Written by:
Jess Rose
Read time:
11
min
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
The carrying angle is the natural angle between your upper and lower arm bones. It varies from 5-20 degrees between individuals and determines optimal hand placement in weight-bearing poses
Forcing standard 'hands under shoulders' alignment when you have a pronounced carrying angle creates shoulder instability and wrist strain, not because you lack strength but because you're fighting your bone structure
Wider hand placement and adjusted finger direction accommodate carrying angles, often making the difference between struggling in arm balances and finally progressing in them
The carrying angle is a fixed skeletal feature you're born with—it cannot be changed through stretching or strengthening, only accommodated through modified hand placement
The Hidden Anatomical Factor Affecting Your Arm Balances
In nearly every yoga class, you'll hear the same alignment cue: 'Place your hands shoulder-width apart, directly under your shoulders.' Teachers repeat this instruction in Crow Pose, Plank, Downward-Facing Dog, and countless other poses. It sounds simple and universal.
But here's what most teachers don't tell you, and what many teachers don't know: this one-size-fits-all instruction ignores individual anatomical differences. Specifically, it ignores what's called the carrying angle—the natural angle formed where your upper and lower arm bones meet at the elbow.
Many of my yoga students and yoga teachers-in-training report chronic wrist discomfort in weight-bearing poses, especially in arm balances and inversions. Many of these practitioners struggle not because they lack strength or dedication, but because standard hand placement creates misalignment in their unique skeletal structure.
The carrying angle varies significantly between individuals. Research shows it ranges from 5-20 degrees in the general population, with women averaging 13-16 degrees and men averaging 10-15 degrees. This variation—which you're born with and cannot change—determines your optimal hand placement across all yoga poses involving weight on the hands.
Understanding your carrying angle allows you to modify hand placement for better stability, healthier shoulders, elbows and wrists, and actual progress in challenging poses - all due to hand placement that fits your unique carrying angle.
For more than a decade, I practiced yoga with no knowledge of carrying angles, including my own. After years and years of Chaturangas, my elbows started to hurt with no explanation. I would feel a weird pop every time I lowered down from Plank, and it felt like connective tissue was snapping over the bones at my elbow joint.
I asked all of my yoga teachers for help, and no one knew how to help. The general advice was, "Make sure your hands are directly under your shoulders for optimal alignment, and hopefully that helps."
It turns out, that this "optimal alignment" was actually causing my problem. It was only years later that I learned about carrying angles, and figured out that mine was pretty big. My unique arm angles meant that when I followed the standard cue of "hands under shoulders," it created a drastic internal rotation at my shoulders, caused my elbows to splay out, and also meant that keeping my index fingers on the mat in Hasta Bandha was nearly impossible.
Once I realized that I have an XL carrying angle, I changed my hand placement by taking my hands wider than my shoulders and spiraling my fingers outward slightly, and my elbows have been problem-free ever since.
What Is the Carrying Angle?
The carrying angle is the natural angle formed between the humerus (your upper arm bone) and the radius and ulna (your lower arm bones) when you have your arms hanging at your sides with palms facing forward in anatomical position. These upper and lower arm bones meet at the elbow joint, and for most people, they don't form a perfectly straight line. Instead, they create a slight outward angle, meaning your hands splay outwards from your hips to help you avoid bumping your hands into your legs when you walk.
Carrying angle: The lateral angle between upper and lower arm bones at the elbow joint; visible when arms hang naturally at the sides or extend outward; a fixed skeletal feature that varies between individuals.
This angle typically ranges from 5-20 degrees, with significant individual variation. Women average 13-16 degrees while men average 10-15 degrees. Angles above 15 degrees are considered pronounced and typically require hand placement modifications in weight-bearing yoga poses. This anatomical variation affects how your arms naturally hang at your sides.
Carrying angles are quite common, especially among female practitioners, though they occur across all body types. This angle is a fixed skeletal feature. You're born with it and it cannot be changed through stretching, strengthening, or alignment work.
How to Assess Your Carrying Angle
You can identify your carrying angle with one simple test.
Stand in front of a full-length mirror in Mountain Pose with your arms straight down at your sides, palms facing forward. Keep your hands in a straight, continuous line from your lower arms. If your hands naturally angle away from your thighs rather than hanging straight down alongside them, you have a carrying angle. In other words, your upper arm bones will be relatively perpendicular to the floor beneath you. If you have no carrying angle, your lower arms will also be perpendicular to the floor. But if you have a carrying angle, your lower arms will angle out away from your legs so that your lower arms splay outwards rather than straight down.
The more pronounced your carrying angle, the more your hands will angle away from your body's centerline when your arms are extended.
How Carrying Angle Affects Yoga Alignment
When someone with a carrying angle places their hands directly underneath their shoulders in weight-bearing poses, their arm bones aren't in optimal alignment. The angle at the elbow creates a structural mismatch. It's like trying to set up a ladder against a wall when the ladder's legs are angled outward. You can force it straight, but it's unstable and fighting its natural structure. Just as the angled ladder legs need wider placement at the base to be stable, your arm bones need wider hand placement to stack efficiently when you have a carrying angle.
