Yoga for Hand Pain

This is yoga for your hands. These movements will help ease tension, strengthen muscles, and prevent pain.

Come over to your mat and stand in Mountain Pose. Lengthen the spine. Gently tuck your tailbone. With the top of your head, open up, extending the whole spine. Open your hands, stretch the fingers, drawing an imaginary line from the middle finger up your forearms.

And remove the crease in your wrist. Start to make some fists. Just squeeze your fingers in, and then really stretch them out. Open and close a few times. This can help to strengthen the hands and to keep the hands flexible.

I'm going to take a walk and just come over to the wall. Making sure that the shoulders are lined up with the wrists, place your hands on the wall and press into, really root the knuckles into the wall. Spread the fingers without overextending the thumbs. Pressing through the inner and outer heels of the hands. And then, activate the arms.

To do this, you draw the shoulder blades back and away from the spine. So you're also getting a stretch in the upper back and you're activating the muscles all along the arms. We're going to do this for about a minute.

And then, just flip the hands so the fingers are pointing toward the floor. But you're still pressing the palms into the wall, rooting the base of the palm. This is a really great opener for the wrists.

Same principle, just press the palms and the fingers and the knuckles into the wall. Just remember if you're activating the arms, the shoulders, drawing the shoulders away from the spine. This will help strengthen your forearms, your upper arms, and your shoulders as well.

Coming back to the mat, take a seat for Cow Face. The right leg is bent over the left. Both legs are bent at the knees. Lift your right arm long. Scooch your left hand back, bending at the elbow. And see if you can clasp your fingers.

You may not be able to do that. That's absolutely fine. If you're clasping the fingers, you're strengthening the hands as you do this. Either way, you can pat yourself on the back or just lift the right elbow to the sky. You're opening up the inside of the right arm, the Triceps. This is working into the shoulders. Of course, everything is connected here. You're also working into the hips.

Hold for a few breaths, and then release. We're going to do this on the other side. So we'll change the legs as well.

So the left leg is crossed on top. See if you can line your knees up. Lifting the left arm to the sky, get that length. Scooch your right hand under behind the back. This time, take the strap. And you can hold onto the strap and lift the left elbow to the sky. Make sure you're sitting in a very balanced way.

Taking a few deep breaths here. You're really opening up through the left side of-- under the left arm.

Keeping your neck soft and your jaw soft as well. And releasing the pose, going into a squat. This is Garland Squat. Again, have the feet about hip-width apart, taking the arms into the inner legs. Bringing the palms together, pressing into the knuckles. Lift up through the spine.

Of course, this is working to strengthen the hands. You're also helping to open up, relieve stress from the hips. It also helps to strengthen the shoulders. Just plant your hands down on the mat. Come out of the pose. Let your belly or legs come to the mat. This is Sphinx Pose. Bring your forearms to the mat. Really, marry your forearms to the mat and root your palms. And then, gently lift the chest as if you're drawing the chest forward and you're drawing the hand slightly back to your body.

And gently come out of Sphinx Pose. If you'd like, you can try Up Dog. This is a more advanced pose. It does the same thing with strengthening the hands. It's also really stretching the wrists.

You usually have your wrist curled up when you're typing. This really opens up the wrists. So starting to lift here. It takes a lot of shoulder strength to do this pose. So go slowly. Always, go slowly.

Just press yourself back into a Down Dog. Press into the knuckles of the hands, extending the fingers. Pressing into both the heels of the hands and the edges of the hands. Press into your feet, lift your tailbone, take a few deep breaths here.

And sit on your heels. You can shake the hands out, kind of getting any tension out. Rub them together, kind of warming up the palms.

Now, taking Plank Pose. Pressing into the hand, drawing the heels back. Lengthening the spine.

From Plank, we're going to put your legs out in front of you and try the Reverse Plank. So planting your hands onto the mat. The fingers pointing back toward your body. Let your legs extend forward. When you're ready on an in-breath, lift up. Lift the body up. Press your toes toward the mat.

And if you can, extend the chest and the neck back. This pose strengthens the wrists and the ankles. It also expands the chest and helps build shoulder strength.

Hold for as long as comfortable. Several deep breaths, if that's comfortable for you. And gently lower your body.

Come to any comfortable seat. Cross-legged seat. Lengthen the spine. Draw your hands into the heart. Just bringing your palms together. You can bow to your divine self.

Notice how you feel. Just take a rest in prayer.