The Rings of Power!!!

Sean banging out a Muscle-Up

Two rings to rule them all, two rings your weaknesses they will find them. Two rings for unbelievable strength and in your training you won’t mind them. The still rings or gymnastics rings are a great tool for improving overall strength, in particular core strength just from stabilizing yourself on the rings. You can take ordinary movements like the dip and push-up and greatly increase there difficulty by performing them on the rings. The average person that can perform 20 dips on parallel bars will be lucky to get 10 dips on the rings. This is because of the “speed wobbles” you get while trying to stabilize yourself. At first your body is not used to such an intense stimulus and in order to keep holding you up it starts firing all the muscles in your core randomly. Just holding yourself up on the rings is an extraordinary challenge and should be attempted regularly with goals of 30sec, 1min and 2mins. One must always control the rings or they will own you! Close attention to form is a must and the rings must always be kept as close to the body as possible, as the further away from the body they venture the difficulty in terms of strength and stability increases exponentially. Through time and practice your body will become familiar with being on the rings and your training on them can progress. There are a variety of moves that can be done on the rings as evident by anyone who has watched a gymnastics competition but some beginner movements are: pull-ups, push-ups, dips, L-sits, handstands, handstand push-ups, levers and muscle-ups. The muscle-up is a favourite of mine and is the combination of a pull-up and a dip going from hanging under the rings to supporting above the rings. The muscle-up is a great power movement and shares similar beneficial qualities with the clean & jerk (C&J you start above the bar and finish under it, in the MU you start under and finish over top). The muscle-up will allow you to surpass any obstacle you can get your hands on. The rings of power are a great addition to your strength training just give them a try and soon you'll be the Lord of the Rings.