THE HUMAN HAND WAS THE BLUEPRINT FOR PUSHRS.
PUSHRS began with the anatomy of the human hand. Rather than accepting a palm-flat, deeply extended wrist as the default for weight-bearing exercise, its natural architecture became the starting point for the design.
For more than 25 years, Christi Lane has studied bodies in motion, teaching, training and examining movement through the lens of anatomy, biomechanics and exercise science. One problem persisted across disciplines and fitness levels: even strong, highly conditioned people shaking out painful wrists during planks, push-ups and other weight-bearing exercises. The usual advice? Strengthen your wrists. Modify the exercise. Add padding. Put your hands on a block.
In developing PUSHRS, Christi studied the anatomy of the hand and wrist and observed how other primates naturally position their hands when bearing bodyweight. One feature stood out: during knuckle-supported weight bearing, the metacarpals remain much more closely aligned with the radius and ulna of the forearm, rather than loading the wrist in the extreme extension created by a palm-flat position.
That observation became part of the biomechanical thinking behind PUSHRS: don’t simply cushion or elevate the same position; change the alignment.
Every curve and angle of PUSHRS is intentional, designed to transfer load through the hand, support its natural arches and bring the wrist closer to a neutral position. It’s also why one organic form can work across a wide range of hand sizes. Hands vary in size and proportion, but the fundamental anatomical relationships that informed the design remain consistent. PUSHRS uses those anatomical relationships, rather than a predetermined handprint, to accommodate a wide range of hand sizes.
The hand has natural longitudinal and transverse arches. PUSHRS is designed to maintain those arches rather than flatten them, allowing the muscles of the hand and forearm to remain active during weight-bearing movement. The fingers are intentionally left unrestricted, free to rest wherever they feel natural and comfortable for the individual hand and the activity. A smaller hand may settle differently than a larger one; a yoga practitioner may prefer the fingers spread wide. The only positional guide built into PUSHRS is for the thumb. That’s where functional strength comes from: using the body’s natural architecture, not working against it.
That freedom is part of the design. Rather than forcing different hands into a predetermined, man-made approximation of a handprint, PUSHRS allows each hand to find its own position while the carefully designed curves and angles of the dome establish the relationship between the hand, wrist and forearm.
There’s a reason arches and curves appear throughout the human body. Structure matters when forces have to travel through it. Your foot has an arch. Your hand has arches too. PUSHRS uses a curved, three-dimensional surface to work with that natural architecture rather than forcing it to conform to a flat block.
PUSHRS wasn’t originally created as a product. Christi first shaped them by hand from modeling clay and foam for a few of her own clients who struggled with wrist discomfort during weight-bearing exercises. They worked, other clients wanted them, and eventually those clients encouraged Christi to turn what she had made for them into something other people could use.
From there, PUSHRS took on a life of their own. Trainers, physical therapists, yoga professionals and athletes found their own uses for PUSHRS, from planks and push-ups to yoga, suspension training, balance work and hand-supported exercises.
That's exactly what a good piece of equipment should do: work with the body instead of asking the body to work around the equipment.
PUSHRS
Designed around anatomy. Built for movement.