Imagine that you are Alice’s yoga mat.
You can feel the weight of Alice pressing into you at various places over your surface as she goes through her yoga practice.
Suddenly you realize that Alice has gone into down dog and that she will be holding that pose for awhile. You check out the pressure from Alice’s hands. Lately Alice had been putting all of her weight into one spot on the surface of the mat and this was causing her wrists to be sore.
The key to avoiding sore wrists is the distribution of weight around your hand.
You need to protect your hands in downward facing dog.
What to do with your hands in Down Dog
To avoid injuring your wrist you need to distribute the weight all over the hand. The wrist and the top of palm share the weight and the inside and outside of the wrist share the weight as well.
Getting the weight distributed around your hand correctly involves three things:
- Alignment of the hands
- Stretching the palm and
- Flattening the hands.
First lets look at the alignment of the hands.
Alignment of the hands
Protect your wrists in Down Dog by getting the alignment right; stretching your palms and flattening your hands.
There are two things to consider when getting the hands aligned properly.
First the hands are flat on the floor. The fingers are spread and pointing towards the front of the mat. The wrist creases are parallel to the front of the mat as well. Get the wrist creases parallel to the front of the mat is the most important part.
Second the hands are about shoulder’s width apart. The arms are coming straight down to the floor from the shoulders. A handy technique you can use is to visualize your two feet just fitting between your thumbs. The width of your feet will usually equal the space needed between your hands to get your hands directly under your shoulders.
Now that you have the hands properly aligned, you need to work on the weight distribution. You need to share the weight between the wrist and the top of the palm. Pull your finger tips lightly into the mat and you will feel the weight shift towards the top of palm from the wrist.
Next you need to flatten the palms to the floor.
Flattening the hands
A lot of people tend to cup their hands when they have them on the floor. They are not even aware they are doing this. What you need to do here is bring awareness to your thumb and first finger.
Press the first knuckle of your first finger firmly to the floor. This movement will change the weight distribution from the little finger side of the wrist to the center of the palm.
So far you have shifted the weight from being all in your wrist to your wrist and the top of palm by flexing our fingertips slightly. You have also shifted the weight from the little finger side of your wrist to the centre of the palm by pushing your first finger firmly to the floor. Now you are going to look at the last element of the weight redistribution program, the stretching of the palm.
Stretching the palms
Once you have your hands in proper alignment and they are flat to floor you are ready for this last step.
Open your fingers and spread them apart. Stretch the fingers as far as they will go away from each other. This will really stretch the muscles in the palm of the hand and make the palm even flatter on the mat.
The flatter the hand is on the mat the more of the surface of the palm is on the mat and the less likely the palm will slide over the surface of the mat. This will prevent the weight shifting to the wrists to try and stop any sliding that might happen.
Summary
Alice’s yoga mat noticed that there was a significant difference in the pressure that her hands were applying to the mat today compared to previous days.
The pressure was no longer focused on the outside edge of the wrist. Instead the pressure was spread all over the surface of the hand and for once Alice’s hands were not sliding on the mat.
Alice had remembered the three things to do with your hands in downward facing dog:
- Alignment of your hands compared to the shoulders and the front of the mat
- Flattening of your palms by pressing the first finger to the mat
- and stretching of your palms to get more surface area on the mat
Next Steps
Ask your yoga teacher to check out your hands in Downward Facing Dog. They will be able to make sure you have the weight distribution correct.
