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| Hello. I injured my wrists about a year ago from doing repetitive poses like sun salutation on my own (I have never taken a class, so I was probably in bad form or something). I want to do yoga regularly so bad, but every time I do it, my wrists start hurting again when I do poses like downward dog that put alot of weight on your wrists. Could someone recommend any poses that would help my wrists heal rather than hurt them more? Thank you |
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| smartblonde:
The poses which you should perform for your wrist to heal for next several months are:
a) All the poses where wrist is NOT used.
b) Shavasana.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Thank you Neel. Shavasana, you mean Savasana as in "corpse pose"? |
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| My Dutch Ashtanga teacher pronounces corpse pose "Shavasana" as well. I figured it was simply the German influence like "shtrassa" vice "strassa" meaning "street" in English. Perhaps Brother Neel or Stefan can enlighten us. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State |
The Bikram people (from whom you probably first heard the name) have a lot
of the Sanskrit wrong. [I blame Bikram for this.] In a Bikram class, you hear
"Suh-vah-suh-nuh" instead of "Shah-vah-suh-nuh". In transliterated Sanskrit,
the S would have an accent above it, meaning "Sh" (I think that's a sh done on the
palate rather than the teeth...). Bikram also ****s up Garudasana as Garurasana,
and the list goes on.
It's Sh in savanasana. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | smartblonde - 2005-01-24 6:18 PM
Hello. I injured my wrists about a year ago from doing repetitive poses like sun salutation on my own (I have never taken a class, so I was probably in bad form or something). I want to do yoga regularly so bad, but every time I do it, my wrists start hurting again when I do poses like downward dog that put alot of weight on your wrists. Could someone recommend any poses that would help my wrists heal rather than hurt them more? Thank you
One thing that might help is to spend some time on the alignment of your hands relative
to your forearms. If you keep the middle finger pointing straight ahead, in line with the
bones of the forearm, you will avoid compressing the wrist joints to one side or the other.
I've found the outside joint to be more sensitive than the inside to this alignment.
Second, if you are practicing sun salutations, make sure that your palms are placed
shoulder width apart. Sometimes, one can place the palms too wide so that the
arms are angled outward. This hard on both shoulders and wrists.
If you spend some time working gently just to explore these alignments (i.e., NO jumpings)
you might get a sense for why your wrists are being irritated by these poses.
I've had to work these two alignments a lot (months..) to figure out how to place my
hands properly, and the result has been that a sore wrist has healed.
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| At one point I had the same problem with wrists. My teacher had me use weights (3 or 5 pounds will do) instead. You hold the weights in your hands and instead of using your wrists, you are using your whole hand. You could also try to use the fists without the weights. |
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| Whew...I have a lot of deprogramming yet to go through...
Brother Bay Guy wrote: "The Bikram people (from whom you probably first heard the name) have a lot of the Sanskrit wrong." |
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| Smartblonde: All the things suggested here for healing wrists except mine should be done only after the wrists are healed by following what I wrote. In other words, wrists should NOT be used at all for healing.
shavaasana: shava - corpse, that is dead body (mind does not die until the spiritual realization called nirbeeja samaadhi is reached, and spirit never dies), aasana - pose or a state of being in.
shavaasana - is imitating that you are lying down NOT like, but AS dead body.
sh is pronunced like sh in she, vaa is like va in guvakamoli, sana is like exasparated sun with addtional a at the end.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Try a Neoprine Wrist Strap. I used one for about a year after I hurt my wrist.
Edited by MrD 2005-01-25 1:14 AM
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| This from a yogi dealing with a wrist injury...
An important alignment detail that hasn't been mentioned is bearing the weight toward the front of the palm rather than at the base of the palm. In Adho Mukha Svanasana (down dog) make a concious effort to press into the mat at the base of the fingers. This will help reduce stress on the wrist considerably. A neoprene strap can help although it's no substiitute for proper alignment. I've found the strap is better used at night while sleeping as I have a tendancy to flex my wrists when I curl up. The strap helps keep my wrist in a neutral position, speeding recovery. As stated above, avoid wrist involvement until you are well healed. In the future, if you find you have lingering issues, modify poses that require an extended wrist by going up on the knuckles of your balled fist rather than your flat palm...as in say Bidalasana (cat pose), Phalahakasana (plank pose), or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (up dog). This will keep the wrist in a neutral position and reduce the risk of re-injury.
Kevin |
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| Bruce - 2005-01-25 1:02 AM
My Dutch Ashtanga teacher pronounces corpse pose "Shavasana" as well. I figured it was simply the German influence like "shtrassa" vice "strassa" meaning "street" in English. Perhaps Brother Neel or Stefan can enlighten us.
Bruce, pronouncing the s a bit different from english, we certainly don't say shtrassa in german though. Our s is just a little bit softer, similar to your z. But true, the dutchies tend to glitch into the sh.
As for the savasana, in the few books I have about yoga it's also only written with a single s.
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Poses to help injured wrists
