How far apart should your hands be? It may depend upon your carrying angle
By Bernie Clark
October 1, 2026
Note: this article was not written by an AI, although figure 2 was created by ChatGPT. All other illustrations are from my book Your Upper Body, Your Yoga. See the About Us Page for our AI philosophy.]
In many yoga teacher trainings, an unspoken goal is presented: if the new yoga teacher can get every student in a class positioned into the identical alignment for each pose, she will be considered a good teacher. Without being named, this is an aesthetic approach to yoga performance that ignores the reality of human variations. One common focus is on the hands. Great energy is spent ensuring every student has their hands exactly shoulder-width apart in Down Dog or whenever the hands are bearing weight. But what if shoulder-width apart is not where a student’s hands naturally want to be?
Variations of “hands shoulder-width apart” show up in many postures, as shown in figure 2. Sometimes the cue focuses on keeping the elbows in, or the hands underneath either the elbows or the shoulders, which has the same effect: the hands end up shoulder-width apart.
Why should the hands be exactly that far apart? Some teachers will explain that keeping the hands shoulder-width apart saves the shoulders. (I know I used to say this, before I met Paul Grilley.) Save the shoulder from what? From too much stress. How much is too much? My reply used to be, “I don’t have time to explain it all right now, just trust me: your shoulders will thank you for keeping the hands shoulder-width apart. If you don’t, well over time you may harm your shoulders.” There is little biomechanical justification for assuming that shoulder-width placement is the safest position for every student.
The idea that placement of the hand can affect the shoulders is a valid concept. What is not valid is assuming that one hand placement position will be ideal for every student. There is too much variation in the anatomy of the hands, elbows, upper arms and shoulders for any one position to be optimal for every body. The challenge is to help students find the hand (or elbow) placement that works for them, keeping in mind the wide range of variability we all have.
Start from the Core and Work to the Floor
An often-mentioned cue in yoga classes is to build your foundation from the ground up, like a solid building. The image is appealing: a tall building needs a strong foundation. But humans are not inanimate buildings. When deciding where to place the hands, it may be more useful to work from the core outward: first consider what is happening proximally at the shoulders, then follow the anatomy through the arms to see where the hands naturally arrive.
This does not mean that forces and movements travel only from the core outward. Once the hands are on the floor, the arms form a closed kinetic chain, so what happens at the hands can affect the elbows and shoulders. But if we begin by prescribing exactly where the hands must go, we may force the elbows and shoulders to accommodate an arbitrary distal position.
The spine biomechanist Stuart McGill describes the related principle of “proximal stability” or “proximal stiffness” enabling distal mobility and athleticism.1 Applied to yoga, rather than deciding first where the hands should go and then arranging the shoulders and arms to accommodate them, we can reverse the process: establish a stable, functional position for the shoulders and arms, then see where the hands naturally arrive. 2
The Carrying Angle
To illustrate the complexity involved in optimal placement of the hands, let’s look at just one variable: the carrying angle.3 Try this: stand in front of a mirror with bare arms, arms down at your side and palms facing forward. Do your arms look straight? Probably not! You will likely see an angle at the elbows. The line of your upper arms is not continuous with the line of your lower arms. This angle is called the “carrying angle,” as shown in figure 3.
In the table below you can see that relatively few people have completely straight arms. In one study of healthy young adults, the average carrying angle was 9.8° in men and 14.0° in women. There was considerable variation around those averages. Assuming an approximately normal distribution, about 95% of men would be expected to fall between approximately 4.2° and 15.4°, while about 95% of women would fall between approximately 6.0° and 22.0°. Those with higher values may have quite different natural hand placements from those with lower values.
| Carrying angle | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Average | 9.8° | 14.0° |
| One standard deviation (SD) | ±2.8° | ±4.0° |
| Approx. range within 2 SD4 | 4.2°–15.4° | 6.0°–22.0° |
Visualize a yoga student who has an average amount of carrying angle, say 10°. As shown in figure 4: when they pronate their forearms (turn their palms over), they appear to lose about 5° of the angle, which means that their hands will be 5° outside the line of their upper arms. If our intention in a pose is to maintain good congruence between the head of the humerus and the glenoid fossa while the arms are bearing weight, it may be desirable for the upper arms to remain approximately parallel. But having the upper arms parallel does not necessarily mean that the hands will be shoulder-width apart. Because of the carrying angle, the forearms may angle outward, placing the hands wider than the shoulders.
Imagine a student with 15° of carrying angle placing her hands exactly shoulder-width apart. To do so, she will have to compensate for the natural outward direction of her forearms. That compensation has to occur somewhere in the kinetic chain, perhaps through rotation of the humerus at the shoulder, movement of the scapula, or some combination of the two. Thus, imposing the desired position of the hands may alter the very shoulder alignment the cue was intended to protect.
You can experiment with this in front of a mirror and see for yourself what your amount of carrying angle means for your hand placement. Again, standing in front of the mirror with arms down at your side, palms facing forward, pronate your forearms so that the palms face behind you.5 As shown in figure 4.b, you will likely have reduced but not eliminated the effect of your carrying angle. Now, bend your arms at the elbow 90º, keeping the elbows in at your side. This position is similar to the position of the arms in Chaturanga or Lowered Plank pose. Notice where your hands are. Are they shoulder-width apart? If they are not, it may be due to your carrying angle or to the amount of humeral torsion your upper arm bones have (we will look at humeral torsion and its effect on the “eye of the elbow” in a future article.)
Now, straighten the arms again and raise them overhead, ending with palms facing forward. Notice how far apart your hands are. Are they more than shoulder-width apart? If so, this gives you one indication that your anatomy may naturally place your hands wider than your shoulders. You may look like student A in figure 1. But, maybe your hands are shoulder-width apart and you look like student B. In that case, humeral torsion may be one factor offsetting the effect of your carrying angle.6
Ready for something mystifying?
