The truth about aching wrists WHEN practicing Pilates or yoga
One of the most common complaints when people start to practice Pilates or Yoga is that they experience pain in their wrists.
Now firstly, let me be clear that I’m not talking about the sort of pain here that needs painkillers. If your wrists are so painful that you need to take painkillers, you may have sprained or strained your wrist, or potentially have something like repetitive strain injury or carpel tunnel syndrome. If the pain persists for more than a day or so, I recommend that you consult your Doctor.
The sort of pain we are talking about is what I would describe as a nagging ache, that is experienced either during the Pilates or Yoga practice itself or in the day or so following the session.
Particularly in the Yoga world, it’s commonly heard that teachers will say “your wrists just need to get stronger”. I get a little frustrated when I hear this as the answer is much more nuanced than that and it doesn’t give people any understanding of the issue or what they can do about it. So in this blog post we are going to cover whether wrists can get stronger or whether that is just a myth, why wrists ache, and what we can do about it.
To understand why the wrists ache, we firstly need to think about the function and anatomy of the wrist. The function of the wrist is to connect the hand to the forearm, and to allow the hand to move in multiple planes of movement (flexion and extension, and lateral movement). Our modern lifestyles mean that we spend very little time using our bodies through the full range of movement that they are designed for – and guess what – if we don’t use it we lose it! Long hours spent at keyboards, hands clasped around steering wheels etc means that our range of motion in our wrists is not what it should be.
range of motion of the wrist joint
When we do a Pilates or Yoga practice where we are on all fours, the wrist is extended to a 90 degree angle. So firstly we have the issue that the wrist is now in a position it is not used to, and secondly we are then adding load to the joint (your body weight). If you press your palms fully together in a prayer position in front of the chest (the forearms are horizontal, with the elbows out wide to the side), your wrists will be at that 90 degree angle. If they are uncomfortable at this angle without any load on them, you can be absolutely sure they will be even more uncomfortable with your body weight on them. So we know that mobility of the wrist joint and range of motion (or lack of) play a huge contribution to aching wrists.
WRIST STRENGTH
So, back to talking about strength – can wrists getting stronger - or is this just a myth? The answer is yes and no! Wrists can become a little bit “stronger” but as there are very few muscles directly around the wrist, it’s actually increasing strength in the surround areas (the fingers, hand and forearm) which will help to support the wrist joint. And therefore even though the wrist itself isn’t much stronger, the hand, wrist and forearm as a team are now a stronger team. It’s important to note that most general Pilates or Yoga classes do not have exercises or poses that focus on strengthening the fingers, hands and forearms. There are some simple exercises that you can incorporate into your regime further on in this post that do specifically strengthen those areas.
strength in the rest of the body
The other point to note is that the stronger the rest of the body is (particularly core strength) will have an impact on the wrists too. If you take plank as an example exercise, if you are strong throughout the rest of the body, more weight will be taken by those muscles, which will reduce the load on the wrists. At one point a few years ago (before I injured my shoulder) I could do finger tip press ups. This really illustrates my point here – as my hands and forearms were absolutely no stronger than when I couldn’t even do one press up on my hands. But I built up to the fingertip press ups by strengthening the rest of my body, and also refining my technique. And technique is a really important point to make, as not only do we need to have sufficient strength in certain muscles to perform an exercise, but we also need to know which muscles we should be using in that exercise and how to recruit them. Technique and muscle recruitment is a whole other blog post though! I’ll be doing a plank tutorial so keep your eyes peeled for that!
So now we’ve covered the reasons why we get aching wrists, let’s talk about what we can do about it -
Always warm up the wrists before exercise
There are 2 ways you can warm up the wrists - (I like to do both of these if I’m going to be doing a session with lots of time on hands) –
1) Mobility exercises/ stretching – wrist circles, gently doing through all ranges of motion – using your other hand to “assist” the wrist into flexion and extension. You can also make these more intense by being an all fours and turning the hands so that the palms are flat on the floor and fingers are turned towards your knees, then turn the hand so that the back of the hand is on the floor with fingers pointed towards you.
2) Physically heating the wrists – Particularly with Yoga, I like to practice warm when I can by heating all the muscles in a warm room, or you could run your wrists under warm water
Try to do the mobility exercises as often as you can not just when you are preparing to exercise as little and often is the name of the game in helping your wrists to get closer to the full range of movement that they should be able to do.
Adjustments to exercises
Step hands forward to reduce angle of wrists. Mostly when we are on all fours or a “tabletop” position, the guidance is to have wrists under shoulders as having the joints (shoulder, elbow and wrist) “stacked” is thought to the strongest position overall to take the bodyweight. However, if this comes at the expense of really uncomfortable wrists, you can move your hands forward up to a hands distance to reduce the angle of the wrist.
