I was asked this question recently and thought perhaps some of you wondered the same. The hands are designed for dexterity, not really weight bearing like the feet are. The benifits of doing some weight bearing on the hands are many. For one it’s good for your bones, building and helping maintain bone density. Second it’s great for the mucsles of your arms, shoulders and back. Last of all it’s good for your core when you pull your stomach into your back.

The problem is that when you’re doing floor exercises and bearing weight on your hands the hands are cranked at an extreme angle and for many of us this causes pain or discomfort. There are several reasons for this. First your tendons that cross the wrist are fully stretched out and the added weight of supporting your body can lead to tendonitis. Another reason you might feel pain, particularly at the base of your thumb where it attaches to the wrist, could be arthritis developing in your basal thumb joint. This joint is the first place women generally develop arthritis and when you add body weight you’ll feel the discomfort more. Maybe you’ve been experiencing some numbness or tingling in your hands and fingers. You’re likely developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. When you bear weight on your hands the median nerve that crosses the wrist gets compressed, further aggravating your symptoms. And lastly, you may just have weak wrists and so the muscles don’t fully engage to support you when your bearing weight, often causing hyperexetenion in your wrist joint and straining the tendons and ligaments.

So is weight bearing really worth it? If you can recognize the problem and treat it according, yes it really is worth it! If you’ve got pain and maybe one of the above syndromes then you should try Wrist Assured Gloves (WAGs) if you haven’t already. They’re designed with an ergonomic, supportive and patented gel pad that puts the hand and wrist at the optimal angle to lessen the stress and avoid trauma. The gel pad has a V-cutout where the Median nerve crosses the wrist so there’s no pressure on it. It’s wedge shaped so your wrist doesn’t go into extreme extension which protects the tendons and ligaments. And the pad is a bit softer than the floor so if you have basal joint arthritis it feels so much better. So slip on a pair and feel the difference they make in your workout…And keep doing that weight bearing exercise. It’s good for you!