Top 3 Benefits Of Deadhangs: Reverse Your Biological Age

Although deadhangs are a simple exercise, they have the potential to help improve your spine health and even reverse your biological age.

Benefits of Deadhangs:

#1 Reverse Your Biological Age

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According to an article written by Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing, Grip strength may provide clues to heart health, “The PURE study suggests that simply measuring one’s hand grip strength could be a good way to assess biological age. In an editorial accompanying the PURE results, Avan Aihie Sayer and Thomas Kirkwood of the University of Southampton and Newcastle University, both in the United Kingdom, suggest that “grip strength might act as a biomarker of ageing across the life course.” 

The researchers use grip strength as a unit of measurement to determine muscle strength because on average, the more muscle strength an individual has, the better their grip strength is. They further exclaim how if a person develops a chronic disease, they have a higher chance of survival versus someone who has bad grip strength. 

Deadhangs will not only improve your grip strength, but they can also help you liver longer.

#2 Deadhangs Can Decompress Your Spine

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Most humans today spend a significant portion of their time constantly hunched over due to activities such as sitting, texting, and typing away on their devices. This type of modern lifestyle increasingly promotes spinal compression, which can ultimately lead to discomforting lower back pain and even serious conditions like herniated discs. However, by performing the dead hang for a short period of time, typically around 15-30 seconds, you’re not only decompressing your spine and relieving tension, but you’re also encouraging improved blood flow throughout the various joints in your body, which significantly promotes overall posture improvement.

#3 Improve Shoulder Range of Motion

Dead hangs promote significant improvements in range of motion, similar to the benefits experienced through performing an overhead press. During this exercise, you are consciously bringing your shoulders back, positioning your head in between your arms, and pinching your shoulder blades together in a deliberate manner. In today's modern world, humans are often found hunching forward due to their daily postures, and over time, this leads to their shoulders becoming protracted, or rolling forward. Consequently, this poor posture results in the weakening of the scapula and the rhomboids, which are crucial back muscles. The dead hang, as an exercise, effectively allows for retraction of the shoulders, which in turn activates those idle muscles while also promoting their development.

References:

1. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/grip-strength-may-provide-clues-to-heart-health-201505198022

2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673614623497