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Bowing is a form of Shaping that specifically uses the elongation of joints to allow less efficient positions to stay relaxed while maintaining safety.
Due to stacking less muscular engagement is required the more it is aligned with it’s base. This means the further you move away from your base the more muscular engagement is required.
If you are moved off your base and relax the body will quickly fall based on Mechanics. When caught by muscular engagement this focuses the muscular engagement on the most bent joint and thus both a localized and high amount of engagement on a single hyper flexed joint. This, needless to say is not a good idea.
Bowing instead focuses on aligning the body with both the shaped direction and the base direction creating a long “bow” through the body that does not localize the bend and thus resulting issues detailed above. This requires more proactive engagement but allows a healthier resting state that is self protecting as long as elongation engagement exceeds external forces like gravity or initiations.
Bowing due to its inherent dual focus creates a long bent line which is used as an aesthetic choice in certain styles. This most often creates two intents that are part of the same unit that can be useful in type B and C Incorporation (see The Arc of Playfulness)