Sore hanging?

Hey,

I’m a beginner hanger, I just started a couple nights ago. I was just wondering if hanging is supposed to make you sore. I used to stretch for about 30 minute sessions and my ligs would always be a little sore, but after hanging I’m not sore at all. Do people usually get sore when they hang? I don’t think this is really a bad thing for me because already after a couple days of hanging I look longer. I’m just curious of the soreness.

Thanks!

Mick, yes hanging should leave your ligs sore like manual stretching. I am not yet experienced in the art of hanging yet (I shall be soon though), but this is what I have read :

To make your hanging most efficient, you should hang until you feel enough fatigue in your ligs that you cannot hang with your current weight any longer. After that, you should start taking weight off until you are down to half of your initial weight. When you can no longer hang with half of your initial weight, you should end your session.

How much weight have you been hanging? How much time? With those 2 pieces of information, the more experienced hangers will probably be able to tell you whether or not you are doing enough work or if you need to increase the amount of time you are hanging.

Mick,

In terms soreness, I definitely get sore while hanging but it’s not usually that pronounced afterward. As you progress, you find there are different types of soreness, ligs, tunica, skin. Remember sore is good, pain is not.

Take your time in beginning. Once you have wrapping and attachment figured out, use a weight provides a nice comfortable, yet noticeable stretch. Work first on building up the volume to fill the time you have available for hanging. Then you can start working on the intensity side of the equation. Even once you’ve found your 20 minute max for a given angle, the weight should still be comfortable/bearable. If you find yourself fidgeting or watching the clock, the weight is too heavy. Remember the goal is to safely grow your unit, not win a weightlifting competition. Pace yourself, and you should do just fine.

MX

soon2b9,

Sorry, but what exactly do you mean by fatigue in the ligs? I’m hanging 5 pounds right now for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and it seems to me like I could pretty much hang that for as long as I wanted. I don’t notice any fatigue I don’t think.

MX,

I do feel soreness WHILE I hang, but not after I hang. I’m pretty sure 5 pounds is working ok for now, maybe after my second week I’ll try 7.5. Since I am totally comfortable with 5 pounds, do you think this would be ok?

Alright, thanks for the replies guys!

Mick,

Okay, a couple of things. First, you never want to go over 20 minutes on your sets. You may want to use a kitchen timer or a stopwatch with an alarm.

Second, you wrote that you experience “soreness” while hanging. But then in your response to soon2b9, you wrote that you weren’t experiencing any “fatigue”. So I’m not sure I understand how you’re thinking about those terms.

If you think 5 pounds working okay, then stick with that. Each person and each angle is likely to be different. When I first started, 5 pounds didn’t feel like much of anything. But, 7.5 gave me a nice, comfortable, yet firm pull. So I stuck with that. I added one additional set every couple of days until I reached the total time I had available for hanging. Then I started to increase the weight in 1.25 pound increments. My initial 20 minute max. was around 10-11.25 lbs. After hanging three to four sets at that weight, I would start getting sore/fatigued and need to began decreasing the weights.

I hope that helps.

MX

Hey, thanks MX!

Ya, I don’t know what I’m talking about either. I’m not sure of the definition of “fatigue”, but I’ll look it up. I don’t have time for 3 or 4 sets because of lack of privacy, so I’ll just do what I can. Thanks again!

Hey Mick, have you happened to try changing to 7.5lbs yet? I just started hanging 3 days ago (quite a few sessions since then though), and I noticed from the 3rd session of 5lbs that it was not enough weight. Just as you said, it feels like I could do 5lbs for a LOOOOOONG time with no problem. However, 7.5lbs gives me a really good stretch. If you are hanging BTC, your ligs should be sore while you are hanging, but you should have some soreness in your ligs post exercise as well.

To answer your question, fatigue is where you can no longer comfortably hang with your max weight (the pain in your ligs is from being stretched to a point that no matter how much prostoglandin your body distributes to them they can not relax any more under the tension and thus can stretch no further). I have not hit fatigue yet and I have done quite a few sets of 7.5lbs. However, I will say that I have been VERY close to hitting fatigue, but it was the last session I did last night so I did not. Had I done more than 3 sessions today, I probably would have though, and had to drop to 5lbs for my remaining sessions (as I am writing this that makes me wish I would have done that :p ). You may not reach fatigue for a while (even using 7.5lbs ……… as MX stated above, he did not get fatigue until he started using 10 - 11.5lbs), but if you are getting a good pull with the weight you are using, one of two things will happen.

1.) The tissues you are stretching will gradually get closer and closer to fatigue as you do more sets because you are getting closer and closer to stretching the ligs to the absolute maximum potential of their hyperextended state(or at least their current hyperextended state which you are aiming to make their normal extended state).

OR

2.) You will start to notice that the amount of weight that you are currently using is giving you less of a pull as time goes on. As your tissues approach the maximum length you can get from a given amount of weight, the amount of stretch from that weight decreases (thus resistance increases). This is mostly caused by your shortest ligs stretching to the same length as some of your (formerly) longer ones and thus more ligament fibers are now taking the same amount of weight, but also a given weight will only pull the ligs so far into their hyperextended state (and as the normal extended state of those ligaments approaches what was initially the hyperextended state, stretch approaches 0). This is when you add more weight.

In the first case, you won’t have to worry about hitting fatigue as you already have done so with your current weight. In the second instance, you will probably fatigue fairly quickly with your new max weight when you first start using it as you are stretching even further those shorter ligs which have already been stretched.

Man, I am tired as hell and was probably rambling, but I hope that helped in SOME way.

Peace

Hey soon2b9,

Thanks for the long reply :)

This whole fatigue thing is too complicated for me though. I don’t think I’m ever gonna be getting that advanced in the whole hanging thing to be able to reach my fatigue.

I’m saying this because after only two weeks of hanging I’ve gained 0.25” or close to that! Oh ya, I did get up to 7.5 lbs, 5 just wasn’t enough. I’d have a different routine everyday. Sometimes I’d do two sets of 7.5 lbs, sometimes one 7.5 then one 5, and sometime I’d do 3 or 4 sets of whatever. I think the maximum weight I’ll ever get to is 10 lbs. If my good hanging gains continue, I’ll only have to hang for another two weeks! Maybe I’ll even stay at 7.5 lbs.

Thanks again, talk to you later!