I have found a quite good and elegant way of tying my upper arm without it being too tight and still fairly restrictive. I like it and use it almost every time because if well made, it's still confortable.
I'll try to explain and make some drawing.
You'll need a 12 meter rope (for me).
1) make a 4 loop coil centered on the rope whose length suits you for your elbows. This will be secured by a simple knot and. (For me, I make the total loop a little less than 3m and then make a 4 loop with it. When I put my arm in it, I found that having the knot outside is better (not against my back) but do as you please.
2) With the 2 running thread I go below my (left) shoulder (between the arm and the body) -> front of left body -> behind neck -> from of right body -> below right shoulder -> under the elbow coil (This prevents early elbow rope drop)
3) continue with a loop outside around of the body and on the back, go again under the elbow coil. (so this loop is pressing the arm against the back)
4) continue between the left arm and the back, go under the body loop (step 3) and go up to the right shoulder/neck loop (step 2) -> going through get back to the left shoulder/neck loop (step 2) -> and then continue between the right arm and back. (Prevents the body loop from sliding down)
5) the trick here is to go through the thread going from the elbow knot to the shoulder/neck loop (Prevents the elbow rope to turn around). Then, go outside (this is where a place a little rope with a single ring device for either my legs or my wrist loop), up to the neck loop and back again. This is doable by passing the rope under the neck loop on front of the body, then sliding it behind (pulling with the opposite hand). (Prevents the back from going down, secure a single ring device and tightens things up)
6) the way to finish it depend on how tight you made step 2-3-4 and the length you have left. I usually separate the two threads here, go under every rope between arm and back (on thread on the left, one on the right) and make a knot in front of my body. But if well tighten, I can still go back behind my back and make the knot there so I don't lie on my front with a knot pushing on my chest. Note : the more you tighten these last 2 steps, the less you'll have nerve pressure because it will bring the elbow loop up)
whole set with colours for the steps :
The have the whole harness tight, it's important to verify at step 2, 3 and 4 than your loops are well tightened... (but not too much, it will always loosen a bit while making the next step anyway...)
Alternative : The simple ring device's rope loop could also be sliced on the neck loop but I found 2 drawbacks for it :
- If you make a strict hogtied, then you will arch your back much more.
- It tightens the rope less. (If used on the proposed configuration, it tightens the whole harness and get the elbow loop up on so you'll have much less nerve pressure 😉 )
NOTE : The described technique has NO way out if you use a simple ring device to cinch a loop soon your wrist!
