Teaching: What modifications can I offer someone with wrist sensitivity?

This is a common sensitivity and we have received lots of great suggestions from the community on ways to help strengthen the wrists as well as variations and modifications to support the wrists during a Yoga practice.

A great option would be to offer students the option to be on their forearms instead of placing hands to the mat, this could be in asana such as: table top position, plank, downward facing dog or Sphinx pose instead of Seal pose. Being on the forearms offers the added benefits of strengthening around the shoulders, chest and upper arms.

Another option would be to encourage students to place their hands to blocks instead of the floor, maybe at the middle or highest height option for the block. This may alleviate some of the pressure from the wrists and allow the students to wrap their hands around the blocks and build that gripping quality and strength through the hands. This would be a great option for asana such as: lunges, standing forward folds, triangle or pyramid pose.

Perhaps offering students the option to place their hands in fists and have their knuckles to the floor instead of the palms of the hands, may work in certain asana such as table top position. Some students have success by rolling up the front end of the mat and placing their palms to that, as it can offer some support under the hands and help students to activate more gripping quality into the floor.

In order to build strength in the wrists, you can practice Hasta Bandha with your students, by gripping the mat with the pads of all 10 fingers and lifting the centre of the palm a tiny little bit off the floor. This engages the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hands and may alleviate the pressure on the wrist joint. The intention is to strengthen wrist-adjacent musculature.

Juan has a Wrist Free Vinyasa practice on the Your Yoga Flow Online Class Platform that offers a practice that focuses on standing poses, and may help to build balance, strength and connection through the feet. This may be a great class to watch if you have students in your class with wrist injuries.