Opposite to active hang, where you have activated shoulders to keep your body up, in passive hang (or as some say dead hang) you let your whole body just hang loose and rely solely on your grip strength. Hang from a bar with your hands at about shoulder width and keep your arms straight and shoulders relaxed. Try to relax your whole body. You will feel your spine extend and feet come a bit closer to the ground. Don’t use muscles anywhere other than your grip to stay on the bar.
Passive hang stretches your spine, chest, lats, shoulders and arms and it is hugely recommended exercise to do.
You can do it at the start of your workout, in the middle or at the end – it’s not that specific, but you should do them. When you feel your body literally getting longer and, if the bar is not too high, your legs start touching the ground you know you are doing passive hangs the correct way.
Benefits Of Doing Passive Hangs
Passive hangs help relieve tension in your back muscles, spine and shoulders. Hanging opens up your shoulder joints and increases shoulder mobility.
Doing regular passive hangs will also increase your grip strength that will be beneficial in other exercises like hanging leg raises and front lever.
Typical progression path for pull-exercises would look something like this: Dead Hang 🠖 Inverted Rows 🠖 Chin Ups 🠖 Pull Ups 🠖 Weighted Chin Ups 🠖 Bar Pullovers 🠖 Muscle Up 🠖 Front Lever
Passive hangs are pretty simple exercises so there is not much to say about them. Here are examples how your body should look like when doing passive hangs:
Improve Your Results With Proper Training
If you’re doing dead hangs and probably eventually pull ups as part of your training, make sure you’re also focusing on proper form, progression, and consistency.
Most beginners struggle not because the exercise is bad, but because they’re missing the basics. If you are just starting out and looking to learn the basics of bodyweight training without equipment, this Beginner No Equipment Bodyweight Training Guide will get your started easily and you will make your workouts so much better and see result in no time!
Once you have the basics down, you can try this very simple Beginner Bodyweight Workout Plan to stay on track until you want to move onto some more advanced exercises.
If you are struggling with bad form, injuries or lack of motivation, you can also check these:
