Your hands can only load what your spine allows
From Mindfulness, Movement, and Exercise by Jenn Pilotti
May 25, 2026 · 2 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the relationship between hand balancing and spinal health, emphasizing a specific drill to improve awareness of spine movement.
Most people think of hand balancing — or even just pressing into a surface — as a hand and shoulder problem. It isn’t. It’s a spine problem. This two-minute wall drill will show you what I mean. You’ll start with your pinky finger edges against the wall, ribs dropped toward the floor, and then slowly draw your ribs up toward the ceiling. As you do, notice when your hands start to take weight. That moment — when the load arrives in your palms — is entirely determined by what your spine is doing, not by how hard you’re gripping or how much you’re trying. It’s a small thing to feel, and then you can’t unfeel it. This is useful if you sit at a desk for long hours and have lost a sense of what your thoracic spine is actually doing. It’s equally useful if you do any kind of hand balancing, yoga, or pressing work, and you’ve been trying to solve a hand or wrist problem that keeps not getting solved. The drill is in the video below. All you need is a wall. This is one thread in a much larger idea I explore in Spinal Intelligence — the book is out now, and you can find it on Amazon or at jennpilotti.com. Questions or observations after you try it? Drop them in the comments — I read…
People in this episode
Host: Jenn Pilotti
Topics covered
- hand balancing
- spine health
- movement
- exercise
- yoga
- desk posture
Keywords
- hand balancing
- spine
- exercise drill
- yoga
- thoracic spine
- movement awareness
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Amazon, jennpilotti.com
Books & works: Spinal Intelligence
More episodes of Mindfulness, Movement, and Exercise
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- The Physics of the Deadlift (And Why Your Hands Matter More Than You Think) · May 31, 2026 · 5 min
- Mindfulness, Movement, and Exercise: Is Pilates Strength Training? Let the thing be the thing. · May 17, 2026 · 6 min
- Your Spine Controls Your Hands (A Wall Exercise That Makes This Obvious) · May 12, 2026 · 2 min
- The posture advice you've been given is probably wrong · April 29, 2026 · 6 min
- Beyond the Back Squat: Three Ways to Load a Squat That Feel Better in Your Body · April 18, 2026 · 4 min
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