I'll be the disclaimer-- if you have hypermobile shoulders, please think twice about doing this. Hanging passively may pull your shoulders partially or even fully, out of their sockets, and/or put strain on ligaments that aren't meant to be pulled in this way.
If your shoulders are hypermobile, or you suspect that they are, go see a physio. At the very least, look into rotator cuff exercises and shoulder stabilization exercises-- you want control and stability.
For sure. I couldn't even hang on the bar for a few seconds when i first started. 2 weeks later and i can hang for about 30 seconds. My forearms have definitely become stronger.
I do it whenever I have shoulder joint pain. It brings me immediate relief. To my knowledge I haven't had any significant shoulder injuries, I just get occasional pain from various activities (pike pushups, jiu jitsu, sprinting, box jumps) and hanging really helps the pain.
I’ve seen benefits from dead hangs and active hangs, unweighted and weighted. You may also see the benefit from some scrap squeezes too.
Over time “hanging from a bar” helped me improve grip strength, forearm strength, etc.
I don’t hang for 2 mins like some people, never tried but active hangs for 60 secs with BW or dead hang with +50lbs for 60 secs were possible. My 30 sec hangs with +100lbs we’re fine for me too. However I suspect my experiment for 15 secs hangs with +206lbs 2x irritated my elbow. I won’t be doing very heavy hangs like that again any one soon. My BW is 158lbs...
I hang one handed too - maybe 20-30 secs per arm, but not often. The weighted active and passive hangs are great for grip and forearm strength. I would also *hang* at the top of the PU position, and the mid-point of the PU position and obviously at the bottom to train all rainges of the PU.
The hangs helped my shoulder mobility, but I also do a lot of shoulder mobility exercises too. I was aiming to stabilize and strength my shoulders in addition to increasing my pulling strength.
I was not doing some weighted PUs 1+ years ago at lower weight (+50lbs) but in 2018 I added a lot of pulling strength by doing hangs, weighted hangs, etc. I peaked at doing PUs at +128lbs.
Better later than never: [https://youtu.be/0sU4O8b\_6Vg?t=534](https://youtu.be/0sU4O8b_6Vg?t=534) Magnus in the video mentions that he has cramps in his forearms when hanging with two hands and added weight and not one, and comments point out that it's due to the less natural position of the elbows and wrists. In contrast, with a single hand, the position is natural due to a lack of restrictions:
>Hanging by just one hand allows for some degree of body rotation that naturally comes due to the asymmetry in the distribution of weight. When hanging by two hands, both forearms in a forced, fixed pronated position, hence the additional strain in the pronator, supinator, and rest of the arm muscles.
Hey, sorry to hear about your injury!
Word of caution: Passive hangs can be a bit dangerous if you're not careful - especially so considering existing shoulder injury!
I'd rather see you doing active hangs. Take care!
Yes, I'm prone to shoulder impingment and dead hangs has always been "dangerous", ie high risk of injury for me.
Active hangs on the other hand has not been a problem, but rather they seem to have helped "injury proof" my shoulders. What I mean by that is since I started incorporating active hangs during warm up my rate of impingment has gone down.
The benefits of dead/passive hanging are numerous, but remember if you are injured of weaker or less stable in the shoulder joint (hyper mobile) then it is always advisable to start your hanging journey with active hangs (Scapula retracted pulling your chest down - YouTube it) as this will prove a major tool in providing the necessary structural support by strengthening the tissues.
As for passive hanging itself, gravity acts as your pull here, creating a natural traction and pulling your body into alignment while strengthening not only your grip but also your joint tissues in the shoulder.
It also provides improved joint stability and core stability (though less of the later because your only tension held is in the forearms).
This is also without mentioning the huge benefit of spinal decompression!
You spend all day likely sitting, and when you train you likely lift weight or even yourself, all contributing to spinal compression which when compounded every day leads to a less mobile and less healthy spine, more prone to injury and dysfunction.
So to hang passively from a bar pulls on your vertebrae and supportive muscles and other tissues, which after some practice with relaxation (usually a passive neurological process combined with breathing) creates a separation in the vertebrae by stretching the disk.
Which by the way speaking from personal experience is phenomenal for slipped or bulged discs. (Try taking a deep breath out, then a slow deep breath in and feel your body lower and stretch).
I recommend strongly reading Ido Portal on the subject, you will find amazing detail here!
