Hanging Helps My Back — But I Do It My Way

By Lawrence Braverman

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a story called Standing Beats Falling, which exhorted the importance of leg strength in preventing falls, and the benefits of two ancient exercise practices known as Zhan Zhuang and T’ai Chi. In a second story called Yes, I’ve Fallen, But I Can Get Up, I added that upper body strength can save your life should you go down, emphasizing arm strength. Now, I’d like to add something more about strengthening the upper body, most specifically, the back and spine.

I used to have a lot of trouble with my own back, probably due in part to my youthful experiences of the hard physical labor of commercial fishing: running around the pitching deck of a lobster boat in rough seas clutching 90-pound, steel-weighted lobster traps to my chest. Observing proper form when carrying such weight was not even a thought.

For far too long, I was subject to my back suddenly going into a spasm, sometimes simply while tying a shoe, and then being virtually unable to move, having no option but to somehow make it to the bed or, if that was unattainable, the bare floor for extended periods until my back finally released.

Learning T’ai Chi Chuan was instrumental in fixing my back, ending the spasms, but, even now, after spending time sitting, I rise with some difficulty from the chair, the shape of my back resembling nothing so much as a question mark, as in, really? again?

I have a pull-up bar in a doorway between my living room and bedroom; it’s a pressure mounted bar I installed at the proper height — about 11 inches above my head — by twisting the ends in different directions, which makes the bar longer (or shorter, if you want to take it down), until it was tight and securely in place. Also available are bars you can screw into doorways, but I decided not to go that route, as this bar has never slipped yet. Here is the bar I use, which can be found here. (It costs around $25.)

My bar is located so that I can reach up with both my hands and easily encircle it with them: having to jump up to grab the bar would utterly defeat the purpose; having the bar be too low would not be optimal — this is a stretch after all.

For a while I was doing dead hangs, where I’d pull myself off the ground in a pull-up, where the fingers go up and over the bar and the palms face away, and I’d simply hang.

I found some difficulties with this method and modified it, because I was worried about loosening or further damaging my elbow joint, having previously suffered from tennis elbow AND golf elbow at different times. Once, while hanging fully off the ground for almost a minute, I experienced a strong burning sensation from my pinky finger to my elbow, which I think involved a nerve. So, I made a simple change, which I consider a real improvement.

Now I hang so that my feet never leave the ground.  They are in front of me, as if I’m sitting. Sometimes only my toes touch the ground, sometimes half of my foot; it depends how strong I feel (I’m 72). While I’m hanging, my lower back is absolutely relaxed. Sometimes after 10 or 20 seconds I can feel or even hear a pop. Gravity does all the work of stretching and elongating — creating more space in a lower back constricted by too much sitting, which can eventually weaken it.

This hang feels quite pleasant, but I’m not just hanging like a side of beef! Rather I’m pulling up with my arms, but only about a half an inch, in order to get the arms involved and take the strain off the elbow tendons and ligaments. The goal is to place that stress squarely on the muscles not the connective tissue. This exercise will not only make your arms stronger, your grip strength will improve as well; opening jars will become easier.

IMPORTANT: I am not a doctor; I’m just recounting what works well for me. But there is an orthopedic surgeon who recommends hanging (fully off the ground), Dr. John M. Kirsch, who wrote a book called Shoulder Pain? The Solution & Prevention. In the introduction he offers a warning about conditions, such as dislocating shoulders and osteoporosis, that preclude hanging. But my method of never fully leaving the ground, letting the exerciser decide how much work to do on any given day, I’ve found most beneficial for my lower back, upper back, the erector spinae muscles that support the spine, my arms and even my chest.