Dead Hang, the exercise to hang from a bar

It’s certainly a movement that can help reduce aches and pains, build strength, and prepare us for more challenging exercises like pull-ups. It is an exercise that consists of holding onto something above your head and hanging with your arms fully extended.

It mainly works the forearm flexors on the inside of the forearms, which help keep us tight on the bar. It also provides a great stretch for your lats, biceps, pecs, and shoulders. Active dead hangs, which involve intentionally creating more tension throughout the body, also target the lower trapezius, shoulders, lats, glutes, and core muscles.

How to hang? Technique

If we don’t have a history involving shoulder pain or injury, we can start hanging right away. If we have a pre-existing shoulder injury, it is recommended to speak with your physician or physical therapist to ensure we are cleared for this type of overhead work before adding this exercise to your routine.

There are actually two types of Dead Hang: passive and active. Both can be used in a training routine, as there is a time and place to use each of them. And the right one depends on our injury history, overall training goals, and what we expect.

Passive Dead Hang

In the passive version, we just let ourselves hang. The body remains loose while we are hanging from a bar. The passive fall is ideal for stretching, decompressing the spinal discs, and opening the shoulder capsules.

1. Choose a chin-up bar or a stable surface that is high enough so that we can hang with our legs straight and our feet off the ground. Shorter people should use a box to help them safely climb onto the bar.
2. Select the hand position and grip the bar tightly.
3. Drop into a total fall. The arms should be completely straight above the head. Because it is a passive suspension, gravity will push the body towards the ground. Let your shoulders travel up to your ears and your legs hang straight below you. You will likely feel a lot of stretch throughout your upper body.
4. Hold passive suspension for a predetermined time interval or for as long as you can. When you’re done, place your feet on the floor or in the drawer and carefully release your hands from the bar.

Dead Hang active

However, with the active version, we will pull the shoulder blades down and back, shoot the lats, and squeeze the core and glutes. Active blocking is better for rebuilding and core strength, which translates to better performing chins. Both active and passive dead hangs improve grip strength.

1. Choose a chin-up bar or a stable surface that is high enough so that you can hang with your legs straight and your feet off the ground. Shorter people should use a box to help them safely climb onto the bar.
2. Select the hand position and grip the bar tightly.
3. Drop into a complete passive block. From here, we will go into an active suspension by pulling the shoulder blades back and down. There may be a slight bend in the elbows when doing this.
4. To help activate the core, imagine that we are using a large belt buckle and we will try to point towards the chin. This will posteriorly tilt the pelvis and place the legs in front of the body.
5. Squeeze your butt and bring your legs together. The whole body should feel tense and activated.
6. Hold the pose for a predetermined time interval or for as long as you can. When you’re done, place your feet on the floor or box and carefully release your hands from the bar.

Advantages

Hanging from a bar has many positive effects on health, not only in training but also in our daily lives.

Shoulder health and mobility

Most of us spend a lot of time sitting in front of our computers and smartphones. Constant bending over can lead to postural problems like upper withers syndrome, where our necks, chest, and shoulders become chronically strained. Over time, the bones around the shoulders can reshape, so there is less room for the tendons to move. This can lead to pinching, pain, movement restrictions such as impingement, and injury.

Fortunately, we can mitigate some of this damage by regularly hanging ourselves from a bar. The force of gravity pulls the shoulders into proper alignment, reduces the risk of shoulder impingement, and can counteract this reshaping process.

Spinal decompression

Weight lifting puts pressure on the discs that live between each individual vertebra in the spine. In the barbell squat, for example, the heavy bar that we place directly on the spine sends high compressive forces to your discs. Although some compression of the discs is normal, it is necessary to release some of this pressure on a regular basis to avoid back pain and potentially serious injury.

Hanging from a bar is a great way to decompress your spinal discs. As gravity puts pressure on the body, it creates more space between the vertebrae and releases some of the pressure.

Stretching and good posture

Hanging is one of the best ways to stretch and relax your upper body. The force of gravity stretches your muscles naturally as it pulls you toward the ground. The hanging position from a bar also helps to get out of the hunched posture that is common among those who work seated at a desk.

By combining spinal decompression, opening your shoulders, and stretching your upper body, hanging can dramatically improve posture. Even a few seconds a day can make us walk taller and feel more confident.

Higher gripping force

A strong grip can make a difference in strength training workouts. Helps with rows, deadlifts, pull downs, and chin-ups. A weak grip leads to faster fatigue and can also make it harder to target certain muscles.

But the importance of grip strength goes way beyond the gym. Grip strength is an accurate indicator of overall strength, function, bone mineral density, mental health, sleep health, general disease status, and cognition over the years.

More central force

Hanging from a bar is a great way to develop core strength. Think of the exercise as a hollow body hold, just from a hanging position.

A strong core is essential if we want to do pull-ups. If we cannot keep our body tight on the bar, we will lose a lot of energy swinging and potentially place our joints in vulnerable positions.

Execution of pull-ups and pull-ups

Beginners who want to do chin-ups and struggle to get in and out of the active hanging position will benefit from the dead hang. Unfortunately, pull-ups and full chin-ups will hurt your strength gains, along with your elbows and shoulders.

A great pull-up always starts and ends in a standstill. Active dead hangs are especially useful because they teach us how to use the core effectively to keep the body taut.

