lst can be beneficial to get light to otherwise shaded bid sites, its just training the growth to where you want so more buds get more light. any form of securing the plant to the shape you want will work. you can tie them down with string, pipe cleaners,wire, anything to keep vertical growth in check. lol if you look close at mine i used fishing weights in different weights to shape mine. hung like christmas ornaments. easy to move or add more weight if needed. i also did a few places where i pinched and bent the limb over, kinda like breaking the stem but not really breaking it just damaging the tissue so it would bend where i needed it to, putting a kink in it. kinda scary at first but amazing how fast it repairs the damage. mine did not even wilt or change at all. fact is i have one top i broke unintentionally and only had 30% or so of cambrium attached and its doing just fine. that wae 3 weeks ago or so. its reallh hard to kill off a limb as long as some part is still attached. sounds cruel and kinda scary but it works. try a little experimenting and see what becomes of it.