Wrist cuffs

What are wrist cuffs?

Wrist cuffs (Dutch: polsboeien) are wide cuffs that close around the wrists and make an anchor point there. They are usually leather or nylon, close with a buckle, a lock, or Velcro, and carry a D-ring. A carabiner, a chain, or just a strap goes onto that ring. Wrist cuffs restrict little on their own; their function lies in what you attach to them.

What wrist cuffs are for

For making a point on your arm where something can attach. That is why wrist cuffs are almost always used together with something else.

The encyclopedia describes them as wide leather cuffs, often lined with soft leather or faux fur, with a D-ring that nylon strap or chain attaches to. You clip two wrist cuffs to each other, or both to a fixed point: to the bed, to a ring in the wall, to a chain on the ceiling. Where that point is decides the rest. Wrist cuffs behind your back feel completely different from wrist cuffs above your head.

The same source also says why they exist alongside steel handcuffs. A handcuff is designed to prevent escape, not to sit comfortably, and has no lining to limit nerve damage. A wrist cuff is designed the other way around.

What lies under a wrist cuff

Little room, and that is the whole point. Through your wrist runs the carpal tunnel: according to StatPearls, a narrow passage between the carpal bones and the transverse carpal ligament, through which nine flexor tendons and the median nerve have to pass. The pressure in that tunnel is normally between 2 and 10 mmHg, but the moment you bend or extend your wrist, that pressure goes up eight to ten times. On the little-finger side lies Guyon’s canal, about four centimeters long, with the ulnar nerve and the ulnar artery in it; StatPearls names repeated outside pressure there as a cause of nerve damage.

A wrist cuff changes none of that. What it does do is decide which position that wrist holds for the next twenty minutes.

What to watch for

• Tighten the strap until two fingers fit underneath, not until it feels tight; the loop you tighten with works better than you think.
• Keep the wrist straight. Cuffs that hang high above the head or get pulled up behind the back put the wrist in exactly the bend that multiplies the pressure in the tunnel.
• Hang nothing from ordinary wrist cuffs. They are not built to carry body weight; there are special suspension cuffs for that.
• Ask about tingling on the thumb side and the little-finger side separately, because two different nerves run there.
• Put the key or the scissors within reach before the first cuff closes, not after.

Where this fits on this site

If you want to know how it feels to be held without having to figure everything out yourself, that belongs to a BDSM date. That page shows what we agree beforehand about how long, how tight, and which signal stops everything.

Sources

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Justin O. Sevy, Reddog E. Sina & Matthew A. Varacallo, StatPearls, updated 29 October 2023. Supplies the build of the carpal tunnel from the transverse carpal ligament and the carpal bones, the contents of nine flexor tendons plus the median nerve, the normal pressure of 2 to 10 mmHg, and the finding that bending or extending the wrist raises that pressure eight to ten times.
• Guyon Canal Syndrome. Dmitri Aleksenko & Matthew A. Varacallo, StatPearls, updated 4 August 2023. Supplies Guyon’s canal as a roughly four-centimeter-long passage on the little-finger side of the wrist with the ulnar nerve and the ulnar artery in it, and repeated outside pressure as one of the causes of compression there.
• Bondage cuffs. Wikipedia. Supplies the description as wide cuffs lined with soft leather or faux fur, the closure with lock, buckle, or Velcro, the loop to tighten the strap, the D-ring with nylon strap or chain, the finding that handcuffs are not designed for comfort and safety and are not lined, and that ordinary bondage cuffs must not carry any significant load.

Related terms

• Restraints. The family wrist cuffs belong to, with the difference between leather, nylon, and steel.
• Handcuffs. The steel version with a ratchet, and why it works out differently from a cuff.
• Ankle cuffs. The same idea around the ankles, which is almost never used on its own.
• D-ring. The hardware on the wrist cuff that decides what you can hang from it.
• Carabiner. What clips two wrist cuffs together in one motion.
• Panic snap. The hook that still opens under tension, for anyone who wants to release wrist cuffs quickly.
• Door cuffs. Wrist cuffs with a piece between them that jams behind a closed door.
• Thumbcuffs. The miniature version, around the thumbs instead of the wrists.
• Hogtie. The position you have with wrist cuffs and ankle cuffs in one click.
• Single column tie. The same function in rope, with the pressure limits that apply there.
• One bar prison. The bar that brings wrist cuffs and ankle cuffs together at one point.
• Bondage. The practice where wrist cuffs do their work, with the rules of thumb alongside.
• Spreader bar. The bar that sets wrist cuffs as far apart as possible instead.