Dead hang 3 minutes every day and these amazing things will happen to your body!
The dead hang, a straightforward yet highly effective strength training exercise, targets various muscles in the upper body, particularly the back, shoulders, and grip. It involves suspending oneself from a stable object, such as a horizontal bar or pull-up bar, with arms fully extended and feet off the ground.
Executing a dead hang exercise correctly:
- Locate a sturdy horizontal or pull-up bar capable of supporting your body weight.
- Position yourself underneath the bar and reach up to grasp it with either an overhand grip (palms facing away from you) or an underhand grip (palms facing toward you).
- Ensure that your hands are slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, providing a secure grip.
- Lift your feet off the ground, allowing your arms to bear the weight of your body.
- Keep your arms fully extended and maintain relaxed shoulders during the exercise.
- Engage your core muscles to maintain a straight body position, avoiding excessive swinging or bending at the hips.
- Initially, start with shorter durations and gradually increase the time as your strength improves.
- To conclude the exercise, lower yourself down with control and place your feet back on the ground.
The dead hang may appear deceptively simple, but its benefits are substantial as mentioned in a video by Fit Zip.
Dead Hang 3 Minutes Every Day and These Amazing Things Will Happen to Your Body
Hanging for 3 minutes every day will vastly improve your overall health and you can do it as often as you want, as it is a low-impact exercise.
If you are new to this exercise, begin with hanging for 10 seconds three times, resting enough in between your reps. Don’t forget to engage your core.
Dead hang for 3 minutes every day will fully stretch your body and release tension in your muscles and joints, decompressing your vertebrae and promoting spinal realignment.
It can fix neck pain and improve your posture while increasing flexibility of your shoulders, hips and knees. Because of the blood flow, hanging can improve digestion, reduce bloating and ease constipation.
In the end, this is what 3 minutes of hanging every day will do to your body physically:
- Improved grip strength
- Posture correction
- Spinal decompression
- Shoulder strengthening and injury repair
Watch the video below for a full explanation of what doing dead hang for 3 minutes every can improve in your body.
Hanging is also great for people who don’t have access to a gym. They can do it at home on a pull-up bar, rings, a tree branch, a door, or even a wall.
You could also do passive hanging or active hanging:
- Passive hanging – relaxed back and shoulder
- Active hanging – requires active muscle activation on the back and shoulders
There are other variations of the hanging, such as tucked knees or the L-sit.
There are many difficult hanging movements you can do that are active, such as the hanging sideways, human flag and one arm-hanging.
The best way to practice active hanging is to go on a playground or anywhere where there is a white pull-up or monkey bar. Do transitions and play around while hanging, change the grip, move laterally and swing.
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Regularly performing dead hangs can indeed benefit a variety of lifts and exercises. Here’s how dead hangs can specifically enhance other movements:
- Deadlift: Dead hangs improve grip strength, which is crucial for maintaining a secure hold on the bar during deadlifts. By developing a stronger grip, you’re less likely to experience grip fatigue or have the bar slip from your hands during heavy deadlift sets. This allows you to focus more on the posterior chain muscles (such as the glutes and hamstrings) that are the primary targets of the deadlift.
- Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups: Dead hangs are a fundamental component of pull-up and chin-up exercises. By regularly practicing dead hangs, you strengthen the muscles necessary for initiating and controlling the movement. Improved grip strength, scapular stability, and upper body endurance gained from dead hangs directly transfer to enhanced performance in pull-ups and chin-ups.
- Rows: Dead hangs can benefit various rowing exercises, such as barbell rows, dumbbell rows, or bodyweight rows. The increased grip strength and scapular stability developed through dead hangs help maintain proper form and control during rowing movements. This translates to better muscle engagement and a reduced risk of compensatory movements that could compromise your technique.
- Bench Press: While the direct impact of dead hangs on bench press may be limited, the increased grip strength and shoulder stability gained from dead hangs can indirectly contribute to better bench press performance. A stronger grip ensures that you can maintain control of the bar, and improved shoulder stability reduces the risk of shoulder injuries during the exercise.
- Push-Ups: Dead hangs can improve push-up performance by strengthening the muscles involved in stabilizing the shoulder girdle. Enhanced grip strength also aids in maintaining a stable hand position during push-ups, allowing for better force transmission through the upper body. Overall, the improved scapular stability and upper body endurance gained from dead hangs can help you maintain proper form and perform more efficient push-ups.
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The frequency of dead hangs depends on your fitness level, goals, and recovery capacity. While dead hangs can be a valuable exercise, it’s generally not recommended to perform them every day, especially for beginners or those with limited grip strength.
You should always take into account your recovery, training goals, and individual factors such as injury-prone, genetics, or ability.
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Image Sources
- Back-Muscles: Nigel Msipa on Unsplash
- Dead hang: Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels