Yoga guide
Downward dog, plank and arm balances put your body weight through a wrist bent back to around a right angle, and most aching wrists in yoga aren't used to that load yet. Changing the position for a while, then putting weight back through your hands gradually, usually sorts it out. Pain that keeps coming back in the same spot, tingling fingers, or pain after a fall onto your hand are different, and need checking.
No trial has tested yoga for wrist pain. The swaps teachers use (forearms, fists, a wall, a wedge) come from coaching practice and lab studies of push-ups, not yoga research. Strength work for the forearms and grip has better evidence, mostly from trials in hand arthritis.
This guide covers why yoga loads the wrists, the swaps that let you keep practising, how to put weight back through your hands step by step, wrist and grip strength, wrists that bend too far, prayer hands and carpal tunnel, getting back to yoga after a broken wrist, and the warning signs, with a free 20-minute yoga for wrists class.
A sun salutation bends the wrist back to about 85 degrees, and downward dog, plank, crow and handstands put body weight through a bent-back wrist. The arms aren't built to take weight the way the legs are, even though the forces in common poses stay under twice your body weight.
Change the position for a while, then build back up. Pain that keeps coming back in the same spot on the back of the wrist is different: in an imaging study of people with that pattern, most had a small hidden cyst or a ligament problem. If it isn't better within 2 weeks, get it checked.
Forearms instead of hands, fists or push-up handles to keep the wrist straight, or hands on a wall or chair. These are coaching practice and our suggestion: they rest on lab and cadaver studies of push-ups, and no yoga trial has tested them.
An NHS wrist programme goes from leaning part of your weight through a table, to a wall, to the floor, with discomfort of about 5 out of 10 that settles within 30 minutes. The NHS says to keep your hands and wrists moving with gentle exercises.
Grip strength rose after short yoga programmes in small studies, exercise eases hand arthritis pain a little, and a hand exercise programme improved hand function in rheumatoid arthritis. Add forearm and grip work to your yoga.
After a fall onto your hand with severe pain, swelling or a change of shape, get help the same day or call 999. See a GP (general practitioner) for tingling, numbness, a weak grip, or pain that hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
Most weight-bearing poses put the hand flat with the wrist bent back: all fours, cat-cow, downward dog, plank, chaturanga, upward dog, side plank, crow and handstand. In 10 trained practitioners filmed with motion capture, a sun salutation took the wrist to 85 degrees of extension. In 28 common hatha poses, the forces through the hands and feet stayed under twice body weight, but the researchers point out that the arms aren't designed to absorb weight as the legs are, so what is gentle for the legs may not be for the arms.
In 8 wrists from donors, a push-up on a bent-back wrist raised peak pressure where the scaphoid (the small bone at the base of the thumb side) meets the forearm, compared with a straight-wrist knuckle push-up. In 14 volunteers, force travelled towards the back of the wrist and over a wider area with the wrist bent back, and the researchers judged straight-wrist push-ups likely safer. These are studies of push-ups; no study has measured the same in yoga poses.
No survey has counted wrist problems in yoga on their own. Arm and hand injuries were 8.8% of 29,590 US emergency visits for yoga from 2001 to 2014, against 46.6% for the trunk. In 1,702 German practitioners, hand-, shoulder- and headstands were the practices most often linked with an injury or other acute problem (29.4%), and practising only on your own, without ever having a teacher, raised the risk. In 2,508 Japanese class-goers, 27.8% noticed an unwanted symptom after class, mostly mild muscle aches, and in 354 studio practitioners, 10.7% developed new pain caused by yoga over a year. In an online survey of 321 people who practise handstands, about a quarter of them from yoga, 56.7% had chronic wrist pain.
In 25 people whose wrists kept hurting on the back when they loaded them bent back and who had a scan, the scan showed a possible cause in 21, most often a small ganglion cyst you can't see or feel (16 people), then a partial tear of the ligament between two wrist bones (the scapholunate ligament). It was a small study of people already sent for scans, and ganglions also show up on the scans of about half of wrists that don't hurt, so a finding isn't always the cause. Our wrist pain when bending back guide sorts the causes by where it hurts. The British Society for Surgery of the Hand says ganglion cysts are "harmless and can safely be left alone. Many disappear spontaneously", and the common one on the back of the wrist grows from that same ligament. A case report describes a ligament tear with bony growth in a woman whose wrist pain was linked to yoga.
The NHS lists a broken or sprained wrist after an injury; pain and swelling at the base of the thumb from tendonitis (de Quervain's) or arthritis; aching, tingling or numbness that's worse at night from carpal tunnel syndrome; and a smooth lump from a ganglion cyst. It says not to try to diagnose the cause yourself. Our wrist and hand pain guide sorts the causes by where it hurts, and our yoga for carpal tunnel guide covers tingling hands.
