Applications

The Shinju style chest harness is a versatile, fundamental tie. It can be used as a comfortable decorative tie, able to be worn under or over clothing for long periods of time. If the shoulder ropes are pulled tight to the bottom wrap, it can compress the breasts. It can be used to anchor the chest to a fixed object, or to anchor other parts of the body to the chest.

However, the most essential reason that this technique is at the very beginning of the Core Rope Curriculum is that it ties together several of the most important building blocks of rope bondage -- reverse tension, half hitches, column ties -- and thus puts in context many of the other techniques composing CRC Level 1.

Arm Position

When tying any chest harness, it's a bad idea for the bottom to raise their arms too high; when the elbows go above the level of the shoulders, it significantly expands the ribcage, which will then cause your tie to be too lose when the arms come down again. I didn't do this in the video because it would have made it harder to shoot clearly, but the position I normally have bottoms assume when I'm putting on chest wraps is to hold their arms out in front of them, parallel to the floor, either in a square (with hands on opposite elbows) or triangle (hands on opposite shoulders).

Video

Written Steps

• Lark's head around upper chest, bight centered on back
• Reverse direction, second wrap underneath first
• Reverse direction through opposing double-bight, and half hitch around both wraps
• Wrap around lower chest, pulling through to create vertical stem in back
• Reverse direction, second wrap around lower chest below first
• Reverse direction through opposing double-bight, and half hitch around both wraps
• Wrap around vertical stem, under top wraps, and pass over one shoulder
• Pass down diagonally over both sets of wraps, then pull up under bottom wraps, coming up on the side of the shoulder you went over
• Pass under the top wraps and over the opposite shoulder
• Pass under the top wraps on one side in back
• Cross over the stem and half-hitch around top wraps on the opposite side