Every person experiences wrist pain once in their lifetime the moment they start a yoga practice or any other exercise routine. You cannot just ignore it and practice through the pain. If not now then possibly later, you need to strengthen your wrists. Weak wrists could be a reason for pain in your hands, wrists, or forearms. Therefore, you should know how to strengthen weak wrists to practice yoga without any hassle.
Let’s have a brief idea about what causes wrist pain before moving on to the top 4 exercises you can practice to strengthen weak wrists. Read on.
Reasons For Wrist Pain
- Repetitive yoga movements
- Balancing too much on wrists
- Stressing wrists with body-weight
- Weak extension or contraction of muscles
- Dorsal wrist pain
- Improper warm-up or cool down
Working Mechanism of Wrists
Wrists have a large area in which they can move. Ten bones connect to the wrist to facilitate this movement. It consists of 8 bones from the hand side (dorsal) and 2 from the elbow side.
Further, these joints help in supination and pronation of the wrist. Therefore, if you want to master a handstand, first you should learn how to balance the movement of your wrists.
Training wrist muscles in different positions can help in strengthening weak wrists. For that, you can check out the following 4 best exercises. However, if you want to have a deeper analysis of the working of your body, you should join 500 hour yoga teacher training in India.
4 Best Exercises to Strengthen Weak Wrists
Let’s have a look at some of the easiest exercises or stretches that you can do to strengthen weak wrists. Read on.
Wrist Curls
- Sit in such a way that your thighs are parallel to the floor. Then, place your elbows on your thighs.
- Make sure your wrists are hanging over and palms are facing towards the ceiling.
- Take a dumbbell or weight that you can carry and place in your hand.
- Slowly raise your wrist towards the ceiling without lifting it from the thigh.
- Let the hand move down under the effect of gravity. However, make sure you do not let it go in an instant.
- Repeat this motion a few times on both wrists.
Reverse Wrist Curls
- Place your elbows over your thighs with your palms facing the floor.
- Carry a dumbbell or some weight in your hand.
- Pull your wrist with a weight in hand towards the ceiling.
- Let it fall slowly under the effect of gravity. Make sure you don’t jerk it.
- Repeat it for a few reps to strengthen weak wrists.
- Make sure you do not lift your elbows from your wrists while carrying the weight.
Radial Deviations Curls
- Hold a weight or a dumbbell in your hand and place your forearm on your thigh.
- Rotate your wrist such that your thumb is pointed towards the ceiling.
- Tighten your grip over the weight in your hand and move it away from your body.
- Go as far as you can without feeling any pain.
- Return to the neutral position and repeat for a few reps.
- Repeat the same on the other wrist.
Knuckle Pushups
- Get on your all fours and make a punch with your hands.
- Place your knuckles on the ground. If the surface is hard, place some padding under your knuckles.
- Extend your legs to the back so that your weight shifts on your knuckles.
- Do pushups on your knuckles.
- This shifts weight from your wrist joints to your elbow and whole arm.
- Do some sets of this exercise.
Conclusion
As you can see, the above-mentioned are some of the best exercises to strengthen weak wrists. However, there are plenty more that you can discover to choose the one that perfectly suits you. Moreover, you can always seek the help of a certified yoga teacher to learn more about the wrist and its anatomy.
However, for that, you need to choose the best yoga school in Rishikesh. The certified yoga instructor enhances your knowledge and teaches you different yoga stretches to strengthen weak wrists. Just make sure you do a proper warm-up before practicing any exercise. Then only you stay pain-free and can move your body as per your desire.
Also Read: Yoga Bandhas