Explore anatomical restrictions and techniques. Before diving into practice, we strongly recommend reviewing these guidelines.
Essential Safety Precautions
- Restriction techniques carry inherent risks of injury. Safety and prudence are NOT optional luxuries.
- The restriction techniques we teach should NEVER cause pain. If it hurts, you're doing it wrong. The principle of anatomical restriction is founded on muscle activation, which is incompatible with pain.
- This is neither a fight nor a punishment. The goal isn't to dominate, conquer, or subdue—simply to limit movement.
- Adapting techniques to each individual body is non-negotiable. This requires understanding certain anatomical fundamentals.
- Don't blindly mimic what you see in videos, here or elsewhere. That approach simply doesn't work.
- Remember, we're practicing techniques intended for an erotic context. Consider whether everything you're doing would translate appropriately to such a situation and whether it would be satisfying.
This is Fundamental
Don't try to copy the reactions you see in tutorials, demonstrations, or performances.
Don't expect to achieve what appears to be happening to others. You are not the people in those videos or on that stage.
And even if you were, don't expect to replicate the same experience twice.
The goal is to learn how to listen to and understand both the body and the desire—of both the person binding and the person being bound.
Anatomical restriction is built by keeping joints within their active dynamic range.
Never, ever, should we push them into their passive range.
When this happens, the muscles associated with that joint will stop supporting the applied forces, transferring the load first to tendons and then to ligaments, creating a significant risk of injury.
Progressive Restriction
Don't attempt to apply an "elaborate and complete" restriction all at once. Restriction isn't the destination—it's the journey.
Savor each step along the way. Pausing to listen isn't optional—we're engaged in a dialogue.
So what's the real objective?
To explore our desires and know ourselves better (both as individuals and as two people interacting together) so we can fulfill those desires.
Process
Plan
What do we want to achieve? How can we do it? In what manner? Before taking any step, we must think through and clarify our intention, how to carry it out, and consider possible alternatives, objections, or complications that might arise.
Think both abstractly and personally. It won't be the same with one person as with another, or on one day versus another. Having clear ideas is essential for being able to adapt.
Visualize
The second step is to visualize what we're going to do. Not fantasize—visualize.
Execute
After completing the previous steps, we put our plan into action. Reality will likely clash with our idealized visualization.
This is where the learning begins—facing and resolving each situation.
It's highly recommended to apply this procedure to each step and movement.
In learning shibari, it's necessary to break down each technique into its "steps" and practice each one individually, gradually. Progress as you master each previous step.
Practice Guidelines
Distinguish between practice for study purposes and erotic play.
Practice requires both people to be fully conscious. The bound person must be aware of their body, while the person binding verifies that the technique fulfills its function.
Clear, concise mutual feedback is fundamental for learning and improving.
Reminder: RESTRICTION DOESN'T HURT. If it hurts, you're doing it wrong. Restriction does involve physical stress, as muscles remain active. Pay attention to this—each person's physical condition will determine the effect and duration of that activation.
Precautions
As we progress through the course, the techniques become more complex.
Supervision and Adaptation
The supporting texts published on the online platform and the videos are study and review materials.
We offer detailed, personalized explanations adapted to you during online classes and consultations, where we can observe how you're doing, identify problems, and offer solutions.
Instructor supervision ensures techniques are performed correctly and safely. More advanced movements require precision and control, and typically real-time corrections and technical adjustments to adapt to each person's circumstances and anatomy.
Remember: Safety and proper execution of techniques are absolute priorities.
Advancing without adequate preparation or instructor guidance can result in ineffective practice or even injuries.
Warnings
- Practicing anatomical restrictions is an intense physical exercise. Practice according to your capabilities—or more precisely, according to the capabilities of the person with less strength or physical conditioning.
- We must always adapt and know how to bring the technique into the reality we're facing.
- Try to practice in a spacious area. Be careful with furniture, walls, doors, and other objects in your practice space. If you don't have an appropriate space, you can go to a park, beach, etc.
Tips and Recommendations
- Don't expect to master a technique in a day or even a month—it takes time to both understand and assimilate it.
- Being persistent and mindful in your practice will significantly improve your shibari in less time than you imagine. But there are no magic solutions guaranteeing results in a short period.
- To work on a technique, you must have practiced the previous exercises and understand them. And no, don't try to do the exercises from one lesson right after doing those from the previous lesson for the first time.
- Work on each exercise for a few weeks, until you understand it and your body develops muscle memory. Your brain needs to understand what you're asking your body to do. Only then can you move on to the next exercise.
- A valid tip for all course exercises: Repetitions in sets of 5. Five repetitions in one direction, pause, five repetitions in the other direction (or with the other hand, etc.), then rest.
- Skills won't be better fixed by repeating an exercise 54 times in a row. It's better to do 1 set of 5 each day consistently than 10 sets once and not work on that exercise again for several months.
- Space out your practice, leaving at least 72 hours between sessions. The brain needs time to process and integrate new knowledge, even if it's learning what not to do.
Patience
Practicing the technique, especially the first few times, can be very fatiguing for the bound person and frustrating for the person binding.
Stay calm, take it step by step, don't attempt a high number of repetitions.
It's important to understand the biomechanical principles, as this is the only way to apply the technique safely and adapt it to all body types.
Note that as you practice, the dynamic range will increase. Adaptation is key.
Important Concepts
Connect
Connecting isn't something magical that happens through the intervention of love or the holy spirit.
Your approach, attitude, confidence, firmness or gentleness in movements, analysis of the other person, honesty, and clear intention will make "connecting" easier.
All of this requires effort from the person binding, putting all their focus on the bound person, placing them before their ego.
Maintain
Once physical contact is established between the person binding and the person bound, it must be maintained until the end of the session, either with hands, other body parts, or with rope.
Link
We use the term "link" rather than "bond" to refer to creating a communication pathway between two people that goes from one to the other and back. A cycle that repeats continuously throughout the session.
Bonds, in the emotional realm, are not compatible with the active exploration of erotic desire.
This link is also established at a physical level, creating a "kinetic circuit" between both people, sharing their GRF (Ground Reaction Force).
Listen
A key part of communication, especially in conversation, is listening.
The person binding must be attentive to how the bound person reacts to each action.
Follow
In the sense that once you listen, you must continue the conversation, maintain its thread, adapt actions to the response received.
Movements should also maintain that linearity. A direction, an intensity (increasing or decreasing, but linear)—the message must be clear, and with each "response," the dialogue should continue.
Manage
At all times, the person binding should manage the session, not imposing, not dominating, but modulating the emotional expression of the bound person.
Stimulate
In an erotic encounter, there's no place for cold, hesitant, or unnecessary movements. Stimulation (always indirect) is key in management.
Suggest
Throughout the course, we'll refer to this concept as inducing or initiating movement. It's a form of management and listening.
Suggesting an action non-explicitly and waiting for the response before taking the next step.
Escalate and De-escalate
Adapting to the moment, to guide it toward the next.
When working on technique, it's important to identify and avoid its vices or defects, which are:
- Unilaterality—manipulating the bound person without listening to or attending to their desire or anatomy.
- Using physical force as language and management tool.
- Loss of contact or control over the mobility and conduct of the bound person.
- And resistance to restriction by the bound person, which is a transposition of unilaterality from the bound party.
Risks
The risk of anatomical restriction, especially if we're not martial arts experts, is that we can cause severe injuries.
These injuries don't usually manifest at the moment of practice. You'd need to be really brutal for that to happen. Possibly, poor technique might not even cause discomfort to the bound person at the time.
But damage to soft tissues will be occurring nonetheless. We're talking about tendons, ligaments, and other structures associated with joints.
The problem with this "invisible" damage is that it's cumulative. Our body acts like a smartphone battery here—it has a memory effect.
When we're young or in great physical condition, these damages can gradually recover. But with age or certain physical conditions, recovery becomes less significant, so we'll accumulate damage.
Over time, these damages suffered from practicing shibari without understanding, combined with others acquired in other life activities, will eventually manifest as prolapses, incontinence, falls and fractures, or chronic pain and limitations in our daily mobility.
Since we believe there's no reason to endanger a person's wellbeing and health in exchange for an erotic game, we insist on proper execution of techniques.
Carefully
In this course lesson, we address restrictions and bindings in the upper body, especially bringing arms behind the back.
Here are some anatomical keys to monitor:
- Shoulder opening: Shoulders should "open" backward. If they remain "closed" (forward), when the body receives forces, it won't be able to recruit appropriate muscles to manage them and will absorb them with the joints.
- Flat scapulae: The shoulder blades should remain flat against the ribcage. If not, the stability of the shoulder joints will be compromised.
- Aligned ribs: The ribs should not protrude forward (from the hip); otherwise, the bound person won't be able to properly activate their core, resulting in deactivation of the pelvic floor.
- Neutral pelvis: The pelvis should maintain a neutral alignment, without arching in the lumbar region. A pelvis in neutral position ensures forces are properly distributed, avoiding unnecessary loads on areas like the lumbar or cervical spine.
Tension and Constant Supervision
Through careful observation and constant correction, we can ensure safe and effective practice, optimizing muscle activation and joint stability in every movement.
The person binding must maintain constant tension in intensity and direction. The direction can be slightly adjusted, but it must be firm from the beginning.
Continuously supervise that the bound person's body isn't making unwanted compensations. If compensations are detected, it's necessary to step back and better adjust the activation and movements.
Avoid Inappropriate Postures
Don't aim for the "box" forms often seen in some photos, with elbows bent.
In most cases, Western people cannot maintain activation and joint stability in these positions due to structural and mobility differences.
Final Recommendations
If you notice any muscle strain or pain appears, don't persist—stop. Most likely there's an error in execution, and continuing would risk causing injuries.
Think of these exercises as a dance between the person binding and the person being bound. It's not about helping or opposing, but accompanying each other.
Once you understand how a simple technique works and find a way to incorporate it into your interactions, it's just a matter of adding more techniques until you build a complete scene. But one at a time and always on safe ground.
Remember: safety is not an option. It's a requirement.
If you have questions, you can ask us using the means we've made available to you.