This misalignment makes it nearly impossible to properly engage hasta bandha and keep the index finger knuckles grounded, regardless of how much effort you apply to hand engagement. Hasta bandha: Sanskrit term meaning 'hand lock'; the active engagement of hands in weight-bearing poses, including grounding through knuckles and creating a slight dome in the palm; requires optimal skeletal alignment to execute properly.
Forcing standard 'hands under shoulders' alignment for practitioners with carrying angles creates internal rotation at the shoulder joint. This leads to instability and potential strain. The arm bones essentially fight against their natural angle, creating unnecessary tension and reducing the ability to bear weight efficiently through the hands.
Internal rotation: Movement of the upper arm bone rotating inward toward the body's centerline; when forced in weight-bearing poses, creates instability and potential shoulder strain.
The Problem with Standard Alignment Cues
Teachers often insist on 'hands directly under shoulders' and 'middle fingers pointing forward' as universal alignment principles. For practitioners with carrying angles, these cues force the body into misalignment rather than supporting optimal skeletal stacking.
This approach prioritizes standardized positioning and universal alignment cues over anatomical individuality—the opposite of what safe, effective yoga practice requires. Students may blame themselves for 'doing it wrong' or lacking strength when the real issue is attempting to force their unique structure into an alignment that doesn't serve their anatomy.
Adjusting Hand Placement for Your Carrying Angle
Wider Hand Placement
Practitioners with larger carrying angles find much better success by placing their hands wider than shoulder-width apart in all weight-bearing poses. This wider placement allows the arm bones to align properly according to their natural angle, making it much easier to maintain proper weight distribution through the hands.
The wider stance accommodates the outward angle of the lower arm bones, creating a stable base that works with rather than against skeletal structure. This modification addresses the anatomical challenge rather than forcing incorrect alignment.
Finger Direction Adjustments
Instead of pointing middle fingers straight forward, practitioners with carrying angles should point index fingers forward or slightly splay fingers outward. Turning fingers slightly outward creates a more neutral position for the wrist joints when the carrying angle is present.
If you have a carrying angle, avoid pointing your middle fingers forward, which increases internal rotation at the shoulder and compounds the misalignment. The finger adjustment works in conjunction with wider hand placement to create optimal alignment from fingertips through shoulders.
Applying Carrying Angle Awareness to Specific Poses
Crow Pose (Bakasana)
Crow Pose makes carrying angle misalignment particularly obvious because the pose requires precise balance and weight distribution. If you find yourself struggling with balance, unable to lift one foot, or constantly falling forward when your hands are placed directly under your shoulders, try widening your hand placement first.
Many practitioners discover that adjusting hand width and finger direction dramatically improves their stability and ability to progress in the pose—often the difference between getting into the pose or not. The wider base accommodates the carrying angle and allows proper engagement of the arms and shoulder joints to support body weight.
Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
In Down Dog, practitioners with carrying angles often experience wrist discomfort or inability to ground through index finger knuckles when hands are shoulder-width apart. Widening hand placement and turning fingers slightly outward can create significant relief and allow proper weight distribution through the entire hand.
This adjustment also reduces strain on the shoulder joints by allowing them to sit in a more neutral position rather than forced internal rotation. The principle applies whether holding the pose statically or moving through Sun Salutations.
Plank Pose and Four-Limbed Staff Pose (Chaturanga Dandasana)
Standard alignment in Plank calls for hands directly under shoulders, but this leads to instability for those with carrying angles. Wider hand placement in Plank provides a more stable foundation and allows proper shoulder engagement without the internal rotation that leads to shoulder strain.
In Chaturanga, the carrying angle affects not only hand placement but also elbow tracking. Wider hands allow elbows to track back more naturally alongside the ribs. These modifications support shoulder and elbow health and sustainability in vinyasa-style practices that repeat these poses frequently.
Side Plank (Vasisthasana)
Side Plank concentrates all upper body weight onto one arm, making proper alignment even more critical for practitioners with carrying angles. The bottom hand may need to be placed slightly forward of the shoulder rather than directly under it to accommodate the carrying angle.
Finger direction becomes especially important. Turning fingers to angle slightly back towards the top corner of the mat rather than pointing them straight ahead can create better wrist and shoulder alignment.
Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana)
Interestingly, despite having a natural carrying angle that angles the arms outward, practitioners often have the tendency to bring hands closer together rather than wider apart in Wheel Pose. This counterintuitive pattern can create consequences for the shoulders and elbows when not addressed properly.
Practitioners with carrying angles should consciously place hands wider than feels instinctive in Wheel, allowing the arm bones to stack according to their natural angle. This wider placement supports safer shoulder positioning and more sustainable backbending.
