Gymnastic Rings

Upper body strength, DO YOU HAVE IT?

You might recognize the Gymnastic rings if you've set foot in a Gymnastics facility or at least watched the Gymnastics portion of the Olympics at least once in your life, typically its a male Gymnast apparatus and they have been around since the 1800's[1].

Rings are extremely useful for increasing strength in a multitude of ways, for those new to rings pull ups and dips are some of the easier exercises to perform. For those with advanced body weight strength capabilities or previous Gymnastics training such exercises as planche holds, front and back levers, handstand holds,  iron cross and muscle ups are possible.

No excuses ladies

My first experience with rings occurred after Christmas 2012, now i am 6'6", around 200-210lbs and with body weight dips i could start with a set of 14 and i could do sets of 5 with 35lbs in a weight vest on.When i first tried dips with the rings, i struggled with 1 rep and barely managed 2, the stabilization required to keep the rings dug into your sides to prevent them from thrusting out laterally and dropping you to the floor requires a lot of strength from your shoulders and stabilizers. That added stabilization element made the dips shine with a whole new spectrum of fun because at body weight dips were once again difficult due to the required stabilization. After attempting to do 50 ring dips as fast as possible the next day i hit absolute failure at 37 but after i recovered my strength within the next week, i was able to do sets of 5 and 6 with only moderate difficulty and from that point on you could so such things as add weight through the use of a weight vest or dip belt, slow the reps down, or go for endurance and do as many reps as you possibly can, or something simpler like doing bulgarian dips.

Some great sources to check out for all sort of good Gymastics knowledge are Coach Sommer's gymnasticbodies, as well as the book Overcoming gravity by Steven Low

I bought my pair of rings here, that particular pair of rings is cheap as far as rings go, the set up is very easy, and can be set up most anywhere; a basket ball hoop, a tree, a pull up bar etc. As far as quality goes i have had zero problems with it so far.



[1] http://www.gymmedia.com/anaheim03/appa/rings/history_ri.htm