Source 3
Most of what follows comes from lab studies, small trials in hand arthritis and surveys. No trial has tested yoga for wrist pain in general.
Our searches found no trial of yoga for wrist pain apart from one small trial in carpal tunnel syndrome, from 1998, in which the planned comparisons with a wrist splint weren't statistically significant. Our yoga for carpal tunnel guide covers it.
No study has tested fists, forearm poses, wedges, blocks, gloves or grips for wrist pain in yoga. Keeping the wrist nearer straight changes how load travels through it in push-up studies, so the swaps are a reasonable coaching choice, not a tested treatment.
Grip strength rose after 10 to 30 days of yoga in groups of adults, children and people with rheumatoid arthritis, and not in comparison groups, but the groups weren't randomised. In the carpal tunnel trial, grip rose within the yoga group.
In a Cochrane review, exercise eased hand osteoarthritis pain by a small amount (5 trials, 381 people; low-quality evidence). In a 2024 review of 14 trials (1,341 people), exercise eased pain and stiffness and improved function and grip a little in the short term, on low-certainty evidence, and the benefits had gone by 6 months. One small 1994 trial found a weekly yoga programme eased pain during activity and tenderness more than no treatment.
In 490 adults with rheumatoid arthritis across 17 NHS sites, a tailored hand strengthening and stretching programme added to usual care improved hand function at 12 months more than usual care alone, with no serious side effects, at a cost of £156 a person. Our hand exercises for rheumatoid arthritis workout follows it.
Source 10
In 94 trials (8,430 people), yoga caused no more side effects than usual care or other exercise. In observational studies, most yoga injuries were mild sprains and strains, and serious events were rare (1.9%).
Coaching practice and our suggestion, based on lab and cadaver studies of push-ups; no yoga trial has tested them. Use them while your wrists ache, then bring the full poses back gradually.
The swaps fall into three kinds: forearms instead of hands, a straighter wrist, or less body weight through the hands.
Dolphin: 3 holds of 5 breaths; forearm plank: 3 holds of 20 to 30 seconds (our wrist pain from push-ups and yoga guide). Knee plank: 3 holds of 10 to 20 seconds (our yoga for shoulder pain class). Sphinx: 2 holds of 3 to 5 breaths (our yoga for carpal tunnel class).
Wrist circles: 10 slow circles each way (our wrist pain from push-ups and yoga guide, editorial). Wrist and forearm flow: 60 seconds; wrist flexor stretch: 30 seconds each side (our wrist and forearm routine). Tendon glides: 4 to 6 of each position, holding each for 5 seconds, up to 4 times a day; wrist extensor stretch: 3 holds of 30 seconds (the moves' pages). Ease off any stretch that brings on tingling.
The table, wall and floor stages and the pain rule come from an NHS wrist programme (Oxford University Hospitals); the order of the yoga poses is our editorial suggestion, in line with our wrist pain from push-ups and yoga guide. Move to the next step when the one you're on feels easy for a week or two.
See the movement on the 3D figure: Quadruped wrist rocks
Wall push-up: 2 to 3 sets of 10, leaning more weight through your hands each week; incline push-up: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12; downward dog: 3 holds of 5 breaths (our wrist pain from push-ups and yoga guide). Wrist rocks: 10 slow rocks in each hand position (our wrist and forearm routine). Cat-cow: 8 waves, slower than feels natural (the move's page). Bird dog with one limb: 5 each side (our yoga for shoulder pain class). High plank: 3 holds of 15 to 30 seconds (the move's page, which calls it an editorial starting point).
3D demoWall push-upBeginner · A wall
3D demoQuadruped wrist rocksBeginner · No equipment
3D demoCat-cowBeginner · No equipment
3D demoBird dog, one limb at a timeBeginner · No equipment
3D demoIncline push-upBeginner · A bench or box
3D demoDownward-facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoStraight-arm plank (high plank)Intermediate · No equipmentWrist rehabilitation programmes finish with strength work, and in hand arthritis trials, strengthening eased pain and improved function a little. Yoga's weight-bearing poses build strength through the hands and arms; forearm and grip exercises target the wrist more directly. Doing both is our suggestion.
Our editorial starting point: forearm and grip work twice a week, as in our grip strength workout, with a weight you can lift about 10 times before your wrist feels tired, as an NHS wrist programme suggests. Keep it light: the forearm muscles are small.
