When thumbs go rogue

Ever wake up feeling like your body played a game of 'pin the pain on the random body part' while you slept? 🤔

Bodies are like mischievous little gremlins sometimes, causing all sorts of unexpected aches and discomfort. One morning you're feeling like a well-oiled machine, and the next, you've got a thumb that's staging a protest.

Body’s are weird, right?

Like, majestic, necessary, and strange.

As my wise mentor once said, we're all just meat wads on this dirt ball, trying to make sense of it all! 🤷‍♀️

That’s how I felt this week when I woke up with my hand hurting. 

It wasn’t even the whole hand. It was my thumb knuckle down to my wrist. The other four fingers were fine, but my thumb was throbbing.

This week, my rebellious thumb decided to take center stage, refusing to grip or bear weight without causing me a world of hurt. But hey, I'm nothing if not adaptable!

Introducing this week's episode of Baptiste Power Vinyasa Flow Yoga with Kari: Hand's Free Yoga! This collection of YouTube yoga practices is designed for all of life's weird and unpredictable moments, giving you a little bit of something for everything.

One thing I’ve stopped teaching in the last year is to “stack your shoulder over your wrist.”

This is something you commonly hear taught in yoga classes. When you stack your shoulder over your wrist, your wrist is at a full 90 degree angle, and that’s a ton of pressure on the wrist joint.

If you place your hands just a bit in front of your shoulders, it removes some of this pressure. For me, that feels a lot better. Next time you’re in a plank or table top position, see how that feels for you.

Anyway, the pain in my thumb went away after like three days, but they were a miserable three days. I struggled to unzip anything, and couldn’t get a grip if my life depended on it.

There’s a metaphor in there somewhere. 😂

I hope you find this practice useful. Even if your hand isn’t hurting, you can give it a try and see how it feels for you. It’s good to know what’s possible before we need it so we can create variety when we do need it.

This 15 minute practice requires zero planking or down dogging. Those poses can place a lot of pressure in the wrists and hands.

This week’s episode:

If you’re curious about taking a longer class with me, I teach several live classes every week.

Classes are recorded and put into a library. So, if live classes aren't your thing, you can take the class anytime you like.

If you ever wake up with any phantom pains and need some help with how you can adjust your yoga practice accordingly, feel free to message me anytime.

I would love to help you troubleshoot your body.

Afterall, we’re just meat wads on the dirt ball trying to get a grip, right? 😂

I’m here if you need me. Feel free to reach out anytime.

With love,

~Kari