10-07-22 04:09 PM - Post#922417    

Some great insights and chat on the topic I started on Nordic Walking. I appreciate the inputs.

As well as enjoying some more Nordic Walking, I am also trying to get stronger at hanging.

I am sure I saw that someone hit some crazy wold record hang of something mind boggling like 30 minutes. Anyway, I digress.

I usually do my hanging on my upstairs landing overhang, so my grip is an upside down L (think of hanging from a wall or roof). My times are about 1.20 - 1.30 if I maxed it which I don't always.

Hanging from a bar adds about 20 seconds to that.

Some hangs are passive, other active ie pulling scap down and shoulders away from ears.
If I really pull as hard as I can downwards I really feel it deep in both shoulders. Not shoulder blades....like right in the socket.
Does anyone know why this might be?

Also, if you are a regular 'hanger', how do you set this up and how have you seen improvement?

Have a great weekend all.

Richard

10-07-22 05:00 PM - Post#922418    

I've restarted hanging again and I think it has great value. I don't just hang, i move my lower body to gently swing, back and forth and side to side. These small movements really ignite the shoulder girdle. I also like to do one arm hangs with my toes just on the floor - this just feels really good- amazing stretch to the lats. I think they have really value in that 'tying' you together way.

My other two observations is that I think monkey bars are even better. Back in military training we used to run the assault course 2-4 times a week progressing to running with 30lbs of kit on (webbing and weapon). We had to do about 10m of monkey bars over a tank of water - we got very strong after 4 months of that!

On the timing issue, i think there is a huge mental element here. We used to have about 30 of us hanging off pull up bars to see how long we could hang. Once somebody grip gave out there would be a sudden surge of people dropping off - nobody wanted to be the first!

I think that for many of us, pull ups as we get older can cause some problems - hanging is probably a suitable work around solution for us older geezers.

10-07-22 07:17 PM - Post#922424    

I hang before every workout. I don't take it as serious as I should.

Any and all hanging, I think, is pretty good.

Daniel John Just handing down what I was handed down... Make a Difference. Live. Love. Laugh. Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude) Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk. Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth. Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights. Reread great books. Say thank you

10-07-22 08:03 PM - Post#922425    

+1 on the monkey bars. I honestly think that’s all the upper body pulling most folks would need (though it would savagely injure most adults on their first try).

My best hanging-for-time results came from doing 2 workouts a week, with like 5-6 sets at 50-75% of my max time. That got me above 3 minutes. Now, I only train 1-arm hangs and shorter duration weighted hangs. (Though I still do basic hangs before every workout.)

FWIW, my shoulders also hurt sometimes when I do active hangs (shoulders pulled down) for time. I don’t think it’s a very natural movement.

10-08-22 03:33 AM - Post#922428    

Hanging between OS resets (other than carries, which tax your grip) is a wonderful active-rest.

Curiosly enough, hanging between strength sets seems counterproductive (once I lose “tension”, I find it pretty hard to keep going heavy-ish).

"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums. It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable. Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow. Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't." Dan Martin

10-08-22 07:00 AM - Post#922430    

I was hanging for a bit at the gym, what I read is to keep the feet forward a bit and not just dead hang.

I use to hang upside down from a basement I beam at work or scaffolding platform.

"Go Henry - Live, lift, learn and grow - Never quit - Dave Draper"

Hanging....
10-08-22 08:16 AM - Post#922431    

I usually make hanging part of my warm-up, especially after I herniated a disk in my back about a year ago. My normal routine is stretching my hip flexors, foam rolling my back, and then a 1 minute bar hang before moving on to my main workout. Sometimes I’ll also incorporate it into my workout - 30 sec hang, one pull-up, rest shake it out, lather, rinse repeat.

Edited by Arsenio Billingham on 10-08-22 08:17 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

Hanging....
10-08-22 09:09 AM - Post#922435    

My old back tightens up pretty easily, so I do lotsa dead hang bar and inversion table hangs throughout the week, especially on training days. Nothing is scheduled and I rarely hang for more than thirty seconds, but short hangs "as necessary" usually gets the job done.

Also do two or three sets of hanging leg raises and four to eight sets of pullups/chins every week, but since I do these with shoulders engaged, I guess they don't count...or do they?

Be strong. Be in shape. Be a man among men, regardless of your age or circumstances.

Edited by AAnnunz on 10-08-22 09:21 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

10-08-22 09:37 AM - Post#922436    

I hang everyday, usually before I do pressing in workouts and also before my lunch break. Apart from the grip benefits and the general stretching, it is the single best thing I know for me to prevent shoulder pain. Hanging and crawls--if done daily--have made shoulder pain a thing of the past for me. And that is super cool.

10-08-22 10:28 AM - Post#922438    

I had a buddy, a PGA golf pro, who was ready to give up his career because of a shoulder injury. Couldn’t raise the clubs above shoulder height anymore, surgery didn’t seem promising at all, and nothing had improved in 6 months.