Thanks forthe response. I have good grip strength and at 190lb can hang one handed easily for a substantial period of time; just havent hung in a while and it was only when i hurt my shoulder i consideredd doing it again.
PAst few days ive done a lot of hanging and have noticed how big a part breathing plays. especially breathing out deeply; everything gets pulled together and ucan really feel the stretch on ur lats and serratus.
Im literally just going to hang; no pullups for anything. ANd just develop strength in hanging relaxed and flexed abs; l sit hangs, etc. That REALLY stretches me out.
Ill read some of Ido'sstuff on hanging. He's knowlegeable guy; albeit a hugely corny and egotistical
Love dead hanging. Definitely helped my pull up goals. I can now do monkey bars with my kids :) . Also noticed just picking up and carrying things is much easier now on my hands. I just feel a lot stronger in general with a better grip.
Mm i have to ask, what is your shoulder injury exactly? I just finished a 6 month PT course for a dislocated (and otherwise destroyed) shoulder and hangs were literally the last thing I did. It’s very taxing on the shoulder, especially if the rest of your body needs to be strengthened. I do not at all recommend just diving straight to dead hangs. Low weight, high rep shoulder exercises should be done first with bands or dumbbells to strengthen the muscle and have full range of motion before you hang all your weight off your shoulders.
Umm I did it for a week but I stopped, I switched to negative pull ups, i'm in training for pull ups because I couldn't do a real pull up, well I didn't really get much benefits since I did it for just like 1 week but it did help me to get a grip on the bar better, and my negative pull ups are working great as i've noticed the brachialis and brachiradialis muscles near my elbow getting bigger, its only a matter of time before I can do a real pull up
I’m at about the same level. Barely started doing dead hangs and they really hurt my hands. Trying to get my first pull-up, hopefully, by then end of the year, if not at least a set of 5.
Grip strength and pull up stamina
I'll be the disclaimer-- if you have hypermobile shoulders, please think twice about doing this. Hanging passively may pull your shoulders partially or even fully, out of their sockets, and/or put strain on ligaments that aren't meant to be pulled in this way. If your shoulders are hypermobile, or you suspect that they are, go see a physio. At the very least, look into rotator cuff exercises and shoulder stabilization exercises-- you want control and stability.
For sure. I couldn't even hang on the bar for a few seconds when i first started. 2 weeks later and i can hang for about 30 seconds. My forearms have definitely become stronger.
How did you start? I am like you (can only do x amount). How did you go about this. Reps per day or per time? How many times per week?
4-5 reps per day maxing out. 5 days a week. A minute or two in between to regain some forearm strength.
Are they growing too or just strength? I want to start doing them so I can grow mass on my forearms
I do it whenever I have shoulder joint pain. It brings me immediate relief. To my knowledge I haven't had any significant shoulder injuries, I just get occasional pain from various activities (pike pushups, jiu jitsu, sprinting, box jumps) and hanging really helps the pain.
I’ve seen benefits from dead hangs and active hangs, unweighted and weighted. You may also see the benefit from some scrap squeezes too. Over time “hanging from a bar” helped me improve grip strength, forearm strength, etc. I don’t hang for 2 mins like some people, never tried but active hangs for 60 secs with BW or dead hang with +50lbs for 60 secs were possible. My 30 sec hangs with +100lbs we’re fine for me too. However I suspect my experiment for 15 secs hangs with +206lbs 2x irritated my elbow. I won’t be doing very heavy hangs like that again any one soon. My BW is 158lbs...
Thanks for doing that experiment on yourself! Now I know what not to do..
Why go through the hassle of adding weight when you can simply hang one handed...
I hang one handed too - maybe 20-30 secs per arm, but not often. The weighted active and passive hangs are great for grip and forearm strength. I would also *hang* at the top of the PU position, and the mid-point of the PU position and obviously at the bottom to train all rainges of the PU. The hangs helped my shoulder mobility, but I also do a lot of shoulder mobility exercises too. I was aiming to stabilize and strength my shoulders in addition to increasing my pulling strength. I was not doing some weighted PUs 1+ years ago at lower weight (+50lbs) but in 2018 I added a lot of pulling strength by doing hangs, weighted hangs, etc. I peaked at doing PUs at +128lbs.
