One of the best things we can do for our spines and upper body is develop a hanging practice. Maybe as a kid we were able to swing from the monkey bars, but often as we age into adulthood, we’ve lost that playful habit and our bodies adapt to a lifestyle with very little need for upper arm strength. So, as adults, trying to hang from our arms again can be frustrating: we might not be able to support our body weight for any amount of time, or may even experience pain from the fingers (Blisters! Ouch!) all the way to the lower back.
In this workshop, we’ll explore hanging in two parts.
In Part 1 we’ll explore:
How modern day life keeps our arms from maintaining strength.
Using Restorative Exercises for developing better range of motion and stability in the parts necessary for hanging well
Tips for gradually adapting your body toward the ability to hanging from the arms.
Part 1 is a “non-hanging” hanging class that you can do anywhere without having to support your full weight from the arms.
Then, A few weeks later…
In Part 2 we’ll explore Natural Movement techniques that will build our hanging and climbing skills. The intent of this session is not only to get us more able to hang from a bar at the gym but to understand the movements in context of climbing in the natural world.