Dangers of Hanging Off A Pull Up Bar

I am nursing an elbow with a little bit of tendonitis which only seems to bother me when I pull on it or or do a curling type motion, it occurred while overdoing pull ups.

My question is it ok/safe to just hang off the bar after jumping up to it for short periods  say 10 - 30 secs ?

I am trying to rehab it and go gentle and so far it doesn't seem to have any adverse affect but it would nice to get some other opinions.

Thanks 

You should let the tendonitis settle down first.

However, depending on your conditioning, short hand could be fine if it doesn't bother you.

Also you could keep your feel on the ground in order to take some of the weight off.

Thanks jules.  What do you mean short hand ?

Oops! Short 'HANG'! You might have a short hand too, but that would be a different problem

Sometimes I type too fast for my own good.

Aha ! Thought I was missing out on some new technique.

I thought you said it was bothering you when you pull on it, aka. when you hang off a bar

Hanging from the bar is essentially a static pull bc you cannot relax without unduly stressing your joints.  I would suggest at least a couple of weeks off of pulling and anything else that causes discomfort.  Taking a good anti inflammatory for 2-3 days will also help immensely ask your doctor to recommend one.  Get some rehab work in I can recommend forearm rotation no weight and light grip work with a gripper and stretches.  

Do not take this lightly no matter how mild.  If you exacerbate the condition you will be stuck with it for a while.

Good luck.

ForzaCavaliere said:

I thought you said it was bothering you when you pull on it, aka. when you hang off a bar

Only when I make the action and only in a certain way. I can do a neutral grip pull up fine, but a pronated or supinated pull up leaves an ache, and haning off the bar seems ok too, but I wasn't sure if it had a negative effect without me noticing.

ASNB said:

Hanging from the bar is essentially a static pull bc you cannot relax without unduly stressing your joints.

Can you elaborate on that? The way I understand it is you can hang relaxed(not "packing" the shoulder) without putting your joints at risk of injury, if you don't overdo it. You just need to take time to strengthen the connective tissue.

It depends on your problem. assuming you have some brachialis or brachioradialis or bicep tendonitis these should not be irritated by hanging. I would recommend frequent icing, especially after exercise sessions, work with soft tissue mobilization with a stick on the tender areas a couple times daily, and avoidance of irritating exercises until it feels better. hanging initially will be fine, then slowly introduce eccentrics/slow negatives into your routine and if that goes well for a couple weeks you can start building back up on your pullups. If you got this from overdoing pullups, i would really start working some scapular pullups, as it usually indicates too weak of a scapula, and you're doing all your pulling with your arms and not with your scapula. With this regimen you should be back to good form in a month or so, just don't rush it.

Duff said:

Can you elaborate on that? The way I understand it is you can hang relaxed(not "packing" the shoulder) without putting your joints at risk of injury, if you don't overdo it. You just need to take time to strengthen the connective tissue.

The extent to which you can relax is based on how heavy you are; at my weight I cannot relax very much while hanging.  But I am almost certain, though not completely, that it is impossible to relax fully while hanging because, if you notice, it is very hard to make a fist with any decent amount of intensity, without tensing your entire upper musculature, and even lower if you squeeze hard enough.

Compression and extension while attempting full relaxation are not good ideas and there are certainly better ways to strengthen connective tissue, but to each his own.

I think perhaps we are utilizing different definitions of "relaxed" because one can stand relaxed but not without any muscular tension whatsoever.  

In any event, you may be right, but I am not going to test it myself   and I would not recommend trying to test how fully you can relax while hanging, better to err on the side of caution.  

ASNB said:

The extent to which you can relax is based on how heavy you are; at my weight I cannot relax very much while hanging.  But I am almost certain, though not completely, that it is impossible to relax fully while hanging because, if you notice, it is very hard to make a fist with any decent amount of intensity, without tensing your entire upper musculature, and even lower if you squeeze hard enough.

 

Compression and extension while attempting full relaxation are not good ideas and there are certainly better ways to strengthen connective tissue, but to each his own.

 

I think perhaps we are utilizing different definitions of "relaxed" because one can stand relaxed but not without any muscular tension whatsoever.  

 

In any event, you may be right, but I am not going to test it myself   and I would not recommend trying to test how fully you can relax while hanging, better to err on the side of caution.  

No, the extent to which you can relax is based on how strong you are . And my definition of a relaxed hang is just that: simply hanging, not trying to pull up. There is muscular tension, of course, unless someone sedated you and tied your hand to the bar .

Duff said:

No, the extent to which you can relax is based on how strong you are . And my definition of a relaxed hang is just that: simply hanging, not trying to pull up. There is muscular tension, of course, unless someone sedated you and tied your hand to the bar .

If there is any tension, and there will be, and you are not falling then you are still pulling up even if you are not moving because you have to pull up just enough to counteract gravity--hence a static pull.  Depending on the type of injury the OP has this could or could not aggravate it further. 

The only reason I answer is bc I don't want some poor sap reading this trying to attempt full relaxation while hanging thinking this will strengthen connective tissue and dislocate his shoulder. 

Hanging off the bar does apply some stress to the connective tissue. Dead hang is good for the body, it will strengthen the connective thingys in your arm and shoulder. 

But OP has a bad elbow, which is why I'm not too sure if this is actually good or not. Need the input of some more qualified people here. 

Relaxed hanging is good, as long are you're readily prepared for it. You could start off with foot assisted 2 arm hangs and gradually take off the assistance

I do one arm relaxed hangs nearly every day, and they actually feel beneficial/good, not bad. And IIRC, the bottom of a giant will put (under a relaxed hang) up to 10xBW of force. So 2 and 1 arm hangs definitely shouldn't be a problem.