How to Practice Yoga with a Wrist Injury

0:00 Today, we're talking to you guys about how to practice yoga with a wrist injury. Welcome to the going pro. Yoga podcast, nugget series. My name is Michael Henry and I'm Byron de Marseille and he's short 15 minute episodes.

0:13 We're going to be answering some of the most common questions in the yoga industry. So you can walk away with the answers in a short period of time. That's right. Michael with each topic, that we choose will be discussing it from two different perspectives, the teacher, and the student. I'll be approaching these questions as a physiotherapist or therapist with over 10 years experience, treating some of the most common and complex injuries. And my guidance will be from the

0:35 perspective of having taught 7000 classes, roughly 10,000 hours over 10 years. Welcome to our podcast. Welcome back to the going pro yoga, podcasts. My name is Michael Henry and across the table from me. I have mr. Byron de Marseille.

0:55 Today. We're talking to you guys about how to practice yoga with a wrist injury and this is a big one. Because, well, if your yoga teacher or you practice yoga, and you've been doing it for a while, I can imagine that your wrists have bothered you at some point. It's almost guaranteed because we're on our wrist so much when we We're practicing yoga or using our wrists are just part of the practice in a big way, which makes it really important for hand placement setup guiding

1:22 that as a teacher knowing where to put your hands as a student or a practitioner. So there's a lot of things we can talk about and I think we'll probably do what we usually do on these nuggets series. 15 minute episodes is come at it from two perspectives and one is Teacher's perspective and also the students perspective. So Byron first, Welcome, and thank you for joining me today. What would you like to start?

1:47 Well, let's start with students since that's what's popping up first. I'm a student. Hello. I'm going to yoga class. I am nursing an injury and it's time to do downward facing dog or plank. There's a lot of weight on the hands. I start to feel.

2:04 Usually the outside of the wrist start to have pain. What do I do? Okay, so obviously like a topic like this. Hmm. We want to tackle it from a way that's easy to absorb. So for you guys. Let's start with how can you just avoid it? Okay.

2:21 First of all, you can avoid it by modifying modification or variation. Is some others will call it. For arms can come down to the ground instead of your hands you could list or you can it all together. So a down dog. Could look like a dolphin pose, and your plank pose could look like a forearm plank.

2:42 I know what you're Getting I love Vinyasa yoga. I'm not able to link my breath to my movement when I modify my poses. Well, I would just say we're we're we're find a way to protect your body first and still find your yoga next. It'll serve you better in the long term. Okay, and then the second part of that would be to help it be absorbable.

3:06 Is now, what can I do? If I still want to be able to practice on my hands? And that would be number? One. Let's do an exercise, take your hands, reach them, straight out in front of you. At least one hand. If you're driving, please not to and open your fingers really wide.

3:23 I want you to parallel your index fingers, or if you're just holding one, then your index finger. Would Point straight up or forward. Make sure they're truly parallel. This is how I practice my planks in my down dogs. Some people might go little tiny bit in like rotates your fingers in just for the heck of it. Make it uncomfortable like Fingers towards each other. This is the wrong direction, first of all, so this is not going to be helpful for your

3:49 wrist. Part of the reason is because if you press into the inside of your hand, which is what I'm going to tell you to do in a second, this will be very painful and not sustainable and maybe impossible, not impossible but difficult. Okay.

4:04 So rotate your hands back to the way I asked index fingers, parallel. Now, if you can press your index finger and specifically the skin that connects the thumb to the index finger. This is going to help protect your wrists more. Okay, let's say you're still in pain, rotate your fingers a little bit out.

4:22 So now that skin that I just talked about attaching your index finger and thumb is pointing straight forward. You can go a little less, if that's more comfortable. This is going to a help your shoulders and be possibly help your wrists. It's no guarantee, but give it a try. It's easier to press down through the in Next finger and thumb attachment there.

4:47 Any thoughts coming up for you? Mr. Petey. Absolutely. I was going through the exercises, you're explaining it in the thing that came up is well, first of all, why we pushing their why we pushing between the space of the index finger and the thumb.

4:59 Well, the reason why is if you look at the line of where your radius is, which if you're not sure where that is, it's the bone closest to your thumb side. So if you look at that bone and where that connects to your hand, it's a straight line through that through that bone to basically the A point that Bayern were just talking about, which is the space between your thumb and your index finger, the web that few will when your arms are straight or when you're pushing down through your hand,

5:23 that radius is actually the weight-bearing bone. So that's where the force is being transferred into your hands. So, if you're pushing, and if your hands are still out in front of you, like, mine are, like buying it expressed before. If your weight is being pushed more towards the Palm Center or maybe the pinky side, your there's going to be an imbalance there.

5:40 There's not going to be a lot of strength and stability there because the The basically the setup of the forearm and the Hand connection is not built to be pushing on the outside. You're meant to be pushing on the inside because that's where the weight-bearing bone is basically directed.

