It was rainy and warm tonight, so I wasn’t sure if there would be a lot of people in class (which sometimes happens when the weather is bad) or no one (which happens more often). It was more of a middle ground, with 4 students - one new, one second-timer, and two returners.
The new student had some yoga experience, which is always interesting because every teacher has a different style and many have different ‘methods.’ For example, many teachers have students “roll up to standing” from a forward fold. I don’t. Ever.
While I’m not a fan of One True Wayism, I am a believer in physics. Rolling up is bad for lower back vertebrae because it places the fulcrum in an unsafe and unsupported location. My opinion, your mileage may vary. I should also mention that my only other hard and fast yoga rule is that the only WRONG way to do yoga is if it hurts. Yoga should not hurt. NOT EVER. If you’re in a class and something hurts, stop what you’re doing (back out of the position) and flag down your teacher for assistance.
Rather than blog a specific asana today, I thought I’d talk about hands.
When students are on their hands and knees, they often complain about wrist pain - some right away, some after an extended time in Table positon, et cetera. It’s completely normal, the same thing happened to me when I began practicing, but there are ways of alleviating this compression.
1. You could buy a wedge. A yoga wedge will provide a bit of lift under the wrist which will help relieve the pressure.
2. You could roll up the edge of your mat a couple of times and place just the base of each palm on the padding.
3. The most effective method (and the one that will ALSO make method 1 and 2 more helpful) is weight distribution throughout the hands and fingers.
You can practice this from a seated or standing position (hands on a table or counter) or on the hands and knees. Bringing the shoulders in line over the wrists will bring more weight into the hands, so you can alter that position in order to avoid putting too much pressure (read: pain) on any one area.
Spread the fingers wide so that there is (roughly) equal distance between each finger and the first finger and thumb. You can also cup the fingers slightly in order to help balance the weight. Press down with the fingertips and then lower each knuckle to the floor. Your lowest knuckle is actually in the top of the palm of your hand, so press down through each of those knuckles as well as the full length of each thumb.
Your hand is going to get tired. But if you press the weight out through the length of the fingers, you should feel as though you can ALMOST lift the base of the palm away from the floor - don’t lift it, but but pressing the weight out through each finger will take the pressure off of the wrist. It helps to strengthen the hands, the forearms, and the muscles which support the wrist joint.
If you don’t practice like this regularly, the muscles are going to fatigue pretty quickly. That’s okay, just use method one or two to help support you while you build the strength necessary. There’s a similar method for the feet which helps to strengthen the toes, ankles and calves.
One of the weight lifters asked me for handstand tips tonight, which was kind of fun. Even though weight training and yoga have similar results, there are fundamentally different approaches that change how you think about how you’re getting to where you’re going. Makes for good conversation. 
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Filed under: asana, teaching | Tagged: asana, hands, teaching, yoga
