drinks the new Komucha with slimy chia seeds (my current go-to drink).  Normal range of motion for the wrists 70 degrees.  Enter yoga which places our wrists up to 90 degrees.

Yoga postures can definitely help strengthen not only your writs, but the adjoining structures, like the fore and upper arm.  Strong supporting structures help support some of the weight we place on our wrists.  But, if the wrists have become sensitive for whatever reason, your yoga poses can cause irritation or injury.  You may need to modify or avoid poses that especially tax the wrist until the soreness or pain subsides. 

Wrist pain can be particularly frustrating for students that have been practicing for years and seemingly all of a sudden have touchy wrists.  Or, last week's shoulder pain has worked its way to your elbow and now to your wrist.  It can put a screeching halt to a good chunck of your practice.  Besides oral Traumeel, ice, rest and patience, check your alignment.  Weight bearing with the wrist/forearm angle past 90 degrees can be particularly bad, leading to inflammation, pain and risk of injury.  This is common in upward dog and many arm balances (think bakasana) when the shoulders are forward or beyond the wrists.  If your backbend looks more like a coffee table than Mickey D's Golden Arches, your wrists are probably taking a beating. 

If you are new to yoga, begin by assessing your range of motion by coming on to your hands and knees with your wrists at 90 degrees.  If you're not completely comfortable, you may need to do gentle stretches to increase your range before bearing weight.  Take it easy on your wrists by building weigh bearing poses slowly and staying out of pain. 

If you're exploring your wrist range of motion, you can start by practicing downward and upward dog with a chair, placing the heel of your hands on the side of the seat.  A great prop which I use is Gripitz(1) which  look like dumbbells, but are soft with flat sides.   They can do wonders to allow you to practice without taking your wrists into extension.  When practicing backbends (also called wheel or urdhva dhanurasana) you can lean blocks against the baseboard of a wall to take the some of the hyper-extension from the wrists.  Many studios have slant boards on which to rest of the heel of their hand (they're also useful for other postures like pasasana). Even the rolled edge of a mat under your wrists can help.  Also, try taking your hands a bit forward from the shoulders when possible. 

Did you want to read some of my past columns?  You can right here.