Help! My Wrists Hurt in a Bridge

Help! My Wrists Hurt in a Bridge

If you’re new to working on bridges (aka “full wheel" pose”), you may experience some discomfort in your wrists since they’re not used to supporting your body weight in such a flexed position. Thankfully there are plenty of adjustments you can make to make your bridges more wrist-friendly in the short term while you work on your wrist strength & flexibility in the long-term (also continuing to work on your back and shoulder flexibility will help your wrists too - more on that later!).

Obvious disclaimer: stretching and flexibility training should never hurt. The suggestions below are “quick” modifications that often help folks who have tight shoulders that cause wrists to be compressed in a bridge. If you still have pain after trying some of these, talk to your doctor (or better yet, a physical therapist)!

Tactic #1: Take Your Wrists Out of the Equation

Work on Your Headstand Bridge

A “headstand bridge” is a great bridge variation for beginners because you get to work on your back flexibility without having to a) press up your whole body weight, or b) have the shoulder and wrist flexibility required for a full bridge. I even use variations of headstand bridges with my intermediate contortion students because it’s an easier base for a lot of drills than a regular full bridge.

1. Start lying on your back on the floor, with knees bent, feet planted about hip width apart near your butt

2. Bend your elbows and place your fingers up beside your forehead on the floor, getting ready to start to press up to a bridge. The closer you bring your fingers towards your shoulders, the more muscle-y you have to be to press up, so starting with your finger tips closer to the top of your head (farther from your shoulders) will make this a little easier.

3. Press down into your palms and feet, starting to lift your hips, back, shoulders, and head off of the floor. Drop your head so the crown of your head is resting on the floor - this is your headstand bridge position. Even though you can now rest weight into your head/neck, you should still try to keep most of your weight in your hands and feet. And to make sure you are working on your “strong” and not “floppy” backbend, engage your abs (suck your belly button in toward your spine) and squeeze your glutes to keep your hips lifted and take some of the pressure out of your low back.

4. Hold for 5-15 seconds, then press your hands into the floor to lift your head a smidge, tuck your chin to your chest, and lower back down.

Tactic #2: Work in a Friendlier Wrist Angle

Use Blocks Against the Wall

This is my favorite way to modify a bridge for beginners because it often leads to instant relief for the wrists - but the rest of the pose stays “the same.”

1. Lean two yoga blocks against the wall (these will be for your hands)

2. Starting with your hands on the floor just under/next to your wall blocks, push up into your bridge

3. Walk one hand at a time onto your wall blocks, and enjoy the wrist relief!

4. Walk hands back to the floor before tucking your chin toward your chest and melting back down out of your bridge

Personally, I prefer to start with my hands on the floor, press up, and then walk my hands onto the blocks - there’s less of a chance of the blocks slipping or something whacky going on, and it’s a little easier for me to press up on a flat surface.

Elevate Your Feet

Note: this tactic requires a bit more flexibility and strength than using blocks under your hands - so it’s only recommended for people who have good shoulder flexibility and a lot of upper body strength. The goal of this modification is to help elevate your feet and hips to “stack” your shoulders over your wrists in a bridge, so that you have something more like a 90 degree angle between your forearm and your palm (as opposed to a much more acute angle). Long-term you can achieve this by working on more shoulder and upper back flexibility, but short-term, you can use a prop to help!

1. Find a stable platform you can walk your feet onto into your bridge - this could be a sturdy chair, coffee table, folded panel mat, etc. The taller the platform, the higher it can lift your hips to help shift your shoulders to stack over your wrists, but it also takes more strength/flexibility to be able to walk your feet up that high in the first place, so it may take some trial and error to find a good surface for you

2. Start lying on your back, about to push up into your bridge, with your feet close/next to your platform. (It will be easier/safer to start with feet on the floor vs. starting with feet elevated).

3. Press up into your bridge, walk one foot at a time onto your platform. Take a moment to confirm you feel stable and confident you can continue supporting your weight in your arms, then walk your hands a bit closer to your platform, trying to walk your hands so that they end up right underneath your shoulders

4. When you are ready to come down, walk your hands back out farther away from your platform, bring your feet back to the floor one at a time, then slowly lower back down to the floor

Use Paralellettes, Dumbbells, or Your Fists

Note: this technique also requires a certain amount of shoulder flexibility to be comfortable, if you don’t currently have a bridge where your shoulders are close to being stacked over your wrists, I’d suggest you try a different modification.

Using paralellettes, dumbbells, or your fists can help you keep your wrists “vertical” in your bridge, as opposed to being smooshed to a 90-degree bend. The catch is it may feel a little trickier to balance (since you don’t have the full length of your palm and fingers to use to press against the floor), so be cautious.

Just like the other modifications listed above, I suggest pressing up into your bridge with your palms flat on the ground first, then walking them onto your paralellettes (or making fists).

Tactic #3: Condition!

Improve Your Wrist Flexibility & Strength

Your wrists - just like your hip flexors, back and shoulders (cough especially shoulders cough) - are something you’ll need to stretch and strengthen to support a happy bridge.

Make sure your wrists (just like the rest of you) are warmed up before you start your bridge work: do some wrist circles in the air, wrist circles on the floor, etc. Once your wrists have gone through some warm up you can do a couple of rounds of conditioning exercises. Read more: Wrist Warm Up for Bridges.