What is a no-hang?
A no-hang is a pull on a hangboard edge, or any hold, with your feet on the floor. You grip the edge and pull down as if to lift off, but only to a set share of your strength, so part of your weight always stays on your feet. It is also called a partial hang.
The no-hang is the method; the Abrahangs are one protocol that uses it. Climber Emil Abrahamsson, who gave them their name, reported strength gains from short daily sessions: about ten minutes of light pulls at roughly 40% of your maximum. Daily low-intensity hangs covers that protocol and the study behind it.
Why keep your feet on the floor?
Because the load becomes yours to choose. In a full hang, the only steps are your body weight plus or minus what you add or take off. With your feet on the floor:
- You can dose any load below your body weight, from a light warm-up pull to a near-maximal one, and measure your progress exactly.
- You can load one hand at a time. That doubles the share of the hand’s maximum you can reach for the same pull.
- You can ease off or stop instantly. Drop the load mid-set to keep going where you would otherwise stop, or back it off before discomfort.
- You can load often. A light pull costs little, so you can repeat it on most days.
The limit is the top end. You can pull at most your body weight before you lift off, so a heavy two-hand target may be out of reach. When the target is still above your body weight with one hand, take your feet off and hang with added weight. Félix also likes that holding tension from toes to fingertips feels closer to climbing than a dead hang, a view no study has tested.
How do you do a no-hang?
Setup. Stand under a hangboard, a hold on a doorframe or a block, close enough that your arms are straight above you with your feet flat on the floor.
Position and grips. Arms straight but not locked, shoulders engaged, and tension held from your toes to your fingertips. Pull smoothly to the target, hold it, and let go smoothly. Use the grips you climb on: half crimp, open hand, three-finger drag, pinch.
Setting the load. Set it as a share of your maximum, so test your maximum first. “About 40%” is a feeling, and feelings drift: on a tired day you pull less, on a good day more than you think. A bathroom scale under your feet is a fair rough guide, since the weight it loses is the load on your fingers, but most update slowly and do not show the shape of the pull. A crane scale hung between the hold and its anchor, or a force plate under your feet, shows it as you pull; Crane scale vs force plate compares the two.
Pain stops a session. Pain that lingers into the next day means you should rest and see a physiotherapist.
What can you train with no-hangs?
Most qualities of finger strength, because what changes between them is the load and the timing.
Maximum strength. Short, heavy pulls at 90 to 100% of a hand’s maximum, one hand at a time, while the target stays below your body weight. They borrow the short pulls and long rests of max hangs, which explains how max strength training works; no study has compared heavy no-hangs with max hangs.
Endurance. Intermittent pulls build the aerobic base (30 to 40% of max) or strength-endurance (60 to 80%), and you can lower the load mid-set instead of stopping. Finger endurance training explains the zones.
Speed of force. Short, fast, maximal pulls on fresh fingers train rate of force development. From the floor you can pull as fast as you can without dropping off at the end; whether that trains it better than hanging is untested.
Coming back from an injury. Low, measured pulls let you load a finger to the limit your physiotherapist set, and see that you stay under it. This is general information, not medical advice.
Daily light loading. About ten minutes of light pulls on most days is the Abrahangs protocol, set out in Daily low-intensity hangs.
Note One retrospective study has tested no-hangs in climbers: in 2024 app data, the Abrahangs gave a small strength gain that was not significant against climbing alone. Daily low-intensity hangs goes through the study and its limits.
Who are no-hangs for?
- Climbers new to training. No-hangs are simple, easy to adjust and hard to overdo. Hangboarding for beginners offers them as the gentler start.
- Climbers coming back from a break, or who do not tolerate heavy hangs.
- Anyone who wants frequent finger loading in ten minutes, with a hangboard, a hold on a doorframe or a block.
- Climbers who want to know their load, since the number in front of them is the point.
Who should not, or not without advice:
- Anyone with current finger, pulley or tendon pain: ask a physiotherapist first, and use the loads they set.
- Growing teenagers: check first with a coach or physiotherapist who knows adolescent climbers.
- Climbers who treat “light” as “free”: daily no-hangs still add to your total finger load. How often to hangboard explains how to count it.
- Climbers after maximum strength above their body weight: hang with your feet off the floor.
Do this in Entralpi
The max strength test measures your maximum with each hand. Keep the result with one tap at the end of the test, or type it in Settings (Profile, then Settings, under Physical Profile, Max strength): it is the value for one hand, and a load in % max becomes kilograms; for a pull with both hands, 100% is twice that value. Then pick a workout in the Train tab or build your own at the percentage you chose. With your feet on the plate, the app shows the force through your fingers live. Without the plate, the timer paces the pulls and rests, and you choose the load by feel.
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.
- Gripped Magazine. A staggeringly successful new hangboard routine.
