Today we are hanging. Not with friends or families, but hanging from a tree, a bar at the park, or any structural system that might help you suspend from it. 

Why? Remember when I mentioned that our ancestors starve for days trying to hunt to provide for their families? Back in those days, we needed to walk for days, sometimes weeks, to find prey, and it was an art setting traps and killing animals. 

Most of the time, we had to go in groups of more than three, and often after setting the traps, we needed to climb trees and wait patiently until the prey triggered the trap. Hanging from trees and rocks without making too much noise was a technique they master. To do that, they had to have great upper body strength. 

I want you to start thinking about hanging from a bar as a tool to strengthening not just your upper body but also as a means to gain responsibility for your weight  

The more you hang and feel your own body, the more you will realize that you can own yourself, and here is why. 

• If you were running from a bigger prey than you and you had to hang from a branch, how long do you think you can stay there? 
• If you are trying to keep the food you found from falling, and you only had one hand to help you up, how long can you be able to sustain their weight? 
• If you were carrying a baby and all of a sudden there was an earthquake, and you had to make sure both of you were saved by hanging from a tube for forty-five seconds, can you do it right now? 

I hope I do not sound melodramatic; I am trying to paint a portrait in your mind’s eye so that you see that being able to hang for long periods is a must. The good news is that this is one of the easiest things to master. 

All you need is daily consistency on one single practice: HANGING! 

Today our routine is straightforward, and I want you to repeat it for five days in a row. You must be engaging your upper back, not just your arms. Feel your back tightening when you hang. Otherwise, this can result in injury. 

Find a way to measure the time you can hang and: 

Stretch your upper body by doing this set. 

Once you are done with the warm-up, do the following routine.

1. Find a structure where you can hang from. 
2. Jump up and try to stay as much as you can. 
3. Drop and let a minute pass by 
4. Jump up again and try to reach the same amount of time 
5. Drop and let a minute pass by 
6. Jump up and try to hold for half the time of the initial try 
7. Drop and let 30 seconds pass 
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7, 4 times 
9. Jump and try to reach the initial amount of time
10. Rest 

That’s it. Do this as often as you can until you can add more time to the initial hold. As you increase the time, your strength will increase, and so will your trust in your ability to carry your body, which will boost your self-esteem. 

You can add routines of interval exercises to strengthen your upper body, but we will leave that for later. 

If you want to add something extra, go and run for a mile and then do this hanging routine ONCE MORE. 

Hanging helps us to be aware of our posture. In addition, it helps our spine to decompress. It also relieves any injury our shoulders might have, plus it increases mobility; besides, it is a lot of fun to hang. 

Hang and have fun!