Daughter 7 and son 9 can dead hang comfortably for 3 and a half minutes

[rando]

A while back I saw a YouTube video of a guy randomly challenging people to dead hang off a bar for 100 seconds. If they made it they'd get a $100.

Today I took my kids to the park and they played on the monkey bars. As a bit of a challenge, I timed them to see how long they could dead hang for. I was pretty shocked that both of them were still comfortably dead hanging at the 3.5 minute mark. At which point I stopped timing. I'm certain both could have hung on for much longer as they didn't seem tired.

Is this normal for kids that age? I remember in the video grown ups were struggling at the 30 second mark and I can't remember if anyone won the challenge.

 

[jeannetteh]

@rando The video you are referring to had a freely spinning bar which is significantly harder than hanging from normal fixed bars.
Either way, good though to get the kids out playing etc

 

[rando]

@jeannetteh Ah I see. A spinning bar. That would make things much harder.

Still like you said, better them playing outside then on their xbox, ipad etc.

 

[lilreb85]

@rando Those street challenges usually have an extra thick bar too. You can’t just hook on to the thick back because it rotated making it very hard to hand on.

Also kids can be so light that hanging is very different than for an adult. Same as how bugs can stick to walls with teeny little pins the physics of it makes the comparison interesting but not useful as comparing in the context of equivalents.

 

[carollcsw]

@jeannetteh Also they sometimes like to mess with bigger diameter bars which makes them harder to grip

 

[nayse]

@jeannetteh Yup, we used to dead hang on a pull up bar during our weightlifting program for football. I could comfortably go 4-5 minutes. Saw that hang for 2 minutes and win $100 challenge at a fair. I thought that's free cash. Got on the spinning bar and lasted a minute twenty

 

[bigred630702000]

@rando Kids don't weigh that much so it's not as hard to hang unlike adults who have gained weight but not as much strength.

 

[rando]

@bigred630702000 This is a fair point. It's all about how much weight you're holding up. Makes sense.

 

[sausagedog23]

@rando There's geometry involved too. Your mass grows in 3 dimensions but limb length (lever arm) only grows in 2, so their strength to weight ratio is much higher

 

[drfeline]

@sausagedog23 This person physics.

 

[glm2017]

@drfeline

person physics

Also technically this...

 

[chapmic]

@glm2017 Blue

Blue line

What does the blue line mean

 

[jenliny]

@chapmic

Blue

Blue line

What does the blue line mean

It’s a quote indicator using markdown or the rich text editor. You can do it by putting > in front of some text.

 

[idreamofjeeny]

@sausagedog23 What lever arms are involved in a dead hang?

 

[sausagedog23]

@idreamofjeeny Fingers

 

[deliveranceseeker]

@sausagedog23 In this case its your grip crush strength, which is correlated with the cross-sectional area of your forearm muscles (also scales n[sup]2)[/sup]

 

[logant2222]

@rando I mean, just look at little kids on monkey bars.... Almost any kid can manage them with ease, but for an adult they are a pretty humbling experience without some level of training.

 

[miguelorlando]

@logant2222 Yep. When I was a kid we were doing muscle ups and flipping on top of the monkey bars and flipping over backwards without letting go and all sorts of shit. That would all likely require actual strength training for an adult.

 

[kozluv]

@logant2222 Yeah lol, had my mom do a deadhang last week. Asked her how long she thought she could handle it. "60 sec or something" she said xD. Humbled the fuck out of her when she could only do 10 sec.

 

[cjinchrist]

@rando Another commented this already, but adding support to the strength:weight ratio. Go look at some google images of most successful rock climbers of all time. The biggest advantage they have isn’t tons of strength, or the smallest weight, it’s their strength:weight ratio. They’re really strong for their size. They get strong without getting bulky. Kids have great mobility at that age and very good strength:weight.