This post is for instrumentalists or anyone with sensitive wrists who are looking for ways to build strength without compromising suppleness and fluidity of the hands/wrists and arms/shoulders.

Balasana – Child’s Pose – is typically considered a restorative pose. But with a simple hand variation, this became the place where I began to find elongation and strengthening on a more subtle level, thanks to my first and foremost teacher, Paulo Hudson.

The approach is simple. When in Balasana, tent onto the fingertips (think Spiderman hands). Reach the fingertips into the ground to draw the ground towards you. The fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, triceps, shoulders, latissimus dorsi (lats) are all engaged. Breathe into the lengthening of the sides of the body, all while the head and neck remain at rest, and the hips melt with each exhale.