Let's Talk About Hand Placement in Yoga Poses...
Exciting topic right?! Well, I think so!
Hoping to clarify and avoid any confusion, I have identified exactly the parts of the hands I'm discussing below...
View from the bottom of the hand
Same areas identified when viewing them from the back of the hand
When placing your hands for downdog and all other similar poses (i.e. plank, arm balances etc) it is of particular importance to keep the ball of the index finger pressing into the floor. In addition, you want the finger pads, balls of the fingers and edges of the hands firmly on the floor.
What can be lifting away from the floor is the inner palm (which lifts in a similar fashion to the inner arch of the foot) and the knuckles (indicated in yellow) can also lift as you grip. The gripping action can be achieved by pressing the finger pads into the floor and trying to draw them back toward the center of the hand.
In the images both above and below this caption, I'm demonstrating the finger pads drawing back towards the inner palm causing the knuckles to lift. Can you notice how active and alive the hand is while still maintaining the weight evenly across the hand and the ball of the index finger firmly planted?!?
Other hand placement considerations:
When positioning your hands for downdog and other similar poses think about your wrist creases being more or less parallel with the front of your mat (unless you have a carrying angle in which case you very well may be more comfortable with the hands turned out) and weight distributed evenly across the hand (remember the cue: hug the inner wrists)
Placing your hands correctly can assist in preventing wrist pain and even injury. Furthermore, placing the hands correctly in more foundational poses will prepare you for more advanced poses. For example, incorrect hand placement in handstand or other arm balances could cause you to be out of alignment - causing overexertion in compensation, making sustaining the pose and balancing within the pose harder.
If you missed my previous related blogs on external rotation and avoiding wrist pain click here
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