from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/aug/04/the-dead-hang-delight-how-this-quick-surprisingly-simple-exercise-can-change-your-life

The dead hang delight: how this quick, surprisingly simple exercise can
change your life

Get a grip … hanging has multiple health benefits. Photograph: Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF
Fitness
The dead hang delight: how this quick, surprisingly simple exercise can
change your life
Would you like to strengthen your upper body and core muscles, while
improving your flexibility and breathing? Here’s how to do it, in the
time it takes to boil a kettle

Joel Snape
Joel Snape
Sun 4 Aug 2024 09.00 EDT
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As a species, we humans have been hanging around for quite a while.
Scientific opinions vary on when our ancestors stopped travelling by
tree canopy – but recent research suggests that our rotating shoulders
and extending elbows first developed to help us climb more efficiently,
and we’ve never completely given it up.

Over the past couple of decades, we’ve been rediscovering our ancestral
love of dangling, with CrossFit, obstacle races, Ninja Warrior and even Gladiators reminding us of the sheer joy of hanging from a bar, tree
branch or set of rings. But there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that,
even if you aren’t working on your salmon ladder skills, your body can benefit from the occasional bout of hanging – and it’s one of the
simplest things you can do at home.

Firstly, and maybe most obviously, hanging demands (and develops) a fair
amount of grip strength. This isn’t just about opening jars – more than
one study suggests that a good grip is a solid biomarker of ageing, and
a predictor of future illness or disability. What isn’t completely clear
is which way the causality in this relationship goes. It’s likely that a
good grip goes hand in hand with overall strength – which is a good
predictor of all-cause mortality – but it’s also possible that a weak
grip is a symptom of “prematurely” ageing cells, rather than a cause.
All of that said, if you can develop a stronger grip, it certainly won’t
hurt – and can help out with exercises like the deadlift, a full-body movement that involves hauling very heavy bars off the floor and helps
develop all-over, functional strength.

Moving downwards (from the bar), hanging might also help your shoulders.
“A lot of people find that dead hangs – where you simply hang on to something with straight arms, and let the rest of your body dangle –
help to increase their shoulder mobility and stability, which can help
to prevent injuries,” says personal trainer Mike Julom. “​​They also strengthen upper body muscles like the lats and traps, situated in the
mid and upper back, which help to address some of the postural problems
that can develop from sitting at a desk all day. They also strengthen
your core muscles, as you’ll use them to stabilise yourself as you
hang.” Orthopaedic surgeon Dr John M Kirsch says he has cured multiple patients (including himself) with shoulder issues through hanging –
though the results are entirely anecdotal, and more research is
definitely needed.

Smiling mature man doing pull-ups on rings in gym.
View image in fullscreen
Dead hangs seem to provide some gentle spinal decompression. Photograph:
Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

Dead hangs also seem to provide some gentle spinal decompression – which
can feel great if you’ve been sitting down all day or squatting with a
heavy barbell on your back. “Some recent studies have shown that dead
hangs can make your back more flexible, especially if you have a
significant curve in your spine,” says strength and conditioning
specialist Rachel MacPherson. “Though it’s not always a great idea to
jump straight in with them, depending on your spinal health,” she says.” Scoliosis sufferers, for example, are often advised to work in a ‘semi-hanging’ position, with their feet on the floor.”

So where do you start? First, you’ll need somewhere to hang out. If you
can manage it, the best option is to get a bar that will let you do
pull-ups in your house – there are plenty of options to fit most
doorframes, ranging from removable-in-seconds to semi-permanent. “I have
one on my landing and it makes it really easy to do a minute hang in the morning and one at night before bed,” says strength and movement coach
Jon Nicholson. “I’ve also got a set of rings hanging from a tree in the garden, which I barely get to use because the kids insist on having it
set up for them to hang on.” Try to fit your hanging options in the
kitchen, the garage, wherever, and you’ll find yourself clocking up the hangs.

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From here, one excellent option is to just build a hanging habit, by
hanging for a few seconds every time you pop to the kitchen for a cup of
tea or wander to the loo. If your strength or weight is going to make
more than 20 seconds of hanging difficult, start simple.

