Levy Solomon
Report - Passive Hang
The most helpful and important takeaway from the Invert Ready Coach training was my daily passive hang exercise, and how it has helped me feel balanced and strong in my pole dance sessions, and also in my daily life. I have scoliosis and I often get lumbar spinal pain, but since I started my passive hangs, I have not had any pain. In addition, in the past, I would get shoulder injuries every 6 weeks since I started pole dancing in 2012. Since the start of our Invert Ready Coach training, I have not gotten injured, and I think that the passive hangs have contributed to this. When I observe myself and how I feel during the passive hang, I feel a lengthening in my spine, as if there is more space between each vertebra. This release has helped me feel taller and more aware of my posture throughout the day.
Because of these self-observations, I wanted to learn more about the passive hang in greater detail so that when I teach my pole dance students, I have readily available information on the many ways that it can benefit them. I am also a classroom teacher. I teach Spanish as a foreign language to middle school students, and I would love to get permission to bring a horizontal pull-up bar to my classroom. I wanted to be armed with data on how it can help my students and co-workers. Lastly, although I understand that every body is different and has different histories, I want everyone to feel the same spinal release that I have after doing months of daily passive hang exercises.
Where did you go looking? (drop some links/pics etc.)
● During office hours, I got approval to delve into the passive hang, and read the book Shoulder Pain? The Solution and Prevention by Dr. John M. Kirsch, M.D.
● I perused Dr. Kirsch’s website titled “Heal your own shoulder.” https://www.kirschshoulder.com/
● I also watched this video as a precursor created by two physical therapists. This video’s description states “Famous Physical Therapists Bob Schrupp and Brad Heineck describe a new and simple technique for treating shoulder pain.”
What did you learn?
I was intrigued when I read Dr. John Kirsch's case studies about patients that could have treated their chronic shoulder injuries with surgery, but he instead gave them various exercises to do and ultimately got a 95% success rate in solving and preventing the pain rather than having invasive surgery. Dr. Kirsch says, “After 28 years of clinical research on the hanging exercise, it's not only safe but extremely effective in relieving and preventing the most common causes of shoulder pain.” Part two of his book explains the Kirsch Protocol Theory that hanging stretches the CA arch expanding the subacromial space. Page 102 shows a diagram of two shoulders. One shoulder is hanging, and the other is holding a 60-pound weight. The second part of the Kirsch Protocol Theory was a lightweight lifting exercise.
One quote that left me thinking was “Civilization’s progress has gone from rocks to silicone chips in a few thousand years. It will require millions of years for our anatomy to catch up with our social progress (p. 102)” He also states that “Decreased overhead use of the arms may be related to the epidemic of shoulder degenerative disease.” “It’s the pressure applied to the carocoacromonial arch by the humerus with repeated overhead arm activity as well as by a hanging exercise that engages the acromiohumeral joint and maintains the integrity of this joint and the space for the subadjuacent structures such as the rotator cuff, the subacromial bursa and the concentric function of the glenohumeral joint”
Kirsch also talks about the human pendulum, and this spoke to me because after doing passive hanging exercises, I wanted to try swinging from monkey bars at my gym. This was the first time in my life that I was successful at this. An uninformed, but well-meaning stranger at the gym told me to try this without momentum, and I did not feel that it was correct advice. Kirsh proves this uninformed stranger wrong when he talks about The Human Pendulum. While people may feel that the monkey bar swing may cause over-rotation which can cause an internal impingement of the rotator cuff, this is incorrect. “The human skeleton acts as a chain pendulum while hanging. The only joint that can rotate in a chain pendulum is the top axis or point of support. The wrist, or the top joint, is the only joint that can rotate while hanging. It is nearly impossible for over-rotation to occur in the shoulder while hanging from an overhead support.”
Ultimately, I did this research so that I could easily tell my pole dance students about the benefits of the passive hang and to further convince them to do their homework. I find that if I give research and data on how the exercise is beneficial to them, and how it can assist them in having strong inverts and healthy spines, my pole dance students are more likely to do them. Although I did not push them to get more chin-ups and pull-ups, they sent me videos of success in the chin-up journey due to the passive hang homework. I agree with Kirsh largely when he suggests that pull-up bars should be largely accessible at airports, parks, and other public places.
Since we started the Invert Ready Coach program, I have made a point to do passive hangs every single time I go to the gym, which is six days per week. Finally, in July, I installed a permanent horizontal bar near my kitchen so that I am prompted to use it as soon as I enter the kitchen, and every time I use the bathroom. Other easy ways to use it is if I boil water or wait for something to cook, I work on my passive hang during that time.
Because I have stronger and more balanced shoulders, I can be an adequate pole dance instructor for my students. I have found enjoyment in working at the gym, and saw pole dance differently. It has changed my perspective on what I do during a pole dance session. I used to do pole tucks to improve my "lower abdominal strength." I used to invert 10 times on each side only to find in my videos that my back was rounded, and that I had many energy leaks and possible sources of injury.
Now I effectively condition at the gym, and when I pole, I am efficient with my movements. Instead of doing 10 inverts per side to condition, when more than half were with bad form, I am doing my conditioning in a balanced way at the gym. Then when I pole, I am more aware of positioning my body, specifically spinal awareness, so that almost every invert that I do is in good form. I may not invert 20 times like I used to, and now I invert about 5 times, but it is with good form. At the gym I do inverted rows, sometimes unilaterally.
The most important conclusions that I formed were ones that I felt in my body, and that I could question and prompt my students to feel in their bodies. It's a combination of physically going through the process, as well as giving them research written by an orthopedic doctor that brings upon success.