Gymnastic Rings

When it comes to physical training there are many tools available that all provide a wide myriad of benefits depending on the goals of the practitioner. Gymnastic rings are one such tool especially for the minimalist on a budget. Rings are fairly affordable, completely adjustable, and able to be placed almost anywhere. Their small size makes them extremely mobile in addition to the training stimulus and benefits provided by them that are difficult to find in other devices.

The first thing that one will notice upon using rings for the first time is the stability issues. There will typically be great difficulty just in keeping one’s arms from shaking as the body begins to recruit muscles to stabilize the position that have never been used before. In addition to this, the tension created by simply the smallest adjustment of leverage requires a very large recruitment of muscle fibers.. Rings do not allow you to cheat or create leverage that doesn’t come from your body which forces practitioners to develop good form and technique in their movements as well. Moving incorrectly will result only in being unable to maintain balance or failing to complete a movement. It is a well established fact that pound for pound gymnasts are typically some of the strongest athletes in the world. One of the reasons for this is performing movements that lack leverage such as those done on the rings.

While I am personally excited about the personal benefits I am experiencing and will still experience in the future from my own ring training, I want to make a point to declare that I am not advocating rings as a replacement for weight training although it is certainly an alternative. There are still many athletic benefits to training with weights which should not be ignored such as the dynamic and explosive nature of the training. I am simply suggesting ring training as an effective inclusion to a complete training regimen. Simply lifting oneself up onto rings will provide quite surprising physical challenges to the inexperienced body. I would encourage those that do attempt ring training to make a point to try and work on the more gymnastic oriented movements as opposed to adapting typical workouts (such as pushups, dips, etc.) to ring training. This will comprise mainly static movements such as levers, handstands, or iron crosses and positional movements (moving into position) such as swings, muscle ups, and presses. One of the benefits to gymnastics training is forcing the body to adapt to different positions constantly as opposed to performing repetitions of the same movements.

I am still experimenting with my own body trying to figure out which training tools and ideas work best for me, but, I can certainly say that in the short time I’ve used rings I’ve noticed strength increases and definitely an increase in body control. For those that give it a shot be sure to be safe and do a little bit of additional research for proper practice and movement. There are a number of tutorials available on youtube for the beginner all the way up to the more advanced athlete. Good luck and have fun training!

-Javier