“You can adjust the resistance by having the bar or rings at a lower
height, or a small step underneath you, so that your feet can touch the
ground in a squat position,” says personal trainer Amanda Grimm. “You
can adjust the intensity by gently lifting your feet up until you have
just your toes on the floor.”

Man using pull-up rings in gymnasium
View image in fullscreen
It’s worth spending a bit of time on both ‘passive’ and ‘active’ hangs.
Photograph: Marc Romanelli/Getty Images/Tetra images RF
It’s also worth spending a bit of time on both “passive” and “active” hangs, says Nicholson. “An active hang is where your shoulders are
pulled back and down, while a passive one is where you just hang without exerting any extra effort,” he says. “One simple way of categorising
upper body movements is into ‘pushes’ and ‘pulls’ – so, if we think of a
plank as an exercise that works the major muscles involved in pushing
things away from the body, the active hang works the muscles involved in pulling things towards the body. It’s the first motion contained within
a pull-up or chin-up, so extremely beneficial to work on if you want to
achieve your first chin-up, or, for rock climbers or swimmers to work on
their shoulder strength.” (For the uninitiated, most serious pullers
think of chin-ups as the one where your palms face towards you, which
works your biceps slightly more, while for pull-ups your hands face
away, emphasising your back muscles.)

Once you’ve got the hang (sorry) of both of these, you can start
thinking about introducing tougher variations of the movement – but
don’t try to progress too quickly. “Training is all about the body
adapting to the stimulus we place on it, so it’s important to think ‘outcome’ rather than ‘output’,” says Nicholson. “You can’t just do a
one-off 60-second hang and think: “Right, I can do that; I don’t need to
do it again.” That’s output with very little outcome. Think about the benefits – the outcome in terms of grip strength, shoulder health and so
on – of doing that 60-second hang several times a day for 30 days, or
even longer.”

After this, you’ll be better equipped for tougher movements, such as brachiating – the technical term for swinging from hold to hold like a
gibbon – and possibly pull-ups. You might eventually even progress to
the “muscle-up” – a movement where you pull yourself above the bar and push yourself up until you’re above the bar with straight arms – or the parkour “lache”, where you leap from one bar to another with both hands
at the same time. But if you don’t ever get as far as these sorts of
circus tricks, don’t worry – there are plenty of benefits to even the simplest hangs. “I find dead hangs are a great time to focus on
breathing exercises and even meditation and mindfulness,” says Grimm.
“It help keeps the body calm, and can actually help you to grip for longer.”

“It’s one of the first things I get people to do,” says Nicholson. “Most
of them moan about how much it hurts their hands, and they absolutely
hate the idea of just hanging around for multiple sets. And then I’m
like, yeah, you need to get a bar at home and do this all the time – and within a month, the people who actually do it are addicted to it. They
walk into the gym and the first thing they do before they start talking
to me is hang from a pull-up bar. Once you get through those first few
days, it feels amazing.” Give it a try, and reconnect with your ancient ancestors. Top tip, though: you are allowed to use your thumbs.

Woman playing on monkey bars in a playground.
View image in fullscreen
Photograph: crotography/Getty Images/RooM RF
Swing states
Once you can hang for 30 to 60 seconds a few times a day, it’s time to
add some more active hanging to your arsenal.

Scapula pull-ups

These activate some of the muscles that a “normal” pull-up uses, but are
a bit less demanding. Start in a dead hang, then squeeze your shoulder
blades together to do a reverse “shrug” to slightly lift your body
upwards. Hold at the top position before you lower back down.

Kip swings

These are a simpler version of the swing that gymnasts use to set up for
more impressive moves – but don’t try them on a bar unless it’s very
well secured to a wall or squat rack. You’re going to move through two positions: the “hollow body”, with your body behind the bar and feet
ahead of you, and the “Superman”, with your chest out and feet back. Do them with control, and feel the stretch in your shoulders.

Side-to-side swings

Again, don’t try this with a wobbly bar. Swing your hips slightly from
side to side, building momentum to take the weight off one arm. At the
top of each swing, quickly take one hand off the bar and then replace
it, swinging back to the other side.

Brachiation

There are two ways to tackle the traditional monkey bars: with bent
elbows, which is fast but tiring, and with outstretched arms, which is
more efficient and takes practice. Try both.




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