Abrahangs: Do Daily Low-Load Hangs Work?
Daily low-intensity hangs, popularised as Abrahangs, are about ten minutes of light hangs at roughly 40% of your maximum, repeated most days. Evidence level: low to moderate. One 2024 analysis of app-logged training found strength gains, but climbers chose their own programs, nobody was randomised, and the loads were never measured.
What are Abrahangs?
An Abrahangs session is a short, gentle hangboard workout. In the 2024 study that described it, the protocol is about 10 minutes of isometric hangs with the feet on the floor, on an 18 to 22 mm edge, in six hang variations. Each rep lasts 10 seconds with 20 seconds of rest, and the climber loads only until a light strain is felt in the forearms, which the authors put at “~40% of max”. The protocol was created by climber Emil Abrahamsson, who reported large gains from short daily sessions. Gripped describes Abrahamsson’s original routine differently from the study: 10 seconds on and 50 seconds off, about 1 minute 40 seconds of hanging per session, twice a day, at a higher intensity. The 10-minute, 40% version is the one the study logged. Our article on no-hangs covers the same idea in more depth.
Do daily low-intensity hangs work?
They might, but the evidence is thin. The 2024 paper in Sports Medicine - Open (Gilmore, Klimek, Abrahamsson and Baar) analysed data from 526 climbers who logged their training in the Crimpd app and did two finger-strength tests 4 to 16 weeks apart. Strength was a 7-second half-crimp test on a 20 mm edge, expressed relative to body weight.
| Group | Change in strength-to-weight (mean) |
|---|---|
| Climbing only | No change |
| Abrahangs only (3 or more sessions a week) | +2.5% |
| Max hangs only (85 to 95% of the test load) | +3.2% |
| Both | +5.8% |
The authors concluded that low-intensity holds were about as effective as max hangs and that combining the two was additive. Read it with these limits, most of them stated by the authors:
- It was retrospective, not a randomised trial. Climbers picked their own programs, so motivation and selection can explain part of the result.
- Force was not measured. How much weight climbers took off their feet was “self-regulated, unsupervised, and not measured”, so the 40% is an intention, not a verified load.
- The Abrahangs-only gain was small. It rose significantly from before to after (p < 0.01), but the authors call it a “positive trend” against climbing only (p = 0.12, not significant), and it did not differ statistically from the max-hang gain, which is not the same as showing they are equal.
- Conflicts of interest. Abrahamsson created the protocol and Klimek designed the app.
- Few women (21 of 526), so the results say little about them.
Why would light hangs help tendons?
The idea comes from Keith Baar’s work on lab-grown human ligaments. In that model, the cells’ response to stretch peaked after about 10 minutes and then switched off, and they needed about 6 hours before responding again. Ligaments loaded in 10-minute bouts every 6 hours made more collagen over 5 days than ligaments stretched continuously.
This is in vitro evidence. Baar’s review presents the 10-minute, 6-hour pattern as coming from the cultured ligaments, with its training recommendations extrapolated from them rather than tested in people, and notes that the engineered tissue behaves like developing tissue and is much weaker than an adult tendon. Treat it as a reasonable hypothesis, not a proven mechanism.
How do you do daily low-intensity hangs?
| Parameter | As reported in the 2024 study (unless noted) |
|---|---|
| Edge | 18 to 22 mm, feet on the floor |
| Effort | Light forearm strain, about 40% of max |
| Rep | 10 seconds on, 20 seconds off |
| Session | About 10 minutes, six hang variations |
| Spacing | At least 6 hours from other workouts or climbing |
| Frequency | The study defined its Abrahangs groups as 3 or more sessions a week; Abrahamsson’s original routine was twice a day |
| Duration | The study windows lasted 4 to 16 weeks |
| Stop rules | Any finger pain, or a hang that stops feeling light (coach practice, not from the study) |
Practical points (coach practice, not from the study): keep it easy enough that you could do another session within hours, vary the grips you use on the wall, and retest your maximum every 4 to 8 weeks. Pair it with heavier work only on days where your fingers feel fresh; our hangboard frequency guide explains how to count total finger load, and the density hangs article covers a related low-load format.
Who should not do this
- Anyone with current finger, pulley or tendon pain: ask a physiotherapist first, and use the loads they set.
- Growing teenagers: check with a coach or physiotherapist who knows adolescent climbers first.
- Climbers who treat “light” as “free”: daily hangs still add to your total finger load.
Pain stops a session. Pain that lingers into the next day means you should rest and see a physiotherapist.
What does a force plate add?
The weak point of Abrahangs is the load, because 40% is a feeling. A force sensor lets you see the load you actually pull instead of guessing. On a ground force plate you can test your maximum, then hold each hang at a target share of it and see whether the same pull gets easier over the weeks.
Do this in Entralpi
The max strength test measures your max; type it in Settings (Profile, then Settings, under Physical Profile, Max strength), and a load in % max becomes kilograms. In the Train tab, pick a workout or build your own with 10-second hangs, 20 seconds of rest and a load near 40% of your max. Without the plate, the timer still paces the hangs and rests.
Sources
- Gilmore NK, Klimek P, Abrahamsson E, Baar K (2024). Effects of different loading programs on finger strength in rock climbers. Sports Medicine - Open, 10.
- Baar K (2017). Minimizing injury and maximizing return to play: lessons from engineered ligaments. Sports Medicine, 47.
- Gripped Magazine. A staggeringly successful new hangboard routine.
