Time a dead hang. Skip the fake chart.
Seconds on a bar are easy to write down. A fair beginner, average, or strong label needs a published table this page does not have.
Enter a hang time
Both hands on the bar, arms straight, feet off the floor. Type the seconds you held, plus age and sex. The result is your time next to one study’s mean.
Your time shows up here, next to one study’s mean for your sex.
Mean from Stepan et al., Applied Sciences, 2026. Barehanded, overhand grip, arms straight, feet off the floor, 3.5 cm metal bar. Longer of two hangs. Ages 24 to 62. Not split by age.
What this page will and will not say
A dead hang is the time you can hold a bar with both hands, arms straight and feet off the floor. Type that time in seconds, plus age and sex. The page shows the time back and a simple way to add a little next session. Nothing you type is stored or sent.
It does not give a beginner, average, or strong rating. No age-and-sex percentile table was found. The closest numbers are from Stepan and colleagues (2026): 19 women and 19 men, ages 24 to 62, each doing two barehanded straight-arm hangs. The longer hang averaged 44.4 seconds for the women (SD 23.2) and 77.7 seconds for the men (SD 37.4). That is one small sample, not a norm, and it is not split by age. Handgrip charts in kilograms are a different test and do not convert into seconds.
Age and sex stay on the form so the gap is visible, and so a real table can use the same inputs later. Until then the useful comparison is your own earlier hang on the same bar, with the same grip and the same setup. When a hang feels repeatable, add a few seconds, or split the work into short hangs with rest. Step down while you can still control the descent.
Hang is a timer for this drill, with streaks and an Apple Watch app, and it can write a session to Apple Health. A dedicated timer is easier to repeat than glancing at a clock. This page is the time you typed and the missing-norm note.
There is still no percentile table by age and sex, so the 2026 means stay a comparison. The same gap is recorded for the grip page.
Source for the means: Stepan L, McFarland D, Porter G, Scher I. Applied Sciences. 2026;16(19):9926. Table 2, barehanded.
General information, not medical advice. Hanging loads the shoulders and hands. Talk to a clinician about health decisions.
Common questions
Why is there no beginner, average, or strong rating?
A rating needs percentiles by age and sex. Those were not found. Stepan and colleagues (2026) published a mean for 19 women and 19 men, ages 24 to 62, and no age bands. Turning that mean into beginner, average, or strong would invent the cut points.
Is this the grip test used in aging research?
No. Those studies usually measure handgrip force with a dynamometer, in kilograms. A dead hang also uses grip, plus the shoulders, and it is timed in seconds. The two results are not interchangeable. The grip page on this site links the dynamometer research.
How do I progress without a band?
Keep the bar, grip, and setup the same so later times can be compared. Add a few seconds when the current hang feels repeatable, or do several shorter hangs with rest. Step down before your grip opens on its own.
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