Strengthening Your Wrists with Yoga

Although some yogis overlook them, the health, strength and flexibility of the wrists are of great importance when practicing various yoga poses, as much of the weight of the body can fall on them. Focusing on specific yoga exercises that strengthen the wrists will improve the quality of your yoga practice alongside the well-being of you shoulders, arms and hands.

  1. Simple Wrist Strengthening Exercise

    • Yoga expert Aadil Palkhivala recommends a simple, seated exercise to build strength in the wrists; make a fist and clench it tight, and then rotate the wrist nine times clockwise and nine times counterclockwise. Then stretch the fingers and thumb apart so that you can expand the palm as much as possible. Do this exercise slowly and consciously so that you can focus intently on the muscles around the wrist. Repeat three times a day.

    Intermediate and Advanced Poses

    • Yoga practitioners who have no wrist pain and wish to strengthen the wrists should practice the following yoga poses: crow pose, foot lock pose, four-limbed staff pose and both downward-facing dog and upward-facing dog. When practicing balancing poses, Palkhivala recommends strongly pressing the mounds of the fingers into the floor instead of the palm, as this takes pressure off of the wrists while still strengthening them.

    Props

    • Sometimes props can help relieve wrist pain while building wrist strength in certain poses. Palkhivala suggests using a slant board on a sticky mat for balancing positions by placing the heel of the palm on the board and placing the fingers at the highest edge of the board. The Three Minute Egg is another prop to use for wrist strength: Place one egg under each palm in upward-facing dog to minimize the wrist crease and relieve wrist pain.

    Cautions

    • "Yoga Journal" experts say lack of correct alignment is a key factor in reduced wrist strength and, thus, wrist pain. Make sure you pay close attention to the alignment of all of your joints when practicing balancing poses and other wrist-strengthening poses. Keep your weight from falling outside your hands, and don't allow your weight to collapse on the heel of your palm, as this will aggravate your wrists.