Hanger Recommendations?

Hello everyone, after some consideration I’ve come to ask you guys for any recommendations or to share your experiences with hangers.

Which ones have you used? How have they worked out? Pros and Cons?

I’ve been taking a good look at the Bibhanger and I’ve been thinking about purchasing one.

I’m still a novice but here’s my limited experience. I started by making a Capn’s Wench. It was ok, and let me get the general idea of hanging. After trying that about a month, I ended up buying a Bib Starter. It’s been tricky to get the adjustments dialed in, but yesterday I think I finally got it, thanks to a little theraband and a piece of scotch tape to hold the theraband wrap in place. I hung 5 lbs a total of two hours yesterday with no issues. I can tell that the bib is definitely well made and thought out, but the learning curve takes some time. As long as you won’t get frustrated by that, I say go for it, and get some theraband!

Dude151, I have a wench, monkeybar’s vac cap hanger, and a bib starter. The bib is my favorite and would be my recommendation. If you decide to go the bib route, do yourself a favor and read all that you can about adjustment and attachment and then spend some time playing with different things until you find the perfect combination for you. If you get your wrapping, adjustments, and attachment down perfect you can barely even feel the bib on your unit - it can be that comfortable. But if you don’t figure out exactly what works best, an ill-fitting bib can feel hellish.

Roots

I used a noose style hanger (yes, you read it right) and an AFB hanger (which is pretty much like a Bib’ hanger as I understand it). The first one gave me gains, the other one not, although with very high weights and attaching it very near the base looked extremely promising in terms of girth gains.

I had a Bib for a while and like most have said, figuring it out was a chore. I finally gave up on it and sold it - also beacuse right after I bought it, things changed in personal life and dedicated hanging time was hard to come by.

I recently got back into hanging and made myself a Wench. Totally sold on it (wish I’d have gone this route first). Comfortable, adjustments can be made on the fly. Doubles as an ADS with righ stretching attachment. All around very nice.

Ilogpe, I use my wench as an ADS as well. It works very good for that. And it is extremely easy to make and pretty comfortable with little adjustment.

Vac cap, same thing - good for ADS, very comfortable out of the box.

The thing I don’t like about them as hangers is that they have an upper limit to weight of 12-15 pounds. Although that could be enough for many people who pursue a more conservative hanging style.

Roots

I use a Bib. I started with the Starter and now I use the Bib Hardcore. I did make a Wench but my craftsmanship was shoddy and I didn’t trust it. Nothing against the Wench itself but more my lack of putting together a good product.

The Bib has a learning curve and if you go that route I would definitely recommend a starter. The foundation of getting the Bib correct is your wrap. It all starts from there. Working hand in hand with the wrap is figuring out your bottom gap/top gap. This takes time and experimentation. The key is to get close and just dial it in from there. That process of wrap and bottom top gaps can be very frustrating for people.

You want to focus on your technique and build up slowly week after week. The Bib forum has more information than you will ever need and every question has been answered hundreds of times throughout that forum.

The overall positive is it just plain works. The question is how much weight and time will it take for you to break through your limiting factors. Some people are lucky and 7 pounds is enough. There are people on the forum that had to get up to 30 pounds before they saw results. The hanger itself can easily handle 50 pounds and probably well above that if needed. It just takes time to build up to those weights. If you are the type that will quit if you don’t see results in the first month then the Bib and probably hanging in general is not for you. I read about people that quit hanging at 12, 15, 20 pounds without any results and I feel horrible for them. I have seen what the hanger can do and it is just having that dedication to get to the correct weight that will do the trick for you.

If you can stick it out you can have awesome results in spurts once you get to that weight and time that just does it for you. From my own personal experience and what I have read from others it is very common getting to the right weight and gaining a 1/4 inch in a week or two. Then you plateau for a bit until you make an adjustment and bingo another quick 1/4 inch. Mind you everyone is different but this is very common in my readings and definitely happens to me.

The negatives is the learning curve and if you try to take short cuts your skin and soft tissues will pay. If you are the impatient type this might be a problem because short cuts will actually derail your progress since if will force you to cut back.

I personally believe it takes a certain mindset to hang successfully and definitely a certain mindset to get through that initial wrapping frustration phase.

The benefit of starting with a Bib is you can get the technique correctly at low weights and if you are lucky maybe even gain at a low weight. If you start with a different hanger and reach its maximum weight limit you will not be able to start a Bib at that same weight. You will have to start at a low weight again and build up. This can be very frustrating and basically a loss of time.

BH, that was a great post, I agree completely with every statement you made there. Every hanger should read that before they start.

What do you think of the hardcore? I really want one. My starter works great, and now that I have all my adjustments figured out, I can pretty much hang any weight comfortably - though I have only made it up to 11 pounds at my heaviest times, I know if I stay with it this time I will need to hang more eventually so I’m glad I have a bib. The hardcore seems like it would be more comfortable and secure, however. How has your experience been?

A note about my own bib use: I shoot for a relatively constant level of discomfort, so I progress weights as soon as I start to feel the moderate discomfort I’m after lessen. Doing this, I gained over an inch in about 4 months, and never had any plateaues - just consistent, steady gains. I stopped hanging for 6 months or so (this is why I only got up to 11 pounds) and only lost about 1/4 inch. I started again like two or three weeks ago and I’m already back to where I was and even up another little bit. I’m not saying these results are typical, but my point is, bib hangers definitely work!

Roots

Thank you. Regretfully I probably come of like a person in a cult because I love the Bib so much, but the Bib is the first thing that gave me results after 20 years of on and off again PE. I was positive I was a hard gainer until the Bib. Now I think I am blessed or maybe something else.