How to hang out for longer?

If you are new to the world of suspension, it is best to start with short intervals of 10 to 30 seconds of suspension dead time. More experienced trainees can hang up for up to 60 to 90 seconds at a time. Enduring 3 to 5 cumulative minutes of suspension is a great long-term goal.

To hang longer, your arms should be completely straight above your head. Dead hangs can create a slight bend in the elbows by pulling the shoulder blades back and down. In both passive and active dead hangs, it is important not to let the lower back protrude from the arch. But, in active blocks, to really activate the abdomen, we must squeeze everything we have. We should focus on connecting the upper back, core, and glutes by pulling the shoulder blades back and down, pointing the belt buckle toward the chin, and squeezing the legs together in front of the body.

And, speaking of legs, we will try to let the legs hang directly below (passive) or slightly in front of the body (active). When that is not possible, you can bend your knees and cross your lower legs behind your body.

Grip types

There are many different ways to position your hands while hanging on a bar. We can select a different position of the hand depending on the health of the joints, the type of surface from which we hang, the muscles that we want to activate and if we are using an active or passive suspension, they serve to analyze all these positions of the hands. Whichever we use, we must hold on tight. By actively squeezing the bar, it is best to activate the muscles in your arms and upper body.

• Pronation. Grab the bar with both palms facing away from you. This hand position is traditionally used for chin-ups. It is recommended to start with an overhead grip, unless we have been instructed to avoid it due to a pre-existing shoulder injury.
• Supination Grab the bar with both palms facing you. This position recruits the biceps more than an overhead position and is traditionally used for push-ups. Some may want to avoid the supine position because it bothers their elbows.
• Neutral. Grab the bar with both palms facing inward. We will need to hang from the grab bars (facing sideways) or on a chin-up rack with neutral handles. The neutral position is ideal for those who have tight shoulders and cannot hang from a straight bar without pain.
• Mixed. Grab the bar with one hand prone (facing away from you) and one hand supinated (facing you). If we use this position, we must make sure to do at least two series to be able to change the direction of the hands.
• Broad. The further apart we place our hands, the more we will recruit the lats and upper back muscles. Extending your grip is a great way to make traditional dead hangs more challenging. Wide grips work well in neutral and overhead positions.
• False grip . This hand position is used for advanced calisthenics such as lifts and front levers. Instead of wrapping our fingers around the bar or rings, we will hang from the palm of the hand. The rings or the bar will be supported by the base of the palm near the wrists.
• One arm grip . If you really want to challenge your hanging skills, try doing it with one arm. Use your legs for support when you start working on this claw. As you get stronger, you can use less and less support until you are hanging on one arm completely.
• Fingertips Hanging by the fingertips is an advanced skill that will not be necessary for most people. However, it can be valuable if we are interested in rock climbing or just want to hang out more intensely. Fingertip hanging is best done from a hanging board specifically designed for this purpose. To protect the tendons of the fingers, we must always perform an active suspension.

Variants and modifications

If we find it too easy or difficult to do Dead Hang, it is interesting to know certain modifications to adapt it to our abilities. Hanging from a bar is not easy if we do it for the first time. Here we show some variants to make it more accessible.

Hanging with supported legs

If we still cannot support the full weight of the body, we will practice hanging on a bar while supporting our legs. We can use a lower bar (so that the feet can stay on the ground) or place a drawer under the bar. Use as much leg support as you need to hang without pain. As we get stronger, we will be able to use our legs less and less.

1. Choose a chin-up bar or a stable surface. Since we will partially support the weight with our feet, it is fine to have the bar closer to the ground (chest height works very well). If we are using a high bar, stop over a drawer placed under you.
2. Choose your hand position and grip the bar tightly.
3. Drop into a blockage. Your arms should be completely straight above your head. However, the feet must remain at least partially in contact with the floor or box. This may require us to bend our knees or place our feet on the ground in front of us. We will use as much leg support as necessary so that we can maintain a relaxed upper body position.
4. Hang on for a predetermined time interval or as long as you can. When we are done, we will place all the weight on the floor or box and carefully release the bar.

Hang on rings

The ring squat hang is another variation that allows us to get help from the legs. If we don’t have a few rings nearby, a TRX or other suspension trainer can also be used.

1. Place the rings approximately chin level while standing. You may need to adjust the height of the rings based on the length of your arms and legs. Arms are advised to be fully extended overhead once you are at the bottom of the deep squat.
2. We will start standing. We will hold the rings tightly and we will separate the feet approximately to the width of the hips.
3. Do a kind of deep squat. Lower yourself until your arms are straight over your head. We are likely to feel a lot of stretch throughout our upper body. The feet must remain firmly planted on the ground.
4. Hang on for a predetermined time interval or as long as you can. When we are finished, we will place our legs on the ground, lift with our arms and return to the initial standing position.

Monkey Bars

1. Start with both hands on a bar and your body hanging below you.
2. Carefully release one hand and grab the next bar in front of you. You can use your hips to generate some rotation in order to reach the bar.
3. Let go of your back hand and grab the next bar in front of you. This hand will jump to the bar that is already being grasped by the other hand.
4. Keep going in this alternating fashion until the grip needs a break or until you’ve reached the end of the bars.