About thirteen years ago I started experiencing shoulder pain, but I had no specific injury or event that seemed to have caused it. The pain was persistent, lingering for months, and though it was not overly painful, it was enough to affect my golf swing and other athletic activities. I visited an orthopedic doctor hoping to discover what was wrong and see if the shoulder could be repaired. He sent me for an x-ray, then an MRI, but neither revealed any broken bones or ligament tears. The doctor then recommended I do physical therapy, which I did for several months, but that didn’t seem to help—the nagging pain and lack of motion in my shoulder persisted. He said the only other option at that point was surgery.
Although the MRI didn’t reveal anything, the doctor explained he could only know for sure what was wrong once he cut the shoulder open to explore inside. This should have been a nerve-wracking decision that I researched and contemplated for weeks, but instead I immediately agreed to get the surgery. I’d never had any surgery before, but all the famous professional athletes I admired got surgeries routinely and bounced back better than ever. I trusted modern medicine and thought shoulder surgery was completely safe and would be the only option to finally heal me. In fact, I was somewhat excited by the prospect of getting surgery. Not only would it end my pain, but it would be like a war story that I could recount for years.
So I got the surgery and everything seemingly went as planned. The only odd thing was that I woke up from anesthesia in the middle of surgery and could see and hear the doctors cutting into my shoulder—but I couldn’t move and I didn’t feel anything. Eventually I fell back into unconsciousness. After the surgery, the doctor said he discovered a torn labrum in my left shoulder, which he repaired. I would need to rest for a bit to let it heal, then do more physical therapy. The shoulder pain before the surgery was mild and nagging, but the pain immediately following the surgery was excruciating. I could not move my arm at all. The doctor prescribed me painkillers to take if I needed them, but after hearing so many horror stories of people becoming addicted to opiates, I was too scared to even try them, so I simply withstood the pain. I had never had a surgery before, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I did not realize I would be in that much pain afterward. If I had known that, I might not have gotten the surgery in the first place. Then again, I was willing to tolerate high pain temporarily if it resulted in no pain in the future.
After months of physical therapy, eventually the pain went away—however, I never regained my full range of motion in my shoulder. It was slightly limited and sometimes, under pressure, my shoulder would sort of buckle or give out. Only when really pushing it to try to extend my range of motion would I feel pain. It almost felt like the shoulder was dislocated (or not attached properly) and would pop out occasionally (which never happened before the surgery), though this “dislocation” did not hurt at all. Despite those issues, I wasn’t feeling constant shoulder pain anymore, so I viewed the surgery as a relative success.
It wasn’t until years later, when I became more health conscious, eating better, exercising, and doing yoga in particular, that I noticed my shoulder never healed properly. I didn’t know if it was the surgeon’s fault for not reattaching the labrum properly, or if it was my fault for not doing enough physical therapy—or if it was a combination of both. I was admittedly dismissive of physical therapy at the time. I was young and naive and didn’t think simply doing exercises with armbands could heal my shoulder pain, so I didn’t put my full effort into physical therapy. I went to PT once or twice a week, doing the exercises there, but I didn’t really do any other exercises at home.
In the years following the shoulder surgery I became much more interested in natural health remedies, which had been successful in healing my other issues, so I began researching alternative ways to heal my shoulder. The two primary solutions for shoulder pain (then and now) were physical therapy or surgery. I found exercises and stretches specifically designed for my type of shoulder pain and began doing them daily. This time, I was much more motivated. I did the exercises more often and with more intensity, figuring the lackadaisical effort must have been my mistake the last time around.
I don’t know if I was doing the wrong types of exercises or simply pushed my shoulder too hard too soon, but I wound up injuring my shoulder again. This basically put me back to square one, pre-surgery, where my shoulder was in constant pain. Again, it was not severe pain (unless I worked out particularly hard, in which case it would be quite sore the next day). If I rested for a week or so, the pain would go away, but when I tried to start working out again (lifting weights or doing push-ups) I’d sometimes tweak my shoulder again and be back to square one. The pain itself was not too bad, but sometimes the shoulder pain would affect my front pectoral muscles resulting in chest pain, on my left side, and whenever I felt chest pain I would freak out from hypochondria, worrying it might be related to my heart. So I was under enormous health anxiety throughout all this time, wondering if it was simply a shoulder injury or a symptom of something far worse?1
After a year or two of suffering from this cycle of constantly re-injuring my shoulder and increasing health anxiety, I decided to see a doctor about it. I went to a new orthopedist, who, like the last one, recommended physical therapy as a first course of action. This time I was much more committed to PT, believing that doing the proper exercises could heal my shoulder. So I went to PT two to three times per week and did everything they said. Lifting weights, pulling bands, etc. I did all the assigned exercises and stretches at home, and they actually seemed to help…somewhat. My shoulder didn’t hurt as much, but I still had a faint amount of baseline pain that would never go away. Nor could I achieve full range of motion in that arm.
At this point, after months of physical therapy, the orthopedic doctor said I could either live with the pain or get another surgery. I was torn about it because I wasn’t satisfied with the previous surgery (and suspected that it actually made my shoulder worse), but at the same time I wanted to be able to be pain-free for the rest of my life. I was still relatively young (early 30s) so it seemed like it would be worth it to get the surgery so I would be able to play golf and other sports. (I could still play golf with the injury, but my swing was limited, never the same as it was before the first surgery.)
