rings strength

Why rings might be the most comprehensive strength tool.

As you progress through our method and programs, you will be prescribed more and more ring exercises. While these little tools might seem as daunting as they are intriguing at first, gradually incorporating them into your training will bring great rewards.

You may have seen people shaking a lot using them, sometimes until they fall, and this may have stopped you from trying the same (this was probably a good idea). But have you ever wondered what makes people shake? Besides the obvious – yes, rings are attached to straps and are very unstable – what is it that makes some of us shake so much when others seem to be levitating smoothly? There must be another variable.

This other variable, you guessed it, is us.

The reason why we perform differently on rings is because we are not equally prepared. During movement or static positions, our body uses primary muscles which produce much of our strength, