Pin it! How to strengthen your hands in the yoga practice.
If you're looking to take your yoga practice a little deeper, consider what you do with your hands. For an entire practice, bring your focus to how your hands move. Then consider making this small change and see if you notice a difference.
Think of the arm as if it were a straw. Place the tips of your fingers on the floor when you're in poses like extended side angle , standing split, and cobra variation (above). Instead of bearing weight in the hand and pushing down into the ground, imagine that your fingertips are the opening of a straw and there's a suction running up through the palm and into the arm. I know that's a lot to imagine when holding a challenging pose, but you'll notice that the simple change will ignite the tiny muscles in the hands, strengthen the muscles in the forearms, and essentially bring an entirely new dimension into the practice. Developing the small muscles in the hands and strengthening the forearms will take poses like crow, where the full surface of the hand must be on the ground, to new heights.