Hanging
Get a good stretch and strengthen your shoulders:
Our bodies are set up for hanging. Your arms should be able to support the weight of your body just as your legs needs to be able to hold the rest of your body weight in order to walk well.
Practising hanging extends your shoulders and strengthens your shoulders. It also feels great because it extends and decompresses your spine.
Our bodies are set up for hanging. Your arms should be able to support the weight of your body just as your legs needs to be able to hold the rest of your body weight in order to walk well.
Practising hanging extends your shoulders and strengthens your shoulders. It also feels great because it extends and decompresses your spine.
If you haven’t done anything like it in a while you will need to start your hanging practice slowly. You need to make sure that your muscles and ligaments can take your weight before they do and they will probably need a bit of preparation.
Steps to hanging:
The first step in relearning to hang is to lean away from something so your arms and a shoulders start to take some of your weight without being in full extension overhead. You can use a bar for this or a doorway. The nearer your feet are to the object you are leaning off the more weight you will put into your arm.
Lean off a fixed bar or doorway.
Vary your grip (hold on in different ways) to get different muscles in the arm and shoulder to work.
Pay attention to your shoulder blades. Are they elevated? Try to keep them down away from your ears.
Once you’re ready to hang straight down from something, start with both feet on the ground. Use your legs as little or as much as you need to.
Then move on to hanging without your feet on the ground.
Work on increasing the length of time you hang for but if your form goes and your shoulders go up towards your ears, take a break.
A doorway reach gives your body a quick taster of a hang:
Not really hanging but still an extension of the body, just reach up to the door jamb as you go through a doorway.
If you can reach to put your fingers on the sill, you can have a little hang there. And you’ll find out if your door sills need dusting!
Rx