Teaching Implications: Offer Variations Instead of Universal Cues
As teachers, it's important to offer hand placement variations rather than insisting on the standard 'hands under shoulders' cue as the only correct option. Since carrying angles are quite common, providing options for wider hand placement and finger positioning helps many students find their most stable and sustainable alignment.
However, in reality, it's challenging to cue hand placement when moving students through rounds of Sun Salutes - there's no time to call out all the options for hand placement when it's one movement per breath.
For that reason, I often teach my students how to find their carrying angle (if they have one) in Mountain Pose at the beginning of class. Then I let them know that every time I give the cue to place hands under shoulders, it means that they should take the variation of that suited to their unique carrying angle.
It's easier than saying "Find the unique hand placement that allows your arm bones to stack efficiently based on your own unique carrying angle. :)"
Encourage students to experiment with hand width and finger direction, noticing where they feel most stable and where weight distributes most evenly through the hands. This approach prioritizes anatomical individuality over standardized positioning—the foundation of safe, effective yoga practice that serves diverse bodies.
Distinguishing Carrying Angle from Elbow Hypermobility
Carrying angle and elbow hypermobility are two completely different anatomical features that are often confused in yoga practice.
Elbow hypermobility refers to excessive extension at the elbow joint—the ability to hyperextend the arm beyond straight. Carrying angle refers to the lateral angle between upper and lower arm bones, visible when the arm is straight, not hyperextended.
Understanding this distinction is important for proper arm alignment during asanas because these features affect different aspects of arm positioning and require different considerations. A practitioner can have a carrying angle without hypermobility, hypermobility without a carrying angle, both, or neither. They're independent anatomical variations.
Working With Your Anatomy
Yoga alignment must serve individual anatomy, not force bodies into standardized positions and universal alignment. The carrying angle is just one example of how skeletal variation affects optimal positioning in practice.
Once you understand your carrying angle, you can make informed choices about hand placement across all weight-bearing poses. You'll likely notice immediate improvements in stability, reduced wrist discomfort, and better access to challenging arm balances. Not only that, you'll practice will become more sustainable and reduce your chances of injury in the long-term.
FAQ
How do I know if I have a carrying angle or if my alignment is just off?
The simple standing test gives you a clear answer: stand with your arms at your sides, palms facing forward. If your hands fall away from your thighs rather than hanging straight down, you have a carrying angle. This is a fixed skeletal feature visible in your natural arm position, not something that changes based on how you're standing or your muscle engagement. If you consistently struggle with hand placement in weight-bearing poses despite proper instruction and adequate strength, the carrying angle is likely a factor. Consider taking a photo of yourself standing with arms extended to the sides, palms forward—the angle will be clearly visible.
Will wider hand placement make me weaker in arm balances?
No. Wider hand placement that matches your carrying angle actually creates a more stable base and allows better force distribution through properly aligned bones. Working against your anatomy by forcing narrow hand placement creates instability and prevents optimal engagement, regardless of your strength level. Many practitioners find they can finally progress in arm balances once they widen their hands to accommodate their carrying angle. Strength is most effective when skeletal structure is optimally aligned—wider placement supports rather than undermines strength development.
Should I always place my hands wider in every yoga pose?
The carrying angle primarily affects weight-bearing poses where hands are on the ground supporting body weight: arm balances, Plank, Down Dog, Chaturanga, and similar poses. In poses where arms are extended but not weight-bearing—Warrior II, Triangle, and others—the carrying angle is less relevant to alignment. The key is understanding your anatomy and applying wider hand placement specifically where it creates better skeletal alignment and stability. Experiment in different poses to notice where the adjustment makes a meaningful difference versus where standard placement works fine.
Can I change my carrying angle through stretching or strengthening?
No. The carrying angle is determined by the shape and angle of your bones where they meet at the elbow joint, which is a fixed skeletal feature you're born with. No amount of flexibility work, strength training, or alignment practice can change the angle of your bones. This is why understanding and accommodating your carrying angle is essential rather than trying to force your body into standard alignment. The goal is to work with your unique anatomy, not attempt to change it.
As a yoga teacher, how do I cue hand placement for students with different carrying angles?
Offer hand placement as a range rather than a single position: 'Place hands shoulder-width apart or wider, finding where your arms feel most stable.' Encourage students to experiment with finger direction: 'Notice whether pointing index fingers forward or slightly splaying them outward creates better weight distribution.' Avoid insisting that middle fingers must point forward or hands must be exactly under shoulders—these universal cues don't serve all anatomies. Teach students the carrying angle assessment so they can understand their own anatomy and make informed choices about hand placement.
Does carrying angle affect other joints besides the arms?
The term 'carrying angle' specifically refers to the angle at the elbow joint between upper and lower arm bones. Similar anatomical variations exist at other joints—hip socket depth, femoral angle, and others—that also affect yoga alignment, but these are distinct features with different names. Understanding that anatomical variation affects alignment throughout the body helps practitioners and teachers move away from one-size-fits-all cueing. The principle of accommodating individual skeletal structure applies across all joints, not just the elbows.
