Katelyn October 9, 2021

The Importance of Strengthening and Stretching Wrists

Whether you are someone who practices yoga or not, wrist health and mobility is extremely important! Especially in todays world of virtual work and spending hours on end typing away on computers, it’s important to stretch out and strengthen those wrists!

Every day we use our wrists to drive, write, lift things up and down, etc. If you are someone who practices yoga or exercises regularly, you’re using your wrists even more and bearing weight on them often!

Over time our wrists can become stiff and irritated. We want to keep our wrists happy and healthy to prevent these things!

Wrist Sequence

This is an easy sequence that you could do anytime of the day in under 10 minutes. We’ll work through a few strengthening movements followed by some wrist stretches to increase mobility and release any built up tension.

Try to hold each of the postures for five to seven breaths, getting the most out of the movements!

Wrist Curls

Curling upwards with hands under mat
Curling upwards with hands on top of mat

Mat “Ring Out”

Grab mat and twist hands in opposite directions as if you’re wringing out a towel. Switch directions

Downward Facing Dog (Puppy Pose for a lesser weight bearing option)

Downward Dog pressing hands and all 10 fingers firmly into the mat
Puppy pose with hips stacked over knees and forearms elevated, pressing firmly into the mat

Plank Pose (Plank with knees on ground for a less intense posture)

Plank with shoulders stacked over wrists
Modified plank with shoulders stacked over wrists

Flow Back and Forth from Plank to Down Dog a few times (or from Puppy Pose to Modified Plank)

Shake out Wrists

Give your wrists a good shake out bringing some healthy blood flow to the joints!

Wrist Rolls

Rotate wrists one way 5 or 6 times; switch direction

Upward Bound Fingers

Interlace fingers in lap and inhale arms up and overhead with palms facing the ceiling

Table Top with Wrists Turned In

Find a table top position and rotate your hands around so the finger tips are facing your knees. Bring some bend into your arm so you don’t lock out the elbow

Forward Fold with Wrists Flipped (for a more intense stretch, make a fist)

Coming into a forward fold, bring a generous bend into the knees so you can press the backs of your hands and fingers into the mat, stretching the front of your wrists
If you want a deeper stretch, ball your fingers up creating a fist, pressing the back of your hands into the mat still

Hands Under Feet

Staying in your forward fold, tuck your hands completely under your feet so that your toes meet the bend of your wrist. Begins to wiggle your toes “massaging” your hands and wrists

Roll up to stand Rolling Wrists on the way up

Rolling up from your forward fold stacking one vertabre at a time, find a roll in wrist again to rinse out all the great stretches you’ve done

Prayer Hands

Find prayer hands at your heart center, bringing awareness to the hands and wrists consciously pressing them into each other

Shake it out!

Shake those wrists out one more time to close out this short and sweet sequence! Hopefully your wrists are feeling warmed up and stretched out to give you strong support for the rest of your day!

Feel free to come back to this short sequence whenever your wrists are feeling like they need some love! This is also great to do before or after a workout that requires you to bear a lot of weight into your wrists and hands.

Remember that it’s the little care (like working on those wrists) that helps you towards better overall health! Keep growing and working on yourself 🙂