Dead hang looks simple but is a mighty exercise with explosive pros, the benefits of this underrated exercise go beyond just strength and mobility, which I’ll be talking about more, dead hanging involves hanging from a pull-up bar with your feet elevated off of the floor, there’s no pulling, pushing or any motion to be done, you just need to let the rest of your body relaxes as you hold on to the bar. Remember dangling from the monkey bars as a kid, you were dead hanging back then, so dead hanging can be performed by anyone regardless of their Fitness level.
Can you improve your posture by doing dead hanging ?
Are they good for your shoulders?
Dead hanging benefits:
1-Dead hang Decompresses your spine :
Many of the regular activities and movements that occur in our lives often lead to spine decompression, sitting in front of a computer for several hours a day, and lifting heavy objects is also another activity that forces the spine to compress, sitting positions in particular can lump Untold stress on your back and neck muscles, and can lead to the tightening of the hip flexors, these can impede blood flow to the gluteus maximus. this is where dead hangs come help you. Dead hangs work by relieving stress on the spine as gravity pulls you down while the hanging motion lengthens and relaxes the spine. Your body weight gently pulls the vertebrae apart and in turn relieves the pressure of the discs or the gel-like cushions situated between the bones and the spine. Eventually you will get rid of all the tension and back pain. (explication)
2-Dead hang Develops your grip strength :
you need to have a developed grip strength in order to succeed in any activity, but more importantly grip strength is necessary for usual everyday tasks, like opening bottles carrying groceries, and holding a pen. That grip strength is a proven indicator of General body strength and muscle mass, it turns out a good grip is associated with a long and healthy life, hanging from a bar or other object, substantially challenges all the muscles involved with your grip, as it tries to hold your entire body weight, grip strength is also an essential yet still overlooked aspect of fitness. Having a poor grip can limit how much you can handle certain lifts and strength training exercises, if you want to build a grip like a vice, then dead hangs are the key. besides stronger grip and spine decompression. (explication)
3-Dead hang Improves your posture
Posture correction using dead hangs, and tight back muscles from sitting all day long because desk jobs can wreak havoc on a person’s posture, leading to a hunched Overlook not. Only that but it can also lead to neck pain, back pain, and other irritating conditions. And so the better stretch those back muscles are the better your posture will look. An easy way to fix this is by practicing dead hex. Hanging produces traction and unloading throughout the body, but more so at the upper and mid-thoracic spine, think of a line across the back of your shoulders right to your spine, that area will be on the receiving end of the traction force from hanging from your hands, with gravity pulling the rest of your body down. As a result, it can help balance the daily compressive forces you experience.
Dead hangs are highly effective at combating all those daily compressions by putting the same joints in traction. Traction is the opposite of compressive force, simply any movement or activity that can open up spaces between areas, when you grab a bar to hang it produces spinal traction. This is in contrast with the force of gravity, getting your bad posture fixed by doing dead hangs regularly is such a sweet deal already. (explication)
4-Dead hang Activates your upper body muscles :
These muscles include the forearms, and forearm muscles consisting of the flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus, and flexor Policus Longus, these three work together and are responsible for grip strength, through dead hangs your forearms get a serious workout throughout the exercise. (explication)
A-Shoulders:
Deltoid muscles or the ball and socket joint connecting your arms to your body are activated during dead hangs, as these muscles work to rotate downward throughout the exercise, additionally, your shoulders get a deep stretch which can be good for shoulder pain and shoulder joint range of motion.
B-Lats:
Sitting, weight lifting, and driving for long periods can cause your lats to short, when this happens it affects your posture leading to a hunched back and rounded shoulders, which look unpleasant and feel uncomfortable, with dead hangs your lats are fully stretched, and lengthened making them longer and in better condition,
C-Core:
When performing a dead hang, engage your deep core muscles while you keep your body still and ensure that your body doesn’t sway side-to-side, doing so will help improve your core power even more, and also increase your overall strength and endurance.
D-Rhomboids:
Rhomboids are bilateral muscles located in the upper back, essential for good posture thus, when they become tight it causes a dull pain between the shoulder blades. Dead hangs give your rhomboids a great stretch to help reduce tension and lengthen them.
E-Trapezius :
The traps our muscles in the upper back and neck, that are responsible for shoulder and neck movement, hanging engages these muscles by forcing them to stabilize your shoulders and support your body weight, then hanging is an excellent exercise for various reasons.
However, some may find it difficult to perform, since it’s only your hands that pretty much hold your body weight, in this case planking may be a better body weight exercise for certain folks.
5-Dead hang Stretches your shoulder muscles
previously I’ve discussed the major upper body muscles that get engaged during a deadhead, but one group of muscles I’ve yet to tackle is the shoulders, which I believe is worth its section, many folks do not regularly use the full range of motions of their shoulders, it may not seem like that big of a deal but in the long run, it can lead to aches and pains and even loss of mobility. Performing dead hangs regularly will open up your deltoids and increase their range of motion, allowing you to flex your arms over a greater range without difficulty, also stable Shoulders mean less shoulder pain and decreased risk of injuries, especially during upper body workouts. (explication)
6-Makes you look taller
As a result of the Law of Attraction, our growth declines with age, when it comes to increasing your height, dead hangs may help to a certain extent. This is made possible by defying the effects of gravity and stretching the spine, in some cases, the dead hang exercise can help the spine stretch upside down enough to increase your height in the short term, that said experts have different opinions on this matter , and there is no definitive proof that the change in growth will remain. (explication)
forever. But it won’t hurt to try, besides other benefits are guaranteed already, to do dead hangs make sure to use a good set of horizontal bars, bending your knees a bit, also helps elongate your body, try doing it for 2 to 3 minutes at a time.
To perform the dead hang, simply use a pull-up bar and hang with both hands. As you do so, keep your arms straight and your feet off the ground, look straight ahead so your neck remains in a neutral position, relax your face and neck and remember to breathe, the dead hang is a challenging movement that puts stress on your shoulder joints so it’s good to start slowly. To gradually increase the intensity you may start with both feet on the ground, as you improve lift one foot and then the other, from here, hang for 10 seconds more at a time until you can hold it for at least 60 seconds.
