Why Do My Wrists Hurt in Pilates and Yoga?
Wrist Pain with Weight-Bearing Exercises
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Do you have wrist pain in Pilates and yoga during planks & other weight-bearing exercises?
In addition to my Physical Therapy practice, I also teach Pilates in Salt Lake City,
and I hear complaints of wrist pain ALL THE TIME! In my classes and my physical therapy practice I put a lot of emphasis on upper body weight-bearing (think planks, push-ups, stuff in an all-fours, etc). Upper-body weight-bearing is so important for upper body strength as well as core and shoulder stability and, frankly, you need to be doing more of it. But, in almost every class I teach, I have a student either modify on their own (kudos for knowing your body), ask me about wrist pain after class, or stop and choose not to do the exercise! While some folks might be perfectly happy with modifying or stopping… why settle for that??
I’m someone who wants to get to the root cause of discomfort and nip it so I can do what I want!
Below are some root causes for your wrist pain with weight-bearing and ways to start to fix it!
Limited wrist mobility.
If you can bend your wrist back at least 90 degrees, this isn’t your issue. But for some people it is!
This video on wrist pain with weight-bearing shows stretches to improve mobility, form cues for long-term improved weight-bearing and modifications to use until your discomfort improves.
Note: Remember it is ok to modify while you are working on long-term improvements, but be careful about relying on modifications forever!
You are not using enough muscle- using more muscles = less load on joints.
In upper-body weight-bearing, you need muscular connection through shoulder blades and core in order to take load off of the joints below- your wrists!
A very common mistake is locking your elbows, which means you are not using the arm and shoulder muscles to your advantage. Try unlocking your elbows- easy fic but it is actually HARDER because you actually have to use the muscles instead of hanging out on the ligaments and bones.
Another common mistake here is not using the muscles around your shoulder blades to lift the weight of your body away from the floor and therefore out of your wrist joints.
This video on Scapula and Core Control in Weight-Bearing will walk you through using the muscles to lift you up out of your wrist joints as well as “bird-dog” and “plank” demos and cuing.
This video on Scapular Protraction Progressions gives you some options to strengthen those muscles around your shoulder blades to get you those long-term results!
I would love to hear how it’s going! Comment or reach out!
xoxo,
Natasha
Are you a woman who wants to do the things you love with confidence?
I’m Natasha Fett, Doctor of Physical Therapy. I help active women continue or return to doing what they love, and do it for the long term! I treat you one-on-one by looking at your body/mind/lifestyle as a whole and listening to your goals and expectations to give you the care you want and deserve that fits into your busy life. My mission is to help guide you and ultimately empower you to be in tune with your body and manage your symptoms to do what you love with confidence.