Get Flexible Shoulders through Hanging

Us humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, which makes it easy to understand why hanging should come naturally to us.

Hanging is one of the most simple and effective ways of increasing shoulder flexibility. Holding our arms overhead is an essential function of the shoulders. 

From a decade of coaching bodyweight training, one of the most common deficiencies in terms of flexibility is shoulder flexion or the ability to lift the arms overhead.

As children we can easily move in all ranges of motion, and we lose that innate ability for two reasons:

First of all, we don’t use the range, and therefore we don’t maintain it. Second, we don’t train and move with full range of motion and therefore missing out on the flexibility gains.

_{Why Hanging?}

The reason hanging is so effective is because it’s a loaded stretch, meaning that we add load to the stretch in order to increase our range.

By hanging we can add load in three ways:

1. Your own bodyweight.
2. Using External weight.
3. Gravity pulling you down. 

1 - Bodyweight

First of all your own bodyweight is going to pull you deeper into the stretch, this can be modified and we can use the support of our feet to reduce our own weight.

2 - Weight

Then we can also add additional weight using dumbbells or kettlebells in order to get a better pull into the stretch, which is also going to improve your grip strength.

3 - Gravity

Third and last you’ll have gravity pulling you down, which magnifies the stretch and makes it even more effective for increasing the intensity of the stretch.

What we're stretching

In a hang we’re going to stretch and strengthen a series of muscles that are related to shoulder flexibility, but it’s important to remember that it won’t cover all muscles of the shoulder. 

Using a variety of different hanging variations are going to allow you to stretch and strengthen primarily the shoulders, pecs, lats and biceps.

The movements we can train include flexion, extension, internal rotation, external rotation.

• Shoulder Flexion = arms overhead

• Shoulder Extension = arms behind the back

• Internal Rotation = arms in towards the body

• External Rotation = arms away from the body

We can also do variations that improve passive and active range of motion, depending on the type of flexibility that you need to develop.

Hanging for strength or flexibility?

How you hang is going to affect if it improves your flexibility or strength. In terms of your scapular positioning you can either hang with a elevated or depressed scapula.

By depressing the scapula you are going to engage and active the upper back and traps - which is going to make the hang more active and thus improve strength in the scapula and upper back.

If you elevate the scapula on the other hand you are going to lengthen and stretch all of these muscles, which makes the hang more passive and in this case increases flexibility.

So which one should you do? If you are a more naturally flexible person or you want to use the hang to improve overall upper body strength, go with the active hang variations.

And for more stiff people who want to improve shoulder flexibility or general flexibility you can go with the more passive and relaxed hanging variations.

We can all do both hanging variations, and in reality you don't need to choose. You can do them both in a session, rotate between sessions or change variations between phases.

The key to get the most out of your hangs is to pick a variation that suits your individuality and 

How to do it?

There are many different types of hanging we can utilize, and different routines and programs to effectively improve shoulder range of motion. 

Let’s dive into some of my favourite hanging drills! 

1. Two Arm Passive Hang

The first and most simple exercise is the two arm passive hang. Simply hang from a bar and passively allow your bodyweight and gravity to pull you into the stretch.

In terms of technique you want to allow the shoulders to fully elevate, so relax the shoulders and try to get the shoulders to touch your ears in the stretched position.

You also want to focus on taking deep breaths and use the following technique: Breathe in through the nose and exhale through the mouth.

Think about breathing into your chest and upper back and hold the inhale for 2 seconds, then exhale intensely through the mouth and make the exhale as long as possible.

To find the stretch in the lats it's important to fully exhale AND focus on pulling the ribs down and in, it should look a little like a hollow body hold but keep the hips open.

Cues:

• Hang with the hands shoulder width apart.
• Let the shoulders relax and sink down.
• Focus on full breaths (inhale, exhale)
• Pull the ribs in to find the lats.

2. Two Arm Active Hang

The second variation is useful to build scapular and straight arm straight. It's the two arm active hang, in which you work against gravity using the scapular depressors. 

We use this variation to build strength in the scapula, and it can allow you to build more strength in the starting position of a chin up or pull up.

Cues:

• Hang with the hands roughly shoulder width apart.
• Start in a passive hang with the shoulders relaxed.
• Pull down on the bar and depress the scapula.
• Hold for short bursts of 5-15 seconds on each rep.