This is a quick video that looks at the very popular exercise called the dead hang from the pullup bar.
As the name suggests this is a pretty simple exercise in terms of skill as all you need to do is grip onto a pullup bar or monkey bar and hold onto it for a period of time by letting your legs hang underneath.
While it is simple in terms of skill and coordination it is difficult in terms of strength, in particular with the grip and most importantly with the shoulders.
There are undoubtedly some obvious benefits to using an exercise like this, but the overall impact it can have is usually overstated. In some cases this can even be detrimental to the overall health and stability of the body defeating the purpose of using it in the first place.
Make sure you check out the more detailed article that provides the alternative exercises I would use for back pain and shoulder pain.
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It seems logical that this exercise would be good for decompressing the spine as when you hang from the bar the force of gravity naturally pulls your body toward the ground. This certainly feels this way especially if you do this after you have been tucked up in flexion for a long period of time such as experienced with sitting or doing an exercise like cycling. There is no doubt that it does provide some gentle decompression for your spine, because the force of gravity is essentially acting on your body in reverse.

This brings me to the big problem I see with this as an exercise to rehabilitate back pain in that any decompression it may provide is only temporary. It is not really solving the root cause of the problem, which is usually more to do with poor movement, instability and weakness. This is very similar to the temporary feeling that stretching provides to the lower back.

This exercise does not address coordination of movement, weakness of muscles or joint instability at all. It only seeks to lengthen muscles in a similar vain to stretching. The minute you stand back up and move on land that requires stability and an element of strength the body will be no different than before you did the dead hang.

If you moved poorly before and did nothing to improve how you move it won’t matter how many dead hangs you do, you are still going to be creating problems for your back.

In addition to all this is that it is difficult to know just how much spinal decompression is occurring during dead hangs because there are so many other muscles involved. There's no way to know for sure that all the lengthening you experience has anything to do with the spine itself and not just a stretching effect to the muscles like the lats and pecs that may be causing problems to joints.

If this is the case I could achieve this same outcome much more easily and more effectively with targeted stretching and mobility work. This is particularly true for the hips and thoracic spine where stiffness in these regions are commonly associated with back pain.

The toughest things to do with the dead hang is maintain grip strength and prevent the shoulders from lurching forward. Those with good upperbody strength and no shoulder problems will overcome this quite easily with enough time and repetitions. However people with shoulder hypermobility or shoulder instability may need to be very careful with this exercise.

It is important to remember that the shoulder is a very unique joint and is able to do things that no other joint in the body can do. It is designed to provide incredible amount of mobility so you can execute incredibly powerful and dynamic movements like serving in tennis or simply throwing a ball. But this awesome mobility comes at a cost, as the stability of the shoulder can be very easily compromised.
All this means dead hangs, if not done correctly, could present a risk for people with hypermobility in their shoulders or someone with inadequate stability or strength to control the demands of the exercise.

Make sure you check out the index section of my website as this includes over 400 articles relating to injury and rehabilitation
https://www.noregretspt.com.au/index....

For more detailed programs for back pain and shoulder pain check out these in the links below

Back pain online program
https://shop.noregretspt.com.au/au/ba...
Shoulder pain online program
https://shop.noregretspt.com.au/au/sh...