Is it OK to use a hand towel to help with the grips?

My question has to do with using or not using a towel to help hold your poses with your hands. For example in wind removing pose, standing head to knee, tree pose and standing bow pose, I often lose my grip due to the constant sweat. This causes great frustration for me. The teachers in my studio tell us not to use the towels to help with grip because we need to build strength and we one day will be able to hold on through the sweat. I find that this is just not happening for me and the result is that I am missing the full benefit of the poses. What do you suggest? Are they correct in saying this and therefore I need to be patient to gain that strength?

Best Regards,
Tanya
Posted by Tanya on 01/24 at 12:58 PM

Hey Tanya

Oh boy! Well you know, they are right! I am guilty though of using a towel when I first started my practice. It was the thing to do in the studio I went to. Everybody did it. Then one day I was told not to and I persisted. The only pose where it is always your choice is Rabbit pose, use it or not, just make sure you don’t slip.

For me, I found the only pose where I went through pain and grip slippage was actually Standing Bow. I found that while I was building the strength in my fingers that my shin was hurting at the site of the grip and so were my fingers, in their very poor effort at holding on! However through that difficulty I learned to build strength. But only after I let go of the hand towels.

Now here’s something you might be interested in…

When I opened my studio I never said to anyone that they couldn’t use a hand towel. The thing was, that I never said that they could use one either. So as a consequence no one EVER thought of using one. They just worked their way through it all. True story.

Sooner or later you are just going to have to let it go! You decide, but I think, sooner better than later.

Warm regards from someone who has been there and thought the same thing
Gabrielle 🙂