Fists down instead of palms. Instead of having the palm down with the fingers facing forward, you can make “fists” with your hands and place your hand down so that the top part of the fingers is what is in contact with the mat. Thumbs will be facing in towards each other and the back of your hands will be facing outwards. This brings the angle of the wrist down to zero. This may bring some discomfort into the fingers or hands so its a case of playing around to see which is the lesser of two evils!
Come off the hand. In exercises such as side plank, instead of having your palm down, bring your forearm as well as the palm down to the mat. This will again bring the angle of the wrist back to zero so that the load is essentially taken on the forearm AND the hand instead of just the hand/ wrist.
Use of Props
Most people hate using props as they feel like they should be able to do something, or it’s failing if you “cheat”. My take on this is that you have to think about what you are trying to achieve – if you had to come out of a posture or exercise as your wrists were hurting too much when use of a prop could have allowed you to continue, then not using the Prop was failing!
Please note, I don’t recommend using props under hands if you are doing Pilates on a Reformer machine – this is just for Mat Pilates or Yoga.
Here's how you can use props to help -
Wedge block. These are blocks that are in a wedge shape that are specifically to help with wrists – the hands are placed on the block (thick end of the wedge towards you), which reduces the angle of the wrist from 90 degrees to make it more comfortable.
Rolled up towel under the palms. This acts in exactly the same way as the wedge but is a little softer and you can also dictate how much you are reducing the angle of the wrist by rolling the towel up more or less to make the towel thicker or flatter.
Yoga blocks under the hands. If you haven’t got either of the two options above, you can use normal yoga block and pop the palms on the block and turn the hands outwards so the fingers/ fist are hanging off the side of the block. A thinner flat block is the ideal for this, but you can also use the “brick” shape blocks.
I’ll do a separate blog post on my recommendations for Props as that’s another long topic!
Strengthening exercises
To strengthen the areas that surround the wrists, I recommend incorporating the following exercises –
1. Finger flicks
Also known as wrist flicks, this exercise strengthens the muscles that flex and extends the fingers. It is also a great way to warm up the wrists before other exercises.
o Extend your arms out in front of you and squeeze both hands into tight fists.
o Quickly flick all 10 fingers out as wide and straight as possible.
o Repeat this squeeze and flick for 10-30 seconds.
2. Finger slides
Finger slides help to improve range of motion and are another great way to warm up the hands and wrists.
o Hold one arm out in front and flex the wrist so that your palm is facing forward.
o Without making a fist, slowly slide the fingertips towards the base of your fingers and then down to the bottom of your palm.
o Reverse the movement, making sure to articulate the fingers uncurling.
o Repeat 5-10 times on each side.
3. Dumbbell wrist extension
If you don't have a dumbbell, wrist extension exercises can be performed holding a light household item or with a resistance band.
o Holding a light dumbbell in your hand, rest the forearm on a table, bench, or chair so that your wrist and hand are off the edge with your palm facing down.
o Keeping your forearm still, lift the dumbbell up by curling your hand up and back towards your arm until the wrist is fully extended.
o Pause for a second before slowly lowering the dumbbell back to the start.
o Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps on each side.
4. Dumbbell wrist flexion
Wrist flexion exercises can also be performed with resistance bands or alternative weights.
o Holding a light dumbbell in your hand, rest the back of your forearm on a table, bench, or chair so that your wrist and hand are off the edge with your palm facing the ceiling.
o Keeping your arm stable, curl the dumbbell up towards your wrist as far as you can.
o Pause before slowly lowering back to the start.
o Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps on each side.
5. Dumbbell wrist pronation to supination
For this exercise, it's important that the movement comes from below the elbow and not from the shoulder. You can try without weights first to get the technique right.
o Holding a light dumbbell in your hand, rest your forearm on a table, bench, or chair so that your wrist and hand are off the edge with your palm facing the floor.
o Keeping your upper body still, slowly turn the hand until your palm faces the ceiling.
o Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps on each side.
6. Dumbbell wrist radial to ulner deviation
For this exercise, only move as far as you can while keeping your forearm on the support. You might want to practice without weights first.
o Holding a light dumbbell in your hand, place the side of your forearm on a table, bench, or chair in a neutral position, so that your palm faces towards the midline of your body.
o Keeping your arm flat, lift your hand up and back towards your arm so that it tilts towards the ceiling.
o Pause and then reverse the movement, moving past the starting position and tilting your hand towards the floor.
o Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps on each side.
7. Finger push ups
This exercise is great for building strength in the hands and wrists. If you find it too challenging, place your hands further in front of your shoulders so that there is less weight on the wrists.
o Start on all fours in tabletop position with knees under hips and wrists under shoulders.
o Push up through your fingers to lift your palms off the floor.
o Lower back down ensuring both hands land flat at the same time.
o Repeat for 2-3 sets of 5-8 reps.
I’m intending to record a video of this so if you are a more visual learner it will be easier to follow along. Keep your eyes peeled for this, or sign up to my newsletter to be the first to hear about new blog posts and free stuff!
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