How to Relieve Wrist Pain From Doing Handstands

Practicing handstands can take a toll on your wrists because as a human you are not accustomed to standing on your hands. As such, your hands and forearm muscles have not built the required neuromuscular activation to perform handstands without wrist pain. On the contrary, you can stand on your feet without ankle pain because unconsciously you know what muscles to activate in your feet. By understanding how to activate the muscles of your hands and how to stretch your forearm muscles, you will be able to keep your wrists from hurting during handstands.

Things You'll Need

  • Yoga mat
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Instructions

    • 1

      Come into a plank position. Place your hands directly underneath your shoulders. Straighten your legs behind you and curl your toes under.

    • 2

      Exhale to draw your hips back. Open your armpits completely so there is a straight line from your hands to your butt. Straighten out your legs and draw your heels toward the floor.

    • 3

      Look at your hands and see where the weight is distributed in your wrists. The tendency is to place most of the weight onto the outer, lower, back portion of the wrist.

    • 4

      Redistribute the weight equally into your hands by pressing the entire palm into the floor. In particular press down with the point where the base of the index finger and thumb meet. This is the activation of the hands you will need to master in handstand to relieve wrist pain.

    • 5

      Lower your knees to the floor and sit on your butt. Lift your arms parallel to the floor and cross the right arm underneath the left arm. Point the fingers away from you and the thumbs down toward the floor.

    • 6

      Clasp your fingers and bend your elbows. Move your hands first toward your chest, then up toward the ceiling, and finally out and away from you. Work on straightening your elbows and extending your wrist joint.

    • 7

      Hold the stretch for at least six long and deep breaths, then repeat on the other side. Make sure to inhale deeply and exhale slowly. Deepen the stretch with each exhale by straightening your arms and extending your wrist joint a little more with every breath.