How far apart your hands should be may depend upon how you raised the arms overhead. In the example above, you flexed the arms at the shoulder to elevate them straight ahead and up high. There is another way to raise the arms. Try this approach: again, in front of the mirror stand with arms down, palms forward, and now, keeping the palms open forward, draw the arms to the sides (abduction) until the upper arms are vertical. Notice the distance between the hands now. If you have a significantly large carrying angle you may find that now your hands are closer together than shoulder-width apart! If you fold forward now and step back to Down Dog, you may look like student C in figure 1.7
How to Place the Hands on the Floor?
What to do? If we cannot rely on visual cues or aesthetics to determine where to place the palms, what should the yoga teacher say? Anatomical theory may reveal how your anatomy influences where your hands naturally go, but theory alone cannot tell you exactly where your hands should be in a weight-bearing posture. For that, you have to experiment while actually bearing weight. As a teacher, you can guide your students to discover what works best for them.
Here is an approach I often use in my Hatha Yoga classes, especially when students are new to me. Come into Down Dog. Wiggle around, walk the dog, wag your tail a few times and allow yourself to loosen up. Then place your hands shoulder-width apart and your feet hip-width apart, the commonly prescribed aesthetic alignment. Pause and notice how this position feels. Do you feel safe, secure, solid, grounded and supported, yet without undue strain or discomfort? Many students do prefer this alignment and that is perfectly fine. But some students won’t like it.
Now keep your feet where they are and experiment with your hand position.8 First, bring your hands toward the outer edges of the mat so they are quite wide apart, perhaps turning the hands outward slightly. Wiggle around for a moment and notice what changes. Again, ask yourself: Do I feel safe, secure, solid, grounded and supported, yet without undue strain or discomfort? Notice not only your hands and wrists but also your elbows and shoulders. You may even notice changes elsewhere in your body.
Next, bring your hands very close together, perhaps turning the fingers slightly inward or even allowing the hands to touch. Wiggle again and ask the same questions. Do you feel safe, secure, solid, grounded and supported, yet without undue strain or discomfort? How does this position compare with the other two?
You have now explored three very different hand positions: shoulder-width apart, very wide and very narrow. Move between them again if you wish, and then settle into the position that works best for you today. Notice where your hands ended up. They may be shoulder-width apart, but they may not be. You have determined their position functionally rather than aesthetically.
You, as the student, decide what works best for you. I, as the teacher, provide options and a vocabulary for evaluating those options. Once you have found your preferred hand position, feel free to return to it each time we come into Down Dog.
Summary
The shoulder complex is complicated, and there is no single hand position that will be optimal for every body. Where the hands naturally land is influenced by what is happening proximally at the shoulders and arms, as well as by anatomical variations farther down the chain. The carrying angle at the elbow, which we explored in this article, is just one of these variables. Humeral torsion and variations in the scapula and shoulder joint can also affect hand placement, and we will explore these in future articles.
Given all these variables, a teacher cannot determine a student’s optimal hand placement simply by looking to see whether the hands are. “Hands shoulder-width apart” can be a useful starting point, but it is an alignment cue, not an alignment rule. Let students experiment under load and discover where they feel stable, supported and free of unnecessary strain.
The goal is not to make every student’s pose look the same. The goal is to help each student find the alignment that works for their body.
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1 In chats and presentations, Stuart has often said, “Proximal stability creates distal mobility,” but for a published citation of this principle see Moreside, J. M., & McGill, S. M. (2012). Hip joint range of motion improvements using three different interventions. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(5), 1265–1273. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22344062/
2 Similarly for the hips and feet, come into the safe, secure, solid position for your hips first and then your feet will go where they go.
3 For many other nitty-gritty, nerdy variables of the shoulder complex please refer to Your Upper Body, Your Yoga www.yinyoga.com/yubyy.
4 Approximately 95% of a normally distributed population will fall within two standard deviations of the mean. That leaves 5% outside this range. In a yoga class of 20 students, statistically we would expect one student, on average, to fall outside the ranges shown in the table. That student needs to be acknowledged too.
5 Only pronate the forearms. Do not internally rotate the whole arm at the shoulder, which could also turn the palm to face backward. When you elevate your arm to vertical, you will likely need to externally rotate the arm at the shoulder to get maximum elevation.
6 Again, I will discuss humeral torsion more in a future article, but if you can’t wait, check out Your Upper Body, Your Yoga for a full discussion.
7 How exactly your arms and hands end up may be different than I predict due to Codman’s paradox. It is beyond the scope of this article, but this is a fascinating topic that can show up in yoga postures. Codman’s paradox describes how a sequence of shoulder movements can produce axial rotation of the humerus without any intentional rotation. For example, standing with one arm at your side, palm facing inward, raise the arm forward into full flexion and then move it out to the side and lower it back to your thigh. The palm ends facing laterally outward, rather than returning to its original orientation of facing medially inward, indicating that the humerus has externally rotated. Conversely, start standing with your arm down at your side and fully externally rotated so the palm is facing away/laterally. Now laterally abduct that arm wide until it is vertical, then lower it forward back beside your thigh. Notice that now the palm is facing inward/medially, yet at no time did you deliberately internally rotate your arm. Fun! The lesson is that the position of the hands will depend upon the path the arms followed in being fully elevated.
8 Generally, I will work with the hands the first time the class is in Down Dog, and then the feet the second time. Then, in every subsequent visit, I suggest they place their feet and hands wherever they previously determined was optimal for them that day.. This relieves me of any obligation to tell the students where to place their hands. I may have 20 students with different hand and foot positions and that is perfectly okay.