Guest guest Posted May 23, 2000 Report Share Posted May 23, 2000 If you have wrist pain from astanga practice, one thing to look at might be your chatauranga dandasana.<br><br>Specifically: where do you put your hands in relation to your upper body?<br><br>It's fairly common to see people putting their hands under their shoulders before lifting up into urdhva muhka svanasana, particularly if they're limited in upper body strength and backbending flexibility.<br><br>The classical position for the hands isn't so high up. As you can see from pictures of guruji or advanced students in CD, the hands are positioned much nearer the waist.<br><br>While at first it's considerably more difficult to work from this low hand position, it's much easier on the wrists.<br><br>Why? Because from the correct, near-the-waist hand position, one's weight is evenly distributed on the whole palm in upward dog. However, the hands up by the shoulders position results in an upward dog that puts most of one's weight on the *heel* of the palm.<br><br>Many repetitions of putting so much weight on the heel of the palm will surely lead to problems with the wrist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 23, 2000 Report Share Posted May 23, 2000 Trayam,<br><br>Thank you for your interesting comment about correct position in chaturanga dadasana. Others have written to me to say that I am probably putting too much pressure on the base of the thumb/heel of the palm, but I have had trouble figuring out how to avoid this, try as I might to root my index fingers. Your explanation hits the nail on the head -- YES, I have been keeping my hands under my shoulders in classic push-up position. <br><br>I wonder if you know where I can find a picture of Guruji or advanced students in CD? The teacher I learned from seems to keep his hands closer to his shoulders . . . <br><br>I am guessing that as your lower into CD, you have to pull your body over your hands in order to keep them in the low position. Is this correct? I'll give it a try in my practice this week and see what happens!<br><br>Thanks again to all for so much assistance.<br><br>Best,<br>Robyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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