Situations when this may occur:

• Hypermobility - Joints that move beyond the normal range of motion, potentially leading to joint instability and increased risk of injury.
• Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) often includes hypermobility as a symptom.

Issues:

The primary issue here is that you cannot rely on a person’s body to limit their movement or range of motion the way you would in other circumstances. They may be able to make themselves move in a way that causes many standard ties to no longer be stable, allowing them to escape. They may be able to shrug out of a box tie, for example. … But moving beyond the normal ranges of motion increases the risk of injury, even when the person is moving like that under their own muscle power.

Due to this, it can be tempting to try to tie them tighter. But tighter isn’t the answer because (1) the issue is the extended range of motion, and tightening things often doesn’t address that, and (2) making rope too tight brings higher risk of compression injuries, etc.

Ways to mitigate:

• The rigger must limit the range of motion to safe ranges using rope or other gear rather than relying on the limitations of the body. (Use more rope and attach it to more anchor points!)
• This is perhaps best explained with an example: I knew someone that was so flexible that even with their elbows and wrist tied tightly together behind their back, they were able to reach around their body and smoke a cigarette! But doing so put them at severe risk of dislocating their shoulder (which they had done to themselves several times over the course of their life). To keep such a person controlled and away from the danger zones, their partner routinely not only tied their wrists together, but also to something else behind their back to keep them anchored in place. For example, tying their wrists to the back of a waist harness,to their ankles (hog tie), or to a spreader bar. In this way the rigger was able to limit this person to a safer range of motion.
• Also, consider the ties you use and the order that you tie things. Some ties require the bottom to hold a joint in a position that may be prone to hyperextension, dislocation, or pain while the Top is tying something else. (Classic hog ties are a good example of this; the shoulders are back and not supported for an extended period of time while the Top ties the ankles.) Choose ties that provide better joint support, and plan your order of tying so as to minimize the amount of time that sensitive joints are placed into higher-risk positions without support.
• For example, instead of using a Classic Hog Tie (which places all the strain on the shoulder joints), take a different approach:
• First tie your partner’s arms with a supportive box tie (e.g. Gote Shibari) or a supportive armbinder (e.g. Heavy Elbow Harness). Both of these options have straps of rope holding the upper arms and shoulders firmly against the torso, providing extra support.
• Then tie the legs however you wish. Perhaps with a simple Double Column at the ankles or separately with a Frog Tie.
• Then instead of connecting the legs to the wrists, connect them to straps of the chest harness.
• You can see an example of this in the second section of the Accessible Hog Tie tutorial where we show an example using the Heavy Elbow Harness and a Frog Tie.