Dead Hang Grip: Which Grip, Width and Thumb Position to Use

The Best Grip for a Dead Hang

Three choices shape your grip: which way your palms face, where your thumb goes and how far apart your hands sit. Each one changes how the load lands on your hands, forearms and shoulders.

Overhand vs. Underhand vs. Mixed

The overhand grip, also called pronated, puts your palms facing away from you. It is the default for a dead hang because it is how most bars are meant to be held and it matches the standard pull-up.

The underhand grip, or supinated, turns your palms toward you. There is no study on hanging in each position, so the closest evidence is from pull-ups. In a laboratory study of 21 men and 4 women, the chin-up (palms facing you) activated the pectoralis major and biceps significantly more than the pull-up, while the pull-up activated the lower trapezius more (Youdas, 2010). In a separate study of 19 strength-trained men, muscle activity was broadly similar across supinated, pronated and neutral grips, with the middle trapezius the one clear difference: it worked harder with the pronated grip than with the neutral one (Dickie, 2017).

Read those results with care. Both measured muscle activity during pull-ups in young, trained volunteers. Neither measured a passive hang, strength gains or injuries. What they do suggest is that no grip is a mistake. The choice moves effort between muscles rather than switching the exercise on or off.

A mixed grip (one palm each way) is common in deadlifting, and we found no research on it for hanging. Because one hand always works in each position, alternate which hand faces which way if you try it.

Our practical rule: use overhand as your base. Use underhand when you want more work from the biceps, or when an overhand hold bothers your wrists. Switch if one position feels sharp or pinchy in a shoulder, and leave a hold that does.

Thumb Around vs. Thumbless

The thumb-around grip, also called a closed grip, wraps your thumb under the bar so your fingers and thumb oppose each other. The thumbless or “suicide” grip puts the thumb on the same side as the fingers.

We found no controlled study comparing the two for pull-ups or hangs. Coaches argue about it, and some say the closed grip clamps better, but that is opinion rather than measurement. Here is what we can say with a source. In the hangboard trial described below, the dead-hang test was done “with passive thumbs” on a narrow rung, which means the thumb stayed out of the hold in order to test the fingers specifically (Hermans, 2022). That is a test design for climbers on a 23 mm edge. It is not advice for an ordinary bar.

For a standard bar, wrap your thumb. It gives you a secure hold, and a hold that slips is the main way a hang goes wrong. Consider thumbless only if you are deliberately training finger strength, and then only over a bar low enough that dropping off is harmless.

Grip Width

The width question has a better answer, but again from a related exercise. In a study of 15 men doing the lat pull-down with narrow, medium and wide grips (1, 1.5 and 2 times the distance between the bony points of the shoulders), the lats, trapezius and infraspinatus were similarly active across widths. The men could lift slightly more with the narrow and medium grips than the wide one (80.3 kg and 80 kg, against 77.3 kg), and the authors concluded a grip of one to two times shoulder width should give similar results (Andersen, 2014).

That was a lat pull-down on a machine, not a pull-up and not a hang, and it measured muscle activity rather than hanging comfort. Still, it is the best direct comparison of width we found.

For shoulders, a modeling study of 11 men with no shoulder problems found that a wide pronated grip shifted more work to the latissimus dorsi, while the reverse (underhand) grip raised the relative load on the rotator cuff (Urbanczyk, 2020). It was a computer model of pull-up movement, not a hang, in healthy men. That is a reason to start near shoulder width and widen only if it feels fine.

So: hold the bar with hands about shoulder width apart. If a narrower or wider spot is clearly more comfortable, use it. The evidence does not give you a reason to fight your body.

Weighted Dead Hangs

Adding weight to a dead hang is a way to keep a grip challenge going once body weight alone stops being hard. It carries more risk than a plain hang, so it should come late.

When You’re Ready

Weighted hangs are for people who can already hang with body weight for several comfortable sets, with shoulders that feel fine afterward and a hold that ends because the hands tire, not because the shoulders complain. If a plain hang still ends in shoulder pain, adding weight will not fix that.

We found no trial of weighted bar hangs in the general population, so there is no tested threshold for “ready”. The nearest evidence is the hangboard trial above, where progression was gated on completing the current level without failing (Hermans, 2022). Use that as your rule: earn the next step before you take it.