5:54 So that's why we push in that area and that's why I turning the hands out. Slightly is going to allow you to be able to do that a little bit easier which will take some of the pressure and strain off the wrist. So regardless of an injury, it's actually just good practice in general to try to do that. So that, absolutely and before that, you know, maybe we should have started.

6:13 With this and that is super valuable things. Michael is to warm up your wrists. The absolutely. Okay. So warm them up, get the Heat going that lubrication that starts to happen in the joints. And another thing is going back to the spreading of the fingers and pressing down through that area that we both talked about. Hmm.

6:32 Then I would say, think about your grip strength. Okay, so gripping like that, strong, the strength of, like, opening a jar peanut butter. That's stuck, right? That kind of strength. About using the knuckles, undersides of the knuckles. And that's kind of like my summary. I would say on that one, how to avoid it to, if you're going to do it, not avoid the hands how to do it, right? Okay.

6:56 So let's shift into teacher mode, right? Probably halfway through this one and think about, how are you going to guide your students? You have any initial thoughts? Michael is a new teacher and then I'll get it you deeper into it. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is what kind of awareness Do I have around teaching, and wrists and injuries?

7:16 Well, first of all, if I'm a teacher and I have an injury, or I have recently had an injury. I might be in my awareness, a little bit more to consider and be compassionate towards those in the class that might also. So, I might say, hey, we're doing plank blah, blah, blah. If you happen to have a wrist injury, or you want to make it easier on your wrist, go down to your forearms and do a forearm plank.

7:34 So that might not come up naturally for every single teacher because it's just not on your radar, you know, you're not dealing with the same issue. So that's an advantage. Having an injury is that you you now get to help other people to be seen who have similar injuries.

7:49 That being said, when you get really good at queuing and understanding modifications, opposes. And what might be more at risk per se. And wrists are one of those high-traffic areas in yoga, that can. There's usually some injuries if you have a class of 10 to 15 to 20 people.

8:05 I almost guarantee you there's someone in there that's kind of like, rolling the wrist because it's a little bit uncomfortable, whether it be before class during class, or maybe even after class, so, Just mentioning it once, if you're having wrist injuries at any point, if you feel like, you need to go down to your elbows, to take the pressure, off your wrist, or use your knuckles, or you know, whatever, then please do.

8:23 So, you know, it's kind of like leaving them room to make change and recognizing that as a teacher. I'm not, you know, pigeonholing you into a box where you can't, you know, go outside of it and protect yourself. If anything it's just giving them some encouragement and some almost like an OK or permission even though you're not really giving them permission. Just helping them to He's seen and heard that like, yeah, if you're dealing with a wrist injury, it's totally cool to just pop down on your forearms

8:48 or just avoid the pose. Hmm. Yes, absolutely. I'm going to just kind of reiterate and add to that a little bit, right? So let's think about some of the well, first of all, the most common injury that I've experienced in 10 years.

9:05 It's like I'd say, definitely the wrists as far as people talking about. Hey my wrists hurt or you just see it in class. Especially in a Vinyasa class or Power Yoga class where a lot of standing positions or let's say, you know, you got to go from down, dog or plank do the Vinyasa the classical version. So your hands are constantly taking pressure. So it's no surprise.

9:28 That the wrist injuries, most common back, pains. Probably number two, but more common. So, with the wrists, now, when it comes to teaching yoga, right, let's go into the, the I like this mode where we kind of go into like, what pose? Okay, so imagine You're in a plank pose. Okay, let's go straight to plank pose. You're teaching the class.

9:48 All right, step. It's the first time of the class that you're going to plank step your feet back one, at a time from tabletop into your first plank pose. Alright, the first thing I would say would be spread your fingers wide. So, I'm planting that seed in their head that anytime they're in a weight-bearing pose on their wrists. You are protecting your wrists.

10:10 Okay. I may not need to say it throughout the class and less Sigh witness people not doing it. I've covered my tracks. I planted the seed and people are going to go back to their conditioning. So you're going to see some people revert back to kind of closing their hand and that's when you give them a little more tension actually adjust the hands a lot. I go over to the hand and just kind of touch their hand or spread.

10:31 Mine. Why'd they see me spread my fingers wide and they spread their as wide. So this is a subtle queuing in subtle opportunities to help people. And then I think about, Let's say, let's say downward facing dog. Before you go to your downward facing dog.

10:50 Look at your hands parallel, your index fingers. All right, this is going to help protect your wrist, press through the skin that it's between your index, finger and thumb. Take a deep breath in downward facing dog. Now, you've set up their hands for down dog, as well. All right, continue to press through your hands to drive your hips back.

11:12 So you just reinforce it a little bit. All right. All right. So then imagine you're in a side plank, right? Not right off the bat but let's say it's this part of your sequence, maybe towards the end of class. You're inside plank. Place your feet together.

