Three Unexpected Benefits of Hanging

Calisthenics Expert Al Kavadlo shares three unexpected benefits of hanging:

1 - Improved Shoulder Mobility
2 - Increased Grip Strength
3 - Hanging Keeps You Honest

[ralphholiman]

I just did a thirty second hang. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was hurting at the end. 66 years old, 6’3”, 245. I’m trying to get where I can do pull-ups again.

[EyeMarve]

My emo friend friend probably just did it wrong

[glenmcgrath]

I'm 70 and six months ago couldn't hang for longer than 20 seconds. Now I'm doing 3 x 90 second hangs everyday.Completely got rid of my rotator cuff injury which was what got me to see if hanging would help me, so yes indeed it does !

[TrishCanyon]

I'm working on increasing my time 5 seconds per week. I probably started 8-10 seconds, now 25 this week.

[antonioball]

Don't forget confidence it really helps. I thought I couldn't hold myself for 3 sets of 30 seconds because I am 280, but really I lacked the confidence in my abilities and was doing the sets in no time. I could even pull up a little so now I finish my set of hangs by trying to pull up. And this was in the same day I thought I could not hang

[curious-kat]

I love hanging like this, but i got to train hand/finger strength, I tend to hold on incorrectly.
Last year when I had shoulder impingement I started hanging from 3 x 20-30 seconds with 1 minute apart, and it really did wonders.
Also neck pain is less when I do my dead hanging exercises.

[XatolosWired]

"Hi, I'm Al Kavadlo, and we're hanging out"

[errolpaul]

Problem is if I stay more than a minute then other muscles down the chain start activating, tensing up. have to try focusing on disengaging them now.

[codyburke]

It also decompresses your spine! 3 sets of 20 secs hangs after my weightlifting. So good!!

[janelast]

Thanks Very effective video It has convinced me to try it out

[tbd]

I almost got a minute hang the other day

[flaviodanielbergozza]

Hi! I think this exercise is amazing, it has really bein important for my shoulder. However the other day I look up (instead to keep the chin tucked to the chest like normally I always do it) and started feeling a pinching in the neck shoulder-I thought I needed some kind of stretch in that area), I still have some pain after 2 days. Should I not move the head during this exercise, or should I do some slow movements with the head, side to side, up and down to create more room in all those layers or better never move it?? Thank you in advance!

[Durzo]

I always notice I start swinging back and forth a little and keep swinging permanently unless I put my foot down for a second to stop it. Are there added benefits to slightly swinging, or better to hold still?

[SquareNoggin]

I've been doing 1:00ish min single arm hangs, and I like to rotate around using my shoulder while hanging with one arm (face forward, then turn ti face backward, then back forward, etc), and I try to keep my legs pulled up into a seated position throughout to burn my core. Switch from one arm to the other and do the same time on that arm (though I don't always quite make it, my dominant hand grip is still better than the other), then I grab the bar with both hands and do one explosive pullup, before hanging with just the first arm again to repeat the cycle as many times as I can without touching the floor, and ideally without lowering my legs (though as my core gets tired I tend to tuck my legs in to almost like a fetal position which is easier than having like a 90 degree seated position).

The time I can hit reduces each cycle until either my grip or core gives out.

But it's my favorite way to get warmed up for my workouts and it's a lot of fun. Rotating while hanging with one arm seems to have really strengthened some small muscles in my shoulder area and I stopped having shoulder pain in bench presses once I started doing this warm up.

The only problem is if I go really hard it can sometimes fatigue my grip muscles right off the bat, and I end up having to rely more on my straps if I'm doing deadlifts or rows or something like that afterwards. Which to me is fine because I like the way straps allow me to not worry about grip when doing those big compound lifts.

I'm a fairly slim guy so there's not a whole lot that I can do that's impressive to the average male gym goer (who tend to be bigger and stronger than me) but I've had a handful of very strong looking dudes tell me they found this little warm up thing I do very impressive - which is quite a motivator haha. It's the one gym thing I can do where I feel like I'm above average.

[cryforthemoon]

I must be in pretty top shape. Doing 3 one minute hangs with rest in between as a 36 year old female.

[mectorocks]

Started at 35 seconds, now at 2 minutes 47 secs

[ricardodiaz]

I just started doing a few 60 second hangs as part of my stretching and warm up regimen. Feels really good to the entire upper body - especially the shoulders, triceps and lower back. I can do 60 seconds with ease. 90 would be challenging. 2 minutes would be very hard.

[Casal]

2 min 30 seconds first try. Found a timer machine at an announcement park. Record since unknown was 2m 31s.

[BestRareR]

The last picture scared the shit out of me

[NathanBlackberry]

I was able to hang today for 10 seconds😊😊😊