Good old fashioned passive bar hangs got him back to 100% in 3-4 months. No joke. He was probably 260lb at the time too.

10-08-22 11:34 AM - Post#922442    

Hanging tends to irritate my shoulders if I overdo it (which doesn't take all that much). The rest of my body kind of likes it, though, so I'll keep doing it in moderation and see if my shoulders improve over time.

10-08-22 12:00 PM - Post#922446    

I don't have access to a bar to hang from currently so my substitute is to suspend from 2 sturdy chairs in a static dip position. Back in the day I could hang from a pull up bar and it seems my spine decompresses nicely in a similar fashion so at least I'm getting that benefit. Shoulders, not so much but fortunately I don't have much issue there.

10-08-22 03:31 PM - Post#922451    

So one of the bars I hang from is on my power rack, which is six feet tall (because of short ceiling in the home gym) - when I hang from it, my knees are an inch from the ground if I tuck my legs up.

By the END of the hang, they touch the ground.

10-09-22 06:09 PM - Post#922461    

I just discovered a halfway house: slow, assisted pullups with maybe 70-80% of my weight.


Context: I'm starting easy strength again after a long summer break of running, swimming, and no weights. In summer I did something in the crook of my elbow lifting something heavy, and full pullups are a bit painful. So, I looped a resistance band through one of my pair of rings, and stuck a foot in it. Suddenly I'm doing sets of 5-10, slowly, and enjoying the movement, with way more time on the rings and more attention to form than before.

Also, there's no trace of MAPS, which makes me thing it probably came from initiating the pullup rather than finishing it, as the band does most to help you at the bottom.

10-10-22 02:02 AM - Post#922463    

I took a standard bar and attached it to the ceiling at the lowest part of my basement. I try to hang every day sometimes a few times.

10-10-22 09:40 PM - Post#922492    

I think hanging is great. I think hanging (like most things) can also be over-analyzed. Just hang a bit here and there. 2-5 sets of 30 seconds-ish each, every day, throughout the day; double overhand grip of course. YMMV, as always.

10-10-22 09:56 PM - Post#922494    

I had maxxed out at a 60 second hang, followed by a 30 second hang after a bit of rest. No straps, double parallel grip. Would do this everyday on the way home from work...conveniently located playground about 3 blocks away.

"I'm in good shape for the shape I'm in." "Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me." John 14:6

10-12-22 09:44 AM - Post#922523    

I do passive hangs at the end of each session using a mix of double overhand grip and an externally rotated grip on parallel bars. I started using the externally rotated grip after watching my children swinging on monkey bars. The first week is eye opening after that I haven’t felt like it takes much to maintain the benefits.

10-12-22 10:53 AM - Post#922524    

• AusDaz Said:

I use the “eagle grip” a lot now. Full supination chin-up grip, just going as wide as possible on a straight bar. Really a great shoulder diagnostic tool. Though I still suspect that single-arm hangs in as many variations as possible are the name of the game (think: Tarzan swinging from vines).

10-12-22 11:31 AM - Post#922527    

I'm still trying to locate some "adult size" monkey bars near me.

Mark it Zero.

10-12-22 11:38 AM - Post#922528    

• DanMartin Said:

https://calisthenics-park s.com/

10-12-22 12:34 PM - Post#922529    

As a total aside, do not and I repeat do not let grip strength/endurance be a limiting factor. By that I mean the primary purpose of hanging in our case is to loosen the shoulder joints and relax our back muscles to facilitate spine decompression.

I used "claws" initially. Now I don't, but it took a while. I also use some of the rubber finger extensors to counter act the crushing.

Mark it Zero.

10-13-22 07:04 AM - Post#922538    

As an aside, the secret recipe for my shoulders is hangs and shoulder dislocates with a stick.

10-26-22 10:44 AM - Post#922841    

I made a little discovery, the other day. If I dead hang and then gently pull my ribs down with my abdominals, I get a deep stretch in my shoulders and all the way down my sides. It's not very comfortable, but I'm hopeful that little and often over the long haul with this might be a game changer for me in terms of shoulder health.

10-27-22 03:11 AM - Post#922853    

Quick rehab account of sorts

After a long layoff, I moved the bar to my restroom doorway. At the time 215# and retrying chins was going ok, standing and just pulling up on the bar. One day I decide to let the body down to the bottom. When I went to pull the shoulders back and retract the scaps the left shoulder wanted to pop out. It was one of those quick tweaks, we all have had them. It was strong enough that I knew it could be something. I laid off a couple weeks. Retry from the bottom to see if it wanted to tweak and yep, it wanted to pop out of the socket, same exact bad feel, and sound.

