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Hanging from a pull-up bar, without doing a pull-up, may look like a non-exercise. But “dead hangs,” as they’re called, are a useful tool for building grip strength, stretching your shoulders, and working toward doing pull-ups. That said, dead hangs have become trendy, and I think they’re kind of overrated. Let’s break down what dead hangs can and can’t do, and how you can improve on them.
What are dead hangs, exactly?
To do a dead hang, first you need to find a pull-up bar. You can get a doorway pull-up bar or a pull-up tower to train hangs at home, or you can find a pull-up bar at your local gym. If you haven’t seen one, they’re sneaky. Look for pull-up bars or handles:
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On squat racks
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On cable machines (especially in the middle of crossover or dual-cable machines)
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On assisted pull-up machines (you can often fold down the knee pad and use these without assistance)
To do a dead hang:
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Ideally, use a box or bench so you don’t need to jump. But it’s okay if you jump up to reach the bar or handles.
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Grab the bar with your palms facing away from you. (Other hand positions are possible, but this is the most common way to do dead hangs.)
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Find a comfortable grip width, with your hands a bit wider than your shoulders. If you have an option of different handles (wider, narrower, etc), find the most comfortable.
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Adjust your grip, if needed. You can grab the bar either with your thumbs on top of the bar or wrapped underneath.
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Relax your body. Your shoulders will be right up next to your ears.
These are called “dead” hangs because your body is like a dead weight. The opposite would be an “active” hang, where you’re pressing your shoulders down and activating the muscles in your shoulders, back, and chest. Active hangs can be useful, but dead hangs are what we’re talking about today.
How to use dead hangs for grip strength
The first thing you may notice when you grab that pull-up bar is that this is not necessarily easy for your hands! Your grip muscles, mostly located in your forearms(!), need to work pretty hard to hold your body up.
If you’re a gymnast or a rock climber, this is no problem. But if you’re new to the gym, you may find that your hands can’t hold your body weight very long. That’s fine—dead hangs build grip strength, and you’ll start making progress pretty quickly.
If this is too hard, prop your feet up on a box or bench (or use a lower bar, like the bar in a Smith machine, and rest your feet on the floor). This takes some of the weight off your hands.
How to progress: Watch the clock (or set a timer on your watch or phone) and see how long you can hang. Start with three sets of whatever you can handle, and work up to at least three sets of 30 seconds or more, resting a few minutes in between sets.
Once you can easily hang for more than 30 seconds, make it harder. My favorite progression is to hang with one full hand, and the other hand using just two fingers. On the next set, switch which hand is which. (Do four sets, so each hand gets equal work.) You can also add weight, for example with a dip belt. Another option is to do standing holds with a loaded barbell. Load the barbell heavier as your grip gets stronger.
Why they’re overrated: Dead hangs are great as a beginner grip exercise, but if you’re serious about training your grip, you shouldn’t rely on only dead hangs. Wrist and forearm curls, thick bar work, and pinching movements should also be in the mix. And remember that if you do want to center your grip training around dead hangs, make them harder as described above—don’t just hang for longer.
How to use dead hangs to work toward your first pull-up
Instead of dangling there, do you want to do an actual pull-up? Dead hangs are a great first step, because they help to build your grip and get you comfortable using pull-up bars. Use them the same way as you would for grip: Build up to 3 x 30 seconds, and then add active hangs and other moves to your routine.
If this is too hard, prop your feet up on a box or bench, as with the grip training.
How to progress: Your next step is an active hang. To do an active hang, start with a dead hang, and then pretend you are trying to pull the bar down toward the ground with straight arms. As you do this, your head and chest will rise, your shoulders will be pushed toward the ground, and your back muscles will tighten.
If you do several reps, those are sometimes called “scap pull-ups” (because it’s like a pull-up, but you’re moving your shoulder blades—your scapulae—rather than your arms). Here’s a video example.
Other key exercises in your pull-up journey may include flexed-arm hangs (where you start from the top position of a pull-up, and stay there) and negative pull-ups (where you start from the top position of a pull-up, and slowly lower yourself down). For both of these, you’ll use that box or bench to step into the starting position.
Why they’re overrated: Dead hangs are fine as your first step into the pull-up world. But once you can do active hangs (or reps of scap pull-ups), the dead hangs aren’t really necessary.
How to use dead hangs as a shoulder stretch
If you see me doing dead hangs, they’ll be for this reason: warming up my shoulders and stretching my upper body before I do lifts where I hold a barbell overhead.
I find these work best if I use a low pull-up bar, or even a bar in a squat rack or Smith machine, so that I can put my feet on the ground.
The point here is not to challenge your grip, so you don’t need your full weight pulling down on your hands. By putting your feet on the floor, you can easily change positions, for example leaning forward to feel the stretch more in your chest. Another good stretch is to switch your hands so your palms are facing toward you, and round your back a bit to feel the stretch in your lats (down the sides of your back).
Spend as long as needed stretching your shoulders this way (3 x 30 seconds is a good guideline here as well, but you can go longer if it feels like it helps). I like to alternate these stretches with activation (strength) exercises like band pull-aparts or push-ups.
How to progress: If you can comfortably hit all the positions I just described, you’ve pretty much achieved all the shoulder flexibility that this exercise can bring you. As with any stretch, if you want more flexibility than this can offer, choose a new set of stretches that match your goals.
Why they’re overrated: A dead hang is just one type of stretch. (The version that I describe here, where you get into several different positions to stretch different muscles, is a little more useful.) But shoulder health is about more than just one or a few specific stretches. You’ll also want to strengthen your shoulders with a variety of exercises, and stretch your shoulders in more positions than just overhead. Dead hangs are often billed as a single magical exercise that will solve all your problems, but they really just give you the tiniest sampling of what you could get from a well-rounded program of strength training and mobility work.
How to use dead hangs for “spinal decompression”
I’ve left this one for last because it’s the least important, at least in terms of physical benefits.
People who love dead hangs often enjoy the feeling of relaxation that they feel when hanging from a bar. As the muscles in your back and core relax, you may feel your back “lengthen,” and this can feel nice.
Why it’s overrated: There’s no solid evidence that this really does anything for your health or fitness.
Spinal decompression (often using devices that hold a person in a specific position) has been used to treat back pain or to encourage healing of some types of back injuries. Sometimes it seems to help, but there’s no clear evidence showing that the decompression is doing anything—most injuries resolve themselves eventually, whether you’re doing spinal decompression or not. A 2007 review examined several studies that are cited by marketing material for spinal decompression devices, and concluded that “the quality of these studies is questionable.”
Ultimately, if dead hangs make you feel better, go right ahead and do them. They may even improve your grip strength and shoulder mobility as a side effect. But don’t expect any serious health benefits from doing them.
