Popular "dead hang predicts longevity" claims rest on grip strength research, not hang studies
Is dead hang time linked to longevity?
The finding
Articles linking hang time to longevity cite grip strength research. The coaching page whose bands the app uses lists only grip studies (Dodds 2014, Leong 2015, Bohannon 2019) and says its hang bands are not medically validated percentiles.
- Authors
- Bohannon RW (the review such articles cite)
- Published
- Clinical Interventions in Aging 14:1681–91 · 2019
- Evidence
- Taken from a review, reprint or summary; not checked line by line.
- Source
- doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S194543
How it was studied
A check of the sources behind popular articles on hang time and longevity. The commonly cited paper is a narrative review of grip strength.
What it does not show
Hang time also depends on body mass, shoulder tolerance and grip endurance, so grip–mortality findings cannot be carried over to hang time.
What Longstanding does with it
We do not say the dead hang predicts how long you live. It stays in the battery as a practical test of hanging on, the movement behind catching a rail after a slip.