How to Add Load Safely

Do not treat this as a tested protocol, because we found none. Instead, borrow the cautions that apply to any loaded exercise.

• Add small amounts and change only one thing at a time: weight, time or grip.
• Use a belt, vest or similar attachment, never a heavy object dangling from your hands or feet.
• Step on and off the bar from a stool. Do not drop with load attached.
• Keep sets short. The goal is a controlled hold, not a record.
• Stop a set when your form falls apart or your grip starts to slip, not when it fails completely.

Notice what the trial changed to make the work harder. It did not add weight. It used smaller holds and fewer fingers (Hermans, 2022). On a standard bar, that points to other ways to progress: hanging longer or doing more sets. Only add load after those start to feel easy.

Bars and Grip Width at Home

A bar with more than one place to put your hands lets you test the grip width and hand position choices above without buying several bars. That matters at home, where you often start with one doorway bar.

The ProsourceFit Multi-Grip bar is built around that idea. Its maker lists wide, hammer and close-grip positions, a 300 lb rating and a fit for door frames 24 to 36 inches wide and up to 6 inches thick (ProsourceFit). A hammer grip means your palms face each other, a neutral position that some people find easier on their wrists. The maker also covers the bar with a lifetime warranty on manufacturing defects (ProsourceFit).

300 lb, wider doors, lifetime warrantyMaker source

ProsourceFit Multi-Grip Pull-Up Bar

by ProsourceFit

Best for people who want to try overhand, neutral and close grips on one doorway bar, and who want a published weight rating and warranty.

Skip it if your door frame is deeper than the listed range, or you plan to hang by your feet, which the maker's manual rules out.

The only doorway bar here whose maker publishes the specs itself: 300 lb, doors 24 to 36 in wide and up to 6 in thick. It also carries a lifetime warranty on manufacturing defects.

Weight limit

300 lb

Warranty

Lifetime

Price range

Budget

What we like

• Rated to 300 lb on the maker's own product page
• Fits wider doors, 24 to 36 in, and frames up to 6 in thick
• Lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects
• 12 foam grips, including neutral handles for a hang

Keep in mind

• Warranty covers only U.S. residents and only replaces the bar
• Heavier to store, at 8.7 lb
• Rests on the door frame, so a weak frame is your real limit

Check today's price on Amazon: ProsourceFit Multi-Grip Pull-Up Bar (opens in a new tab)

Full specs

Price range

Budget

Weight capacity

300 lb

Door and frame fit

Door frames 24 to 36 in wide and up to 6 in thick

Mounting

Slip-in doorway bar, no screws; 2 optional foam covers to protect the frame

Use

Hang, pull-ups and chin-ups with 12 foam grips; push-ups, sit-ups and dips on the floor

Warranty

Lifetime limited (manufacturing defects, original U.S. purchaser)

Maker sourceFrom the maker's product page. Not stated means the maker publishes nothing.

We may earn a commission. It never changes which table we pick, or the order they appear in.

Before you hang, read the maker’s rules. The manual says to avoid swinging or bouncing, not to hang by the feet or legs, and to make sure the bar is secure before each use (ProsourceFit). Those rules apply to any leverage bar.

Our best doorway pull-up bar guide compares this bar with three others on published specs, including fit range and warranty. For a closer look at the movement itself, see our guide to the dead hang exercise, and for the muscles involved, our page on dead hang muscles worked.

Common Questions About Dead Hang Grip

Does grip width change how hard a dead hang is?

We found no study that measured it in a hang. In the lat pull-down research, narrow and medium grips let men lift a little more than a wide one (Andersen, 2014), and the muscles worked similarly at every width. So pick the width that feels secure. Try two or three on separate days and keep the one you can hold with the least strain in your shoulders and wrists.

Should I use an overhand or an underhand grip for hanging?

Use overhand to start. Underhand works the biceps more in pull-ups (Youdas, 2010), and for some people feels easier on the wrists, but the research is on pull-ups rather than hangs. If you alternate between the two across sessions, you vary the load on the forearm and shoulder, which is a reasonable way to avoid doing the same thing every day.

How do I stop my hands from slipping?

Wrap your thumb and wipe sweat from your hands before you grab the bar. Chalk may help, though we found no study on it. If skin tears, shorten your sets and let the skin heal. If your grip fails long before your shoulders tire, that is the signal to train grip, not a reason to add straps.