Sort Out Your Wrists
As a result of days spent driving, typing on the keyboard, hunched over our desks, our wrists have become weak. We don't spend much time bearing our bodyweight on our hands, as the need to crawl was eliminated early in childhood. However, this leaves us with weak wrists which cry out in pain and limit our capabilities when performing pushups, handstands, and other hand balances activities. Limited mobility in our wrists also puts us at further risk of injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Two things must be addressed in order to prepare your wrists for load bearing.
1. Flexion and extension. Your wrists should be able to move back and forth across your frontal plane. You can perform wrists stretches indiscretely by simply grabbing your fingers and pulling backwards (extension) or pulling your knuckles downwards (flexion).
2. Weight bearing. Not only do your wrists need to be flexible, but they also need to be able to carry your bodyweight. For better stretching, get on your hands and knees. With your hands in front of you, lean forward and force your hands to support your bodyweight while challenging your mobility. Do this on the back of your hands as well to improve strength in flexion.
By strengthening and mobilizing your wrists, you'll notice a huge difference when performing bodyweight exercises. See the video below for a more involved wrist preparation for handstands and yoga hand balancing.