Commence hangs regimen. Got up to over a minute pretty quickly. At school, I got in superset session workouts where I worked in neutral grip chins for 2 reps breaking up a tri-set. (never letting go to the bottom of course)

At the PT clinic where I'm doing observation today, I did a spot check, it's been months. Today I got 2 full chins all the way from the bottom with zero unease in the left shoulder. At 207 I feel kind of victorious.

+1 Hangs for rebab

Diablo Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth- MT

10-27-22 08:41 AM - Post#922854    

Hangs for Rehab.

Might be an interesting sign to add to my gym.

Daniel John Just handing down what I was handed down... Make a Difference. Live. Love. Laugh. Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude) Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk. Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth. Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights. Reread great books. Say thank you

10-27-22 09:04 AM - Post#922855    

If I had a gym I'd go for "hanging's too good for us" from a signage perspective for sure

10-28-22 08:06 PM - Post#922878    

I have a 50 year old client who was a pro hockey player for 15 years. He has junk shoulders. I make him hang every workout for 30 seconds. Sometimes multiple sets of 30 seconds.

He just recently said, “This is the best my shoulders have ever felt. And I think it’s the hanging.” This was a reluctant admission— he despises the hanging, lol.

I am hanging everyday for a minimum of 30 seconds.

Our tuition was received in the cold school of experience.

10-29-22 02:53 PM - Post#922892    

Did 3 sets of 30 seconds before lifting. The 28kg kettlebell press felt like a toy. Felt like I could have done 10 on each side. Did one more hang after the workout. Feels great.

10-31-22 12:42 PM - Post#922908    

Is there any merit to weighted hangings, provided you can already hang for, say, three minutes straight?

"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums. It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable. Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow. Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't." Dan Martin

Hanging....
10-31-22 01:03 PM - Post#922910    

• iPood Said:

Yes and no. If you are doing it to improve grip/crushing strength there may be some limited value. But as far as your shoulder health, you could cause yourself harm by over-stretching the shoulder capsule.

As a total aside, my bar hang time improved a lot as I lost weight...

Mark it Zero.

Re: Hanging....
10-31-22 02:51 PM - Post#922916    

• DanMartin Said:

These days I like to do 30” hangs, followed by a bunch of scap pull ups. It feels so, so, so good…

"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums. It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable. Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow. Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't." Dan Martin

10-31-22 03:08 PM - Post#922920    

• iPood Said:

I’ve used weighted hangs just because they’re way less boring than training multiple sets of 1+ minute hangs.

However, now I primarily train single-arm hangs (recently broke 1 minute for the first time). I’m not sure they have the rehab/prefab benefits of general hanging, but I do think they add a lot. They’re like an intermediary step before monkey bars, and I’m using them to prep for one-arm chins.

10-31-22 11:21 PM - Post#922927    

I rock climb a couple days a week - it seems to cover all the benefits of hanging but with multiple angles worked. It also pretty well eliminates the need for pull ups of any kind.

11-01-22 12:40 AM - Post#922928    

Today was the first time I tried hanging as part of my warm up before lifting. I am still just hanging for 30 seconds but it is helping my shoulder

Re: Hanging....
11-01-22 08:38 AM - Post#922936    

• DanMartin Said:

Genius! Losing weight got me to a 3x BW deadlift a lot faster than getting stronger.

Our tuition was received in the cold school of experience.

Re: Hanging....
11-01-22 09:11 AM - Post#922939    

• Vinny Tanner Said:

This should be printed , framed and nailed to a wall in every gym across the world.

"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums. It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable. Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow. Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't." Dan Martin

11-01-22 12:17 PM - Post#922952    

Vinny, I'm curious if these were active or passive hangs. I have history of partial dislocation of left shoulder and I think I'll start with active.

Re: Hanging....
11-01-22 08:27 PM - Post#922966    

Vinny,

Didn't you tell me you are like 250 right now?!?!

ATC Fitness

Edited by Leo M on 11-01-22 08:27 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

Re: Hanging....
11-02-22 08:56 AM - Post#922978    

• Vinny Tanner Said:

Me, too, Vin. In fact, I dropped a weightclass specifically to reach that milestone, and it came a lot easier than expected.

Be strong. Be in shape. Be a man among men, regardless of your age or circumstances.

11-03-22 09:38 AM - Post#923013    

• Franko Said:

I don’t think I’ve ever once explained or instructed active vs passive hangs to any client. I just tell ‘em to get on the bar and hang! I think nearly everyone defaults to passive “dead” hangs. That’s what I do when I do it.

Our tuition was received in the cold school of experience.

Re: Hanging....
11-03-22 09:38 AM - Post#923014    

• Leo M Said:

Well, I was almost 230, but water cut to 220 (100kg) for the meet. Now that that’s done, I’m losing weight again.

Our tuition was received in the cold school of experience.

Re: Hanging....
11-03-22 10:18 PM - Post#923031    

• Vinny Tanner Said:

xoxo

ATC Fitness