11:27 First of all, in plank roll, onto the outer edge of your right foot and reach your left arm up, stacking your hips. Okay, if you need to or you could say if you have wrist pain, if it's specific and you see that you can lower your right knee down to the ground under the hip and now you've supported their wrist. And if you need to do this on your forearm, do it on your forearm, you could also mention that part in plank pose, right? Same idea.

11:53 First plank pose of the day. Set up the hands if you see somebody doing fists. Well, now, you know, you this person might think that's their only option or if you see somebody like can't even do plank. You could also do this on your forearms.

12:06 You could also lower the knees to the ground to protect your wrists simple as that, you've taken care of them. You let them again being seen and being her been heard. And this is a huge part of the way that the yoga keeps that mentality of a kind of emotional intelligence where you're keeping them open and expansive. Civ to receive whatever is going to happen. And then told that day And don't be afraid to, you know, help and support and reassure someone or

12:34 encourage someone to protect their wrists. So I'm sure you can understand this visualization. If you see someone in plank, when they come down from and they start to roll the wrists, you know, it's like kind of that. Feeling like all my wrists are a little sore going to roll it out and then they start to go back up into plank, you know, find a moment.

12:51 Obviously, you maybe go over there and you just say it quietly like, you know, I noticed your risk might be bothering, you. Don't push it if you feel like you can, you know, go down to form. Like like that's totally fine. Like you can announce it to the whole class and they'll probably hear it.

13:03 But you could also just kind of go over suddenly as well and just be like, hey, you know, don't push it if your wrists are bothering you and that way, you know, they're specifically be it's going to be even more powerful than just speaking directly to them. So I would say don't be afraid to do that. If anything, they're gonna, they're gonna like that because they might not know that there's another option. Yeah, I mean yoga is to take care of ourselves and it's kind of embarrassing.

13:26 If you break it down to think about hands, and Feet and how often they are the responsible party. The initial contact to the ground and we don't pay attention to them very much. Maybe we pay attention, we do as far as queuing. If you pay attention to us, you know that. But as far as stretches and warming them up or just like good, ol feet, reliable feet here. They are.

13:48 Oh hands of there. They are again, you know, we just beat the crap out of them. Yeah, without taking care of them. So one thing and you can might verify this, that I find really stuck with me, is that As many bones in your hands that is there is in your spine and this small area and that's because it's a high-impact joint.

14:07 It supports body weight. So yeah, a lot of passion here. Baton behind the hands. Yeah, that's perfect. Actually. That's the last thing I wanted to touch on before we close it off with just the complexity of the anatomy of the hand, right? There's there's a lot of Bones off the top of my head. I want to say, 29, within the wrist hand and in connecting the forearm to the the hand and wrist. So 29 is a Lat and if you understand what, connects bones to Bones its joints, so if you

14:33 have twenty nine bones, all kind of connected. That's a lot of joints, right? So there's a complexity of ish of anatomy going on within the wrist. And because everything is so small. It's almost like a, there's just a lot of coordinated anatomical things happening in the wrist when we're using them.

14:51 And the other thing that's interesting is that because yoga is using the hands on the ground often. Not necessarily a normal thing in a day-to-day life of just the regular human will say, you know, we don't walk on her hands were not downward-facing, dog. In the middle of work were usually like using a wrists to, like, be on the computer and type things, but not necessarily pressing down through them, putting weight, down through them doing arm, balances through

15:16 them, handstands all the stuff like for training for it. Yes, but generally speaking the hands are not necessarily feet. They're not meant to weight bear fully or at least, they need to learn how to do it properly. So Hand placements.

15:29 It up like you said at the beginning by, and I thought was really important establishing that when you're going into a pose like plank downward facing dog and saying it. The first time I think is really important because you're, I don't want this in the wrong way, but you're training, your students to know that this is important from the beginning.

15:46 And if you notice that they kind of loose, you know, the spreading of the fingers or you can notice the knuckles coming up and there's just a little bit of form. You can just reiterate it to the class, maybe two or three times early on again and What kind of land for some people and over time it will and foremost. And then eventually they'll recognize that. Hey, this is an important thing because he mentions that a lot at the beginning of class and

16:07 they'll catch wind of that. Mmm. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Before we go, there might be some evolutionary or sorry evolutionist that have an issue with you saying that can't walk on your hands Michael, but besides, I'm just totally, totally joking.

16:24 I'm Gonna Leave You guys with a thought to. I think we covered this topic pretty well, and And this thought is if cats had opposable thumbs. Would they take over the world? I don't know what else to say. I kind of want to just end the podcast of that.

16:47 There was a long enough pause there that I feel like you guys got that. If not, I'm just going to end it right here to saying. Thanks so much for listening. As always, if you have any questions comments, concerns or input about any episode or this one in particular.

17:01 Please reach out to us. You can send us a voice note by going to the website podcast dot going pro. Yoga.com., Send us an e-mail podcast at going pro yoga.com or you can hit us up. Up on Instagram. I need EMS. Otherwise, thank you so much.

17:16 We appreciate you. Love you, and we'll see you next time.