Hand strength question

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1

Greetings!

Love the site! Thank you for all of the great classes, especially Fiji, Tracey, and Sarah Jane!

I’ve been practicing yoga for a few years now, and I have struggled to gain strength in my hands and wrists. I have always been a bit challenged with hand strength, even though I feel strong in my arms, shoulders, and back . I’ve found that doing a lot of poses using my hands, like side plank, crow, even downward facing dog gives my hands (especially my right hand) an aching, weak feeling that makes it difficult at times to make it through a pose without modifications.

While I try to listen to my body and be mindful of hand placement, engaging the fingers, and not resting the weight in my palms, I feel that it is inhibiting my practice a bit to break through to the next level. Any tips for gaining hand and wrist strength I can focus on to improve my practice and make it a bit more enjoyable?

Thanks!

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Hi there.

Thanks for the kind words! Fiji, Tracey and Sarah-Jane will love reading this.

My understanding is that the best way to increase hand strength is to either do poses that demand the strength or do specific exercises. Poses like the ones you listed should be increasing your hand strength, as long as they are done regularly. If not, I found a livestrong post that shows a few easy hand exercises that you can do:

https://www.livestrong.com/article/419054-how-to-strengthen-your-hand-fast/

Be careful, though, that you don’t strain your wrists. Weakness in the hands can sometimes be indication that there’s something going on in the wrists that is making them feel weak. If you feel pain, don’t do them or use less weight.

Take care,

David

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Thank you for the tips and link!!

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