Its the last official week of the hanging challenge!
If you've started late, don't sweat it - simply continue in your own pace, look through the prior posts and videos and perhaps do some sniffing around the Movement Culture FB Group as there is a ton of information there.
Testimonials
Lots and lots of testimonials are coming in from the 10K participants in the challenge. Here are a selected few:
Thank you Ido Portal. I've been suffering from chronic elbow flexor pain for the past 2 years; I've done many forms of treatment and therapy but achieved only temporary(1-2 days) relief. After implementing passive hangs for the past 4 weeks, my chronic elbow flexor pain has almost disappeared. I would never have thought something so simple could have such a dramatic effect. Thank you!
Day 17 Arching. Feeling great mobility in the shoulders. Better then I ever had. Smelling my armpits has never been easier. Its so nice! I love this challenge is doing good things for my shoulders. Thanks Ido Portal and team.
Day 21. Ive noticed a few things during this challenge. Firstly my quite obvious difference in shoulder strength, stability and position is evening out. My posture has improved. Shoulder stability in my handstand, QDR positions and elbow levers have improved, and my pull/push strength has improved. This challenge has been great and hanging is definitely going to be an integral part of my training when its over.
Hanging since the beginning and last night happened that I was attempting one arm chinups and I did my first ever on the left arm! On the right I had it since about 10 months but on the left I had shoulder injury which was stopping the progress but the injury it's almost gone Thank you Ido Portal ! Keep hanging people
I just came to a realization that my shoulders are feeling so damn good after hanging for a while. I have been doing progression work for the iron cross for the past year and I have obtained it. It felt good to accomplish it but not as good as how my shoulders feel after 14 mins of active and passive hanging. This is another humbling experience for me. Something so simple yet so many good things out of it.
18/30 First two minute passive hang today. Motivated by the prerequisites for the one arm hangs. I cannot believe how much my grip has improved with this challenge and what a huge difference using your thumbs makes.
A big and heart-full THANK YOU to Ido Portal and the community.
I've been dealing with a stiff and painful neck + shoulders and back for a decade or so. After being in a variety of treatments the symptoms were less straining, but nothing was fixed.
When I started moving, like doing 5 rhythms dance I found that things got better. Since playing with the hanging and squatting challenge things are really changing.. This is really so incredible!!! Because now it sometimes happens that my body including my back/shoulders neck just feel really nice and often just feel ok. So thank you! thank you! Not to speak about the effect I feel on the rest of my body.
Since I've integrated the hanging month challenge to my climbing routines (usually 3 times per week, 1-2 hours at a time) yesterday I climbed my first 6B route here in Finland! Indoor bouldering, that is. The grading system for the problems is a bit different in, at least Scandinavia, than in the US, but lest to say it was a problem I'd been struggling with for a long time. But it just happened and I got to the top with the first try Many thanks, Ido - this challenge, though I've been lazy with it and usually doing only 5 mins per day on average for the past three weeks - has helped so much with climbing, and also with some shoulder issues I've had for about 10 years now. Everything seems so much loose now, and the general stiffness is almost gone. Gonna try the squat challenge next... Let's keep on hanging!
New Hanging Integration Sequences
For those who have good healthy shoulders and have built up to it, here are some new moves to put into your daily hanging.
Note - the sequences rely on prior progressions and should only be attempted if your shoulders are pain free, stable and experienced enough in the isolated basics. Go here for more info on how to start.
Switch Grip Hanging Routine - Beginner
A nice small sequence built from two layers - the Side to Side Stationary Swing and a FIFO(First In - First Out) Grip Change order.
Switch Grip Hanging Routine - Advanced
This version is much more advanced and is comprised of One Arm Active Hang, One Arm Passive Hang and the Shawarma movements. It should not be attempted before those movements have been mastered and perfected.
The Ape Swing (Figure '8')
A more advanced dynamic movement involving the use of the Eagle hang, an over-pronated, internally rotated hang.
The Eagle Hang can be tricky and problematic. I do not recommend it to beginners. In order to built up to it -
go here for more info on how to start.
I discovered the Ape Swing while searching for ways to challenge my students in hanging work but in limited space. For me - it is perhaps as close as you can get to Brachiation in limited space, as all you need is a bar with 1.5-2 meters of width.
Wrapping up
The Hanging Month Challenge was great. So much good feedback, so many bodies getting healthier through good and basic movement, such a great start to the Movement Culture community.
The bad news is that we are coming to the end of this month - but it doesn't mean you have to finish your hanging work in a week time, with us, if you started late. Simply - continue on your end pace and finish your 30 days of commitment. It is important not to miss days and do the work as prescribed as you are forming a new habit and killing old ones. The 7 min a day for 30 days are numbers that I've thought hard about as both attainable, not too much time consuming and realistic but also result producing and substantial.
The good news is that much more is coming down your way through this blog, our YouTube channel, (please subscribe right now) the Movement Culture Group and Facebook Page.
Liking the page and being registered in the group are good starting points but we are searching for an active, intelligent and involved community. If you've been keeping your silence so far - please don't! Comment, share, participate and take part. This will come back to you in the form of better movement, more commitment and more support.
Now a last word about the 'Specialists Addiction' as I call it: when you finish your 7min/30 days Hanging Challenge or if you did the 30/30 Squat Challenge before - don't continue with the same time frames for ever. Keep on hanging and squatting but change your central focus of movement and direct it somewhere else.
Don't get addicted. To anything. Even a good thing. Because there are other good things out there. Because it will lead you down a path to illness, narrow focus, over-specialism and less MOVEMENT.
Anyone who takes on the Movement title for real must get used to this - take something you are bad at and practice until you are good at it. Not great, just good. Then maintain it and repeat the process with another skill, position, trait, discipline or focal point.
Thanks for being there, for moving and sharing and putting all that viral inspiration out there,
Love/Move,
Ido.
