The Yoga Strap

A strap is a longer arm. Every use follows from that.

The moment your arms are the limiting factor rather than the thing being trained, a strap belongs there — because reaching for something you cannot reach forces the spine to round and the shoulders to haul, and both of those defeat the pose you were trying to do.

Eight uses, from the obvious to the ones you have probably not seen.

1. Seated forward fold

The standard use, and still the one that produces the biggest single improvement in most people's practice.

Loop the strap around the soles of both feet, hold one end in each hand, and sit up tall first. Now fold from the hip with the spine long, letting the strap take the length you do not have. Keep the elbows bent and the shoulders down; do not pull yourself forward with the arms.

What this changes: the fold happens at the hip joint instead of the middle of the back. If you have been doing this pose for a year with no change, this is almost certainly why.

2. Reclining hamstring stretch

Lie on your back. Strap around the arch of one foot, that leg extended towards the ceiling, other leg either bent with the foot on the floor or extended along the ground.

This is the safest and most productive hamstring position there is, because the lower back is supported by the floor and cannot round to cheat. Hold two to three minutes per side. It will do more for your forward folds than the forward folds will.

Take the strap in the opposite hand and let the leg cross the body for a supine twist; take it in the same hand and open the leg out to the side for the inner thigh.

3. Shoulder opener behind the back

Hold the strap behind you with both hands, palms facing back, hands as close together as you can manage. Straighten the arms and lift the hands away from the body.

Start wider than you think you need. The chest opens, the front of the shoulders lengthens, and unlike clasping the hands, you can adjust the width by centimetres.

4. Overhead shoulder rotation

Hold the strap in front of you with straight arms, wide grip. Keeping the arms straight, take it up and over your head towards your back, then return. Move slowly.

If it will not go over, widen the grip. The width at which you can do this smoothly is an honest measurement of your shoulder rotation, and watching it narrow over months is one of the more satisfying pieces of feedback available.

5. Around the upper arms in shoulderstand and forearm work

Make a loop, shoulder-width, and put it around the upper arms just above the elbows.

In shoulderstand it stops the elbows splaying, which is what makes the pose collapse. In Dolphin and forearm balance preparation it does the same job. This is the fourth kind of prop use — something to push against — and it teaches the position faster than any verbal cue.

6. Around the thighs in bridge or reclining shapes

Loop it around both thighs, just above the knees, at hip width. Now press the thighs outward into the strap.

The knees cannot splay and the outer hips get something to work against. In a supported bridge held for minutes, this is what stops the legs from slowly drifting apart, and it means you can stop thinking about them.

7. Binding a bound pose

In Bound Side Angle, Bound Half Moon, Marichyasana and the rest, the hands are supposed to clasp behind the back. Almost nobody can, and the attempt wrecks the shape.

Hold one end of the strap in each hand and let it span the distance. Work the hands closer together over months. The pose is available immediately and the bind arrives when it arrives.

8. Foot to hand in standing balance

Standing Hand-to-Big-Toe, Dancer's Pose, and anything where a hand is supposed to catch a foot.

The strap lets the standing leg and the spine be correct while the reach is handled separately. In Dancer's especially, the difference between a strap version with a lifted chest and a strapless version with a collapsed one is the difference between doing the pose and pretending to.

What to look for in a strap

Length. Eight feet — about 2.4 metres — covers everything including tall bodies and looped uses. Six feet is workable if you are short. Ten feet is only for teaching.

Material. Cotton webbing over nylon. Cotton holds under tension without stretching and does not slip through the buckle. Nylon is slick, and a strap that creeps under load is worse than no strap.

Buckle. A flat metal slide buckle, D-ring or otherwise, that locks under tension. Plastic clips fail. Cinch buckles that release under load are dangerous in anything where you are hanging weight on them.

Width. Around 2.5 cm. Narrower cuts into the hands and the backs of the thighs; wider is unwieldy.

The habit worth building

Use the strap before you need it, not after you have failed.

Most people reach for one only when a pose is impossible. The more useful practice is to use it in poses you can already do, so the spine stays long and the shoulders stay down while you work. A strap is not a concession to a limitation; it is how you keep the rest of the body correct while one part is at its edge.