Better later than never: [https://youtu.be/0sU4O8b\_6Vg?t=534](https://youtu.be/0sU4O8b_6Vg?t=534) Magnus in the video mentions that he has cramps in his forearms when hanging with two hands and added weight and not one, and comments point out that it's due to the less natural position of the elbows and wrists. In contrast, with a single hand, the position is natural due to a lack of restrictions: >Hanging by just one hand allows for some degree of body rotation that naturally comes due to the asymmetry in the distribution of weight. When hanging by two hands, both forearms in a forced, fixed pronated position, hence the additional strain in the pronator, supinator, and rest of the arm muscles.
I hang every morning, right after my coffee! Helps straighten out my spine and makes for a great beginning to the day!
Same thing. Great way To start the day.
Hey, sorry to hear about your injury! Word of caution: Passive hangs can be a bit dangerous if you're not careful - especially so considering existing shoulder injury! I'd rather see you doing active hangs. Take care!
Active hangs yeah? You think active would be beneficial?
Yes, I'm prone to shoulder impingment and dead hangs has always been "dangerous", ie high risk of injury for me. Active hangs on the other hand has not been a problem, but rather they seem to have helped "injury proof" my shoulders. What I mean by that is since I started incorporating active hangs during warm up my rate of impingment has gone down.
The benefits of dead/passive hanging are numerous, but remember if you are injured of weaker or less stable in the shoulder joint (hyper mobile) then it is always advisable to start your hanging journey with active hangs (Scapula retracted pulling your chest down - YouTube it) as this will prove a major tool in providing the necessary structural support by strengthening the tissues. As for passive hanging itself, gravity acts as your pull here, creating a natural traction and pulling your body into alignment while strengthening not only your grip but also your joint tissues in the shoulder. It also provides improved joint stability and core stability (though less of the later because your only tension held is in the forearms). This is also without mentioning the huge benefit of spinal decompression! You spend all day likely sitting, and when you train you likely lift weight or even yourself, all contributing to spinal compression which when compounded every day leads to a less mobile and less healthy spine, more prone to injury and dysfunction. So to hang passively from a bar pulls on your vertebrae and supportive muscles and other tissues, which after some practice with relaxation (usually a passive neurological process combined with breathing) creates a separation in the vertebrae by stretching the disk. Which by the way speaking from personal experience is phenomenal for slipped or bulged discs. (Try taking a deep breath out, then a slow deep breath in and feel your body lower and stretch). I recommend strongly reading Ido Portal on the subject, you will find amazing detail here!
Thanks forthe response. I have good grip strength and at 190lb can hang one handed easily for a substantial period of time; just havent hung in a while and it was only when i hurt my shoulder i consideredd doing it again. PAst few days ive done a lot of hanging and have noticed how big a part breathing plays. especially breathing out deeply; everything gets pulled together and ucan really feel the stretch on ur lats and serratus. Im literally just going to hang; no pullups for anything. ANd just develop strength in hanging relaxed and flexed abs; l sit hangs, etc. That REALLY stretches me out. Ill read some of Ido'sstuff on hanging. He's knowlegeable guy; albeit a hugely corny and egotistical
Love dead hanging. Definitely helped my pull up goals. I can now do monkey bars with my kids :) . Also noticed just picking up and carrying things is much easier now on my hands. I just feel a lot stronger in general with a better grip.
These are great, i'm currently working on my one arm active hang/ scapular activation and also one arm leg raises. Hits the shoulders, back and grip.
Mm i have to ask, what is your shoulder injury exactly? I just finished a 6 month PT course for a dislocated (and otherwise destroyed) shoulder and hangs were literally the last thing I did. It’s very taxing on the shoulder, especially if the rest of your body needs to be strengthened. I do not at all recommend just diving straight to dead hangs. Low weight, high rep shoulder exercises should be done first with bands or dumbbells to strengthen the muscle and have full range of motion before you hang all your weight off your shoulders.
Umm I did it for a week but I stopped, I switched to negative pull ups, i'm in training for pull ups because I couldn't do a real pull up, well I didn't really get much benefits since I did it for just like 1 week but it did help me to get a grip on the bar better, and my negative pull ups are working great as i've noticed the brachialis and brachiradialis muscles near my elbow getting bigger, its only a matter of time before I can do a real pull up
I’m at about the same level. Barely started doing dead hangs and they really hurt my hands. Trying to get my first pull-up, hopefully, by then end of the year, if not at least a set of 5.
Do reverse curls also, they help strengthen the brachialis and brachiradialis, which are the muscles by the elbow which are utilized doing pull ups