After much more careful deliberation than the first time around, I decided to get the surgery and scheduled it for a few weeks later. However, I was not 100% sure about it and continued searching the internet for alternative treatment options. I forget how I originally discovered the information, perhaps through a YouTube video by Bob and Brad, “The best physical therapists on the internet—in their opinion, of course.”) They put out a ton of videos for just about every possible injury, and they’re kind of funny. Or it might have been from Upright Health, who is another fantastic PT YouTuber. Or Strength Side. I think Joe Rogan also mentioned it on a podcast, but I forget who with.
What they all said was to hang—that’s it. Just hang from a pull-up bar for about 30 seconds per day (longer and more often if you can.) This method to heal shoulder pain came from a book by Dr. John M. Kirsch, a former orthopedic surgeon who discovered the hanging solution after suffering from a shoulder injury himself. Simply doing a dead-hang from a pull-up bar each day can supposedly heal 90% of shoulder injuries without the need for surgery. You probably won’t believe it when you first hear it (I didn’t either). It can’t possibly be that simple, can it? Dr. Kirsch started recommending hanging to his shoulder patients then wrote the book (Shoulder Pain? The Solution & Prevention) to share the information widely, despite the fact it would result in him losing business as an orthopedic surgeon. When someone releases a book about an alternative health practice, people assume they’re just trying to sell books (or whatever other product they’re offering). But Kirsch wasn’t selling any supplements or equipment, and he could have made a lot more money by just continuing to perform shoulder surgeries. And you don’t even need to buy the book (I didn’t)—just start hanging.
Since I was already on the fence about the surgery, I decided to postpone it (there was no rush, after all) until after trying this hanging method. Luckily I already had a pull-up bar at my home, so I began hanging every day, plus doing the free-weight exercises Dr. Kirsch recommended. After just a week or two I started noticing improvements, then after months the pain was gone almost completely. I was astonished. All those months at physical therapy, they had me doing dozens of different shoulder exercises (with weights, bands, and machines), but never simply hanging.
I was elated but also somewhat maddened to think that such a simple method was available all this time. I likely could have avoided the first surgery had I simply started hanging from a bar daily. The way it works is that a dead-hang essentially forces your shoulders into the proper position while also strengthening them. Humans evolved from primates who swung from trees, so the human body was designed for hanging and swinging—it comes naturally to us. Poor posture compresses your shoulders, while hanging expands them—not that hanging is the posture you should be in all the time, but it’s sort of the inverse of the hunched sitting position, so it undoes or counterbalances the effects of sitting. If you avoid hunching and sit/stand with correct posture, plus hang on top of that, you’ll be in much better shape overall.
Hanging automatically aligns your shoulder into its natural position. The more you hang, the more you will be able to maintain that proper posture while you’re not hanging. The combination of strengthening and straightening your shoulders eliminates the pain caused by poor posture. That is what I think caused my initial shoulder pain, which is common among desk workers. Sitting hunched, leaning forward for hours upon hours every day is terrible for your posture and causes all kinds of shoulder/neck/back problems. All my life I had terrible posture, always keeping my back bent and shoulders scrunched forward rather than a straight spine with shoulders spread widely. When you have poor posture every day for years, you are inevitably going to develop chronic pain. It finally made sense how I got the initial shoulder pain without any specific injury. It was compounded deterioration over time.
I am sharing my story for anybody who has shoulder pain because I went to two different orthopedic doctors and two different physical therapy centers (with about a dozen different therapists) none of whom ever mentioned anything about hanging. I can understand the orthopedic doctors not wanting to put themselves out of business—not that I think they are deliberately trying to hide the hanging method, but they likely dismiss it as pseudoscience without sincerely investigating it. What orthopedic surgeons don’t tell you is about 36% of shoulder surgeries are unsuccessful. And just because you have a tear, doesn’t mean you need surgery. The results of labrum repairs compared to placebo surgeries are quite alarming.
As for the physical therapists, I cannot believe they never had their shoulder injury patients try hanging (they had a pull-up bar there, but never had me use it). I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt because I liked my physical therapists and they seemed to genuinely want to help heal their patients through exercises, so I assume they simply did not know about the hanging method (it is still relatively new and obscure). Bob & Brad are PTs, and they recommended it, so hopefully (with their large following on YouTube) the hanging method will spread to other PTs around the country. By writing this post, I am doing my part to share the hanging solution as well.
Degenerative posture-related shoulder injuries are especially common among writers and people who sit in front of computers all day (which is becoming more and more people). So if you have shoulder pain, you might be able to avoid surgery and months of paying for physical therapy by simply hanging from a pull-up bar. It only takes one minute per day. I have a bar in the doorway of my room and hang for ten seconds or so every time I come in and out. Hanging feels great after sitting at my computer, as it quickly adjusts my shoulders into proper form, and it also decompresses my spine and lower back. Humans were not meant to sit all day, but some jobs require it. In that case, hanging is a quick and easy way to counteract the effects of sitting—as is walking and doing lower-body exercises like squats.2
It is now four years since I would have gotten my second surgery on the same shoulder, and I am extremely thankful I did not. The shoulder is not 100% in terms of range of motion, strength, and flexibility—and it may never be. I think the reattachment of my labrum during the surgery was done wrong, preventing my shoulder from being able to heal fully. But the hanging method has gotten to the point that the shoulder is mostly pain-free and doesn’t bother me on a daily basis. Occasionally, I’ll tweak it if I do an exercise that puts excessive pressure on my shoulder, but a couple days of rest and hanging sets it back to normal. If only I knew about the hanging solution thirteen years ago, I could have avoided the first surgery and its aftermath altogether.
T.Z. Barry 