Unlearning + Relearning: Healing My Wrist and Hand Injury/Pain from Yoga

This is a a more in-depth look at my experience and healing process from wrist and hand injury and pain from yoga and over use (Read time: 5min )

The techniques, tools, videos, and other resources I've used can be found at the bottom of the post!

If you know me and my yoga practice, you know how much I love balancing on my hands. I recognize that these asanas and movements aren’t the most healing or therapeutic elements of a yoga practice, but I have found so much empowerment through my hand balancing practices. I have surprised myself with my strength, coordination, and growth, which has lead to more self confidence and grace in my practice and life. In early August, I was practicing handstands and felt a sharp pain in my left wrist. This progressed to pain and stiffness in my wrist tendons and finger joints in both hands. Not practicing what I preach, I tried to push through. I told myself “It’s just a tweak, it will get better quickly”. Bad idea. I just made it worse (obviously). I couldn’t put pressure on my hands for extended periods of time, and could barely open my water bottle at one point. It became evident to me that I could not practice as “normal” - downward facing dog was a no-go, let alone any hand balancing.

With friendly reminders from fellow yogis and reminding myself too, I listened to my body and took a two week break from my daily physical yoga practice. This was super challenging for me, as I am so very in love with my yoga practice, but it was necessary. Although I did not practice the physical components of yoga, I still maintained my daily meditation and mindfulness practices. I used this time to unlearn and relearn how to approach asana (the physical postures in yoga). In the YogaMedics training I was participating in at the time, I learned about therapeutic and sustainable alignment, isometric engagement techniques, and the beauty of props (more on this at the bottom of this post + thank you Seema!!). I researched ways to strengthen my wrists, grip, and forearms. I also studied healthier ways to practice hand balancing in order to extend the health and life of my wrists and hand joints.

I realized that there were likely multiple things that lead to my pain and discomfort. I have been improperly transferring the weight of my body into the heels of my hands, rather than more evenly distributing. I was relying on “stacking” joints rather than muscle engagement. I would lose sight of core engagement in these poses at times too. But, I was in the pose! These physical “samskaras” -reinforced patterns we repeat in our lives- were often driven by ego and determination.

When I returned to my mat, I came with a fresh perspective, and a new approach to how I was going to practice physically. I knew I needed some serious modifications at this time while my wrist and hands were still healing. I knew I couldn’t do my “normal practice “of arm balancing and handstands during my Vinyasa classes. At first I felt frustrated and honestly quite sad that my practice felt so different. Then I realized I needed to shift my perspective. I wasn’t going to learn healthier patterns of thinking and practicing this way. So, I began to find some love and gratitude for my strong legs that supported me with stability during the standing poses. Gratitude for my focus, my balance, and most importantly my breath. I began to let go and truly appreciate all of the amazing things my body can and could do. I did not put any full pressure on my hands for about a month. I am slowly integrating more pressure. I continue to utilize props, and alter my practice as needed.

Emotionally, I have reflected on this process through art making. As I drew and painted, I thought about all of the amazing things my hands represent to me - yoga, art, gardening, and connection. I sent love to myself, to my healing, and out into the world too. Sending love to you!

Below are the following exercises, props, tools,and techniques I have used to help heal and strengthen my wrist:

Exercises: I have been incorporating weight training with Oli to help strengthen the muscles in my forearm and surrounding my wrist joint. This is the series of weighted exercises we have been doing:

Weighted Exercises for Strengthening the Wrists (practice series in 2-3 sets about 1-2x a week- dependent on where you are at in healing, other exercise practices, etc):

1. Weighted Wrist Pronation and Supination (5 lb -10 reps)

2. Weighted Ulnar and Radial Deviation (5 lb -10 reps)

3. Weighted Wrist Extension and Flexion (20 lb bar - 5 Reps just wrists, 5 reps just fingers, 5 reps fingers and wrists)

4. Wrist Roll-Ups (2.5 lbs, 3 reps)

This video shows the exercise series in order (the video is sped up with not as many reps as recommended above):

Techniques and Tools:

1. Warming up wrists and hands: before even attempting any kind of weight bearing, I make sure to stretch and warm up - this involves gradual wrist stretching (ex: flipping hands so that fingers face your body in table while doing cat-cow stretches), and gradually increasing weight on my wrists (ex: table -> down dog -> chaturanga/low push up -> one knee at a time in crow -> full crow, etc. ).

2. Therapeutic Alignment: wrists slightly in front of shoulder when hands are planted on the mat. This decreases the flexion in the wrist and relieves pressure from the wrist joint.

3. Isometric engagement in the hand: When hands are planted, making sure to press into the thumb tip and pinky tip, and energetically/isometrically contracting the

thumb and pinky toward the center of the hand. This helps refocus weight away from the heel of the hand. Additionally, rooting into the base of the thumb, index, and pinky fingers, as well as the fingertips. This image provides a great visual reference from www.yogabycandace.com

4. THE WEDGE! This thing is awesome and helps decrease the flexion in your wrist. You want the heels of your hands on the thicker edge of the wedge, with fingertips pointing downward toward the thinner edge. It can be a little slippery so i tuck it under my mat while I practice. http://a.co/1vgYzOO

5. Gyro ball: this thing is awesome and fun - helps strengthen hands, wrists, forearms, and grip. It also strengthens the shoulder and promotes stimulating the production of synovial fluid (the fluid that lubricates and nourishes joints). I use it for about 30 seconds in each hand http://a.co/2RKClbG

6. Hand gripper: also helps strengthen hands, wrists, forearms, and grip. This also helps with dexterity and endurance. I do about 20-30 each hand. I rotate every couple days between the hand gripper and the gyro ball. http://a.co/99x4Ito

7. Yoga Blocks. Too much to write here, but blocks are really essential for healthy alignment in a yoga practice. Fill the space + bring the floor closer http://a.co/08aBOPK

Supplements:

I have also started taking Glucosamine Chondroitin & MSM supplements which can improve joint health. I purchased mine at Whole Foods, but here is a link for a very similar product: http://a.co/dQtDn2J

I also continue to drink the wellness tonic each morning to help reduce inflammation (read that post here )

Please reach out if you have any questions! And, let us know if you start to implement any of these tools and how it is going for you, and if there are other tricks and tips that have been helpful for you!

Big thank you to my teachers Seema and Margie at YogaMedics for sharing their wisdom knowledge, Tracy for suggestions and release, Oli for training me and modifying our workouts while I healed, and for friends who reminded me of what I needed to hear <3