The hardcore grips the internals better without a doubt. However, you really need to have the technique down before you can switch to it. I think if more people started with the hardcore more people would quit before they had gains. It is just less forgiving when it comes to technique. I do love the the extra grip though. Regretfully you will need to modify to different wrap dimensions to get it to fit you but this time around you will have the experience to dial it in quicker.

If you do switch to the Hardcore just take your last Bib Starter wrap and Ziploc bag it up with the Starter. This way if there is ever a problem or something breaks on the Hardcore you shouldn’t have to adjust the Starter dimensions and you have the wrap or at the very least the dimension of the wrap to cut some more.

Regretfully my hanging schedule gets sidetracked by my kids school schedule and my own laziness. In the last couple months of summer vacation I have done almost no hanging. So when I want to get back up to speed it will take me weeks to maybe a month to return to my last effective weight. My kid’s summer break is just an excuse but it has been an effective one in sidelining my hanging.

For me the worst things about these hanging breaks and even mini hanging breaks that I take is my skin takes a beating every time I take even 4 days off. From my own person experience the first limiting factor in terms of discomfort/pain is the skin. The skin will keep you honest and force you to slow down.

My plateaus are partially self induced. I always measure on the 11th of each month and then I find myself getting lazy. Then after a couple weeks of knowing that I am not feeling the results I dial it in and up my sets and weights as needed. Boom there are my results. My lack of self discipline is preventing me from getting those steady results. It is something I need to focus on but like my weight issues I just have a difficult time staying on task.

I have a feeling other people might also have self induced plateaus with hanging. Maybe they get there sets in but they get comfortable at a certain weight and they aren’t adjusting the weights upward even though they are no longer getting that feeling of deep tissue soreness. (Hope I am describing the soreness that you feel). Then when they measure and see they haven’t gained then they finally up the weights.

It looks like you are doing exactly what Bib preaches and you are adjusting by feel. That is awesome and I am sure you will keep seeing results as long as you keep doing that.

Sorry for the rambling.

Congrats on your gains and just one last off topic thing.

I read about your gains and I see my gains in a quick time period also and it is why I believe people like Bib and others that claim some insane 3 inch gain in a year.

When you take someone with an obsessive personality, the necessary time, a tool that allows them to increase weight to greater than 50 pounds, the knowledge on knowing how to hang by feel and then the willingness to put in 30 hanging hours a week for a year of course there results are going to be crazy.

I truly believe that what makes big gains impossible for most people has nothing to do with technique and physiology. It is the mindset to put in such an insane amount of time week after week after week no matter what is going on in your life.

There are people in basketball that feel that Tracy McGrady had more natural talent than anyone that has ever played the game. The reason he will never be in the conversation of greatest players of all time has nothing to do with raw talent. It has to do with the fact that he wasn’t willing to put in the hours that Jordan, Bryant and others did.

Even as I write this I have to acknowledge the fact that I am a hypocrite because I know what needs to be done and yet I will be lazy.

Hey man it’s all right, I get long-winded too.

And you don’t sound like you’re in a cult, when we find something like the bib that works so well for us, it’s hard to not get really excited. I love my bib, and bib himself is probably the single most important individual as far as progressing the hanging community. I think many of his ideas are a bit unsupported, but the thing is, even if what he says has no scientific justification, it has a funny way of working.

And I figured the hardcore would have a steeper learning curve, but now that I’ve played around so much with my starter, I doubt it would be hard to figure out. Either way, I’m gonna stick to the starter for at least a little longer because it works so well.

And I know how a lack of consistency can hinder gains, my hiatus set me back a bit. But hopefully I can stay with it even longer this time. That’s the best we can shoot for I think. I’m just really glad I don’t have kids, that would make the amount of hanging I try and get done each day pretty hard. So even if you aren’t doing 100% of the work you want to get done everyday, good job on fitting it in at all!

Roots

Nice to hear from all of you. I’ve decided to get the BibHanger. I definitely do have the time and patience to use this thing. I would’ve used my extender but it just wouldn’t fit.

I guess what I have to do now is to figure out for how long and with what amount of weight I ought to use the hanger. And where on the shaft to attach it to for best results.

Amen.

To this day I look at Lot theory and think what the hell. Yet it actually applies to me. Personally I think the mirror test / exit point and the inner palpation test are probably better indicators.

Sorry to derail this thread. Whatever hanger the original poster picks in addition to Thunder’s you can always go over to Bib’s forum and he will help you out as much as he can. Doesn’t matter if it is a competitors product or self made. He will give you the same amount of time and energy to answer your questions. He just can’t answer product specific questions that he honestly doesn’t know about. Also he won’t even attempt to sell you his product. Not one pitch, not one “Well if you had my product, this wouldn’t be an issue”. There will be no pressure. It is so anti DLD it is funny.

Even though I recommend Bib’s forum for hanger related stuff I still love Thunder’s for everything else PE related.

4 awesome resources

1. Bib will give you a progression email when your product ships.
2. You should read the product guide on the main site (not the forum but the product site).
3. Read Blink’s hanging post here at Thunders. It is an awesome post and I believe a sticky.
4. Finally on Bib’s site read the post about managing fatigue. To me this is the gold standard of posts. Everything Rootsnatty said about how he hangs by feel can be learned from this one post.

Those 4 things will get you up to speed. After that just ask questions in the hanging section here or at Bib’s.

Please don’t quit until you give it a good go. If you feel like quitting please post your routine and ask for help here. If 6 months have gone by and you are at 10 pounds and you haven’t gained we just need to give you a kick in the butt.

Also if you haven’t you should start a hanging thread here in the progress report area. Perhaps put in your weekly hanging sets and weights. This way you can be honest with yourself and if you have good results others can use it as motivation

I won’t quit, especially if I start to see gains.

I do have a progress report link on the signature. And heck, if I gain an inch I will post proof that it really did work.