Source 7
Ball squeeze: 10 squeezes with 5-second holds; band finger extension: 15 reps; forearm rotation: 10 each way (our grip strength workout). Wrist curls and reverse wrist curls: 12 slow reps, 2 rounds (our wrist and forearm routine). Use a soft ball if the base of your thumb is sore.
Mountain pose: 5 to 10 slow breaths, 2 or 3 times (the move's page). Warrior II: 3 to 5 breaths each side; chair pose: 2 holds of 3 to 5 breaths with your arms forward; tree: 2 holds of 20 to 30 seconds each side, fingertips on a wall (our yoga for carpal tunnel class).
Some people's wrists bend back much further than average. For joint hypermobility syndrome, the NHS says the main treatment is "improving muscle strength and fitness so your joints are better protected" and "do not overextend your joints just because you can". The Hypermobility Syndromes Association suggests yoga "focused on strengthening and control rather than increasing flexibility".
Keep your elbows soft rather than locked, and make fists if your wrists bend back too far, as our hypermobility guide says. Physiotherapy trials in hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are few and small (6 trials of 20 to 57 people), though they found less pain and better joint sense.
Source 28
In people with carpal tunnel syndrome, pressure in the carpal tunnel was 32 mmHg (millimetres of mercury) with the wrist straight and 110 with it bent back 90 degrees, against 2.5 and 30 in people without it. Holding the wrist and fingers bent back for a minute, like prayer hands, raised the pressure more than bending the wrist forward.
If your fingers tingle, keep your weight off your palms for now, use the forearm swaps, and hold prayer hands lightly and briefly. The NHS treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome are a wrist splint at night, then an injection or surgery if it persists. Our yoga for carpal tunnel guide has a wrist-free class.
Source 30
The NHS says it usually takes around 6 to 12 weeks to recover from a broken wrist, and the wrist may be stiff and weak for months. One NHS wrist programme starts putting weight through the hand at 6 weeks after the injury or surgery. Follow your fracture clinic's plan, and if you're over 50, ask about a fracture liaison service to check your bones.
In 31 regular practitioners whose broken wrist was fixed with a plate, 90% returned to yoga: on average at about 6 months for any yoga, 7 months for weight-bearing poses and 10 months for their usual practice. About a third practised at a lower level afterwards.
Source 31
Leave chaturanga, crow and handstands until last: they put heavy load on the end of the wrist's range (our wrist pain from push-ups and yoga guide). Swap upward dog for sphinx, and side plank for the forearm version with pain on the little-finger side. The kneeling forearm stretch puts body weight into a deep wrist bend: use the wall version of the wrist flexor stretch instead (its move page).
3D demoFour-limbed staff pose (Chaturanga Dandasana)Advanced · No equipment
3D demoCrow pose (Bakasana)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoHalf handstand at the wall (Ardha Adho Mukha Vrksasana)Intermediate · A wall
3D demoUpward-facing dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoSide plankIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoKneeling wrist flexor stretch, fingers backBeginner · No equipmentStart with the 20-minute yoga for wrists class 2 or 3 times a week. On days your wrists flare or your fingers tingle, use the wrist-free carpal tunnel class. The wrist and forearm routine and the grip strength workout add strength; the handstand progression is for when your wrists take full weight comfortably.
A 20-minute yoga class for wrists: a gentle warm-up, poses with the hands free, then weight through the hands in stages, from a wall to all fours to the forearms.
20 minBeginner18 movesA wall, Other / check instructionsWrist mobility and forearm strength for desk work, climbing, push-ups and handstands.
10 minBeginner7 movesA wall, A dumbbellA 25-minute wrist-free yoga class for carpal tunnel: slow breathing, nerve and tendon glides, seated moves, standing poses with hands free, and forearm poses.
25 minBeginner17 movesA bench or boxA 20-minute grip session: warm up the wrists and fingers, train the hand and forearm muscles, then carry and hang to load your grip the way everyday life does.
20 minBeginner10 movesOther / check instructions, A bandA 20-minute yoga sequence for shoulder pain: gentle movement, standing poses with the arms low, shoulder strength, and weight on the arms built up from the wall.
20 minBeginner16 movesA bench or box, A wallThe daily stretches and strengthening moves from the SARAH hand trial and NHS hand therapy leaflets: finger bends, finger walking, wrist circles, squeezes and pinches.
15 minBeginner7 movesA dumbbell, A bench or boxA 30-minute joint-friendly yoga class for arthritis: seated breathing and joint warm-ups, standing poses with a chair, gentle lying poses and a long relaxation.
30 minBeginner17 movesA bench or box, A wallA quick stretch break you can do beside your desk: neck, back, chest, wrists, hips and quads.
5 minBeginner7 movesA wallBuild toward a handstand: wrist prep, dolphin pose, pike push-ups, crow, the wall handstand and freestanding holds.
25 minAdvanced9 movesA wallThese follow our wrist and hand pain guides and our carpal tunnel guide word for word, and the NHS. A&E means accident and emergency. In the US, call 911 for 999.
Discomfort up to about 5 out of 10 that settles within half an hour and isn't worse the next morning is fine while you build back up. Stop a pose for sharp pain, pain that builds through a session, clicking with weakness on the little-finger side, or tingling or numbness that doesn't fade quickly, and come onto your forearms or a wall (our suggestion). Pain on the back of the wrist every time you load it, lasting more than 2 weeks after changing position, deserves an assessment. Stop for chest pain, dizziness or unusual breathlessness. Call 999 (911 in the US) for chest pain that feels tight or like squeezing, or spreads to the arms, neck or jaw.
Wrist programmes put load back step by step rather than avoiding it, and the NHS says to keep your hands and wrists moving with gentle exercises. A few days' rest from what hurts is fine. After a fall or a broken wrist, follow your fracture team, and with tingling hands, start with the forearm swaps.
No study has tested alignment or hand-pressing cues. Spreading the load across your hand is a reasonable cue, but in a small study of 25 people whose wrists kept hurting when loaded bent back, scans showed a possible cyst or ligament problem in 21.
None has been tested in a trial. Keeping the wrist straighter changes how push-ups load it in lab studies, so they're a reasonable short-term aid while you build strength, not a fix.
In the one small trial, the planned comparisons with a splint weren't statistically significant. The NHS treatments are a night splint, an injection and, if it persists or gets worse, surgery.
Holding the wrist and fingers bent back for a minute raised the pressure in the carpal tunnel in a lab study.
Source 25
With hypermobility, the NHS says not to overextend your joints just because you can, and to build strength. Control matters more than range.
In trials, yoga caused no more side effects than other exercise, most yoga injuries are mild, and arm and hand injuries were under 1 in 10 emergency visits for yoga. The riskiest poses for wrists, such as handstands, can wait.
Downward dog, plank and arm balances put your body weight through a wrist bent back to around a right angle, and most aching wrists aren't used to that load yet. Pain that keeps coming back in the same spot on the back of the wrist can be a small hidden cyst or a ligament problem, so get it checked if it isn't better 2 weeks after changing position.
Dolphin pose, on your forearms, or downward dog with your hands on a wall or the seat of a chair. Fists or a wedge under the heels of your hands keep the wrist straighter. No study has tested these swaps; they follow lab studies of push-ups.
It can be, if you build up gradually: weight-bearing through the hands strengthens the wrists and arms, and grip strength rose after short yoga programmes in small studies. Most yoga injuries are mild, and the riskiest poses for wrists, such as handstands and crow, can wait.
Put weight back gradually, from a table to a wall to the floor, as an NHS wrist programme does, and add forearm and grip exercises twice a week. Our 20-minute yoga for wrists class combines both.
No trial has tested them for wrist pain. They're fine as a short-term aid while you rebuild strength, and a folded mat edge under the heels of your hands does the same job as a wedge.
Yes, with poses that don't load your hands: standing poses, seated poses and forearm versions. After a fall onto your hand with pain, swelling or a change of shape, get it checked before practising, and after a broken wrist, follow your fracture clinic's plan.
Yes, keeping your wrists near straight and off your palms while your fingers tingle. Keep wearing your night splint, as the NHS advises, and see our yoga for carpal tunnel guide for a wrist-free class.
Not for most people. Holding the wrists and fingers bent back for a minute raised pressure in the carpal tunnel in a lab study, so if your fingers tingle, hold prayer hands lightly and briefly, or keep your palms apart.
Not necessarily. With hypermobility, the NHS says not to overextend your joints just because you can, and to build strength and control instead. Make fists if your wrists bend back too far.
When your fracture team says: one NHS programme starts putting weight through the hand at about 6 weeks. In 31 regular practitioners whose broken wrist was fixed with a plate, 90% got back to yoga, after about 6 months for any yoga and 7 months for poses on the hands.
It may help a little. In one small trial, weekly yoga eased pain and tenderness in hand osteoarthritis, and exercise in general eases hand pain a little in the short term. Use fists, padded handles or your forearms for poses on the hands.
Get help the same day after a fall with severe pain, swelling or a change of shape, or if you lose the feeling in your hand. See a GP for tingling or numbness, a weak grip, diabetes, or pain that hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. If you are pregnant, have a health condition such as glaucoma, high blood pressure or osteoporosis, or have had recent surgery, check with a doctor, midwife or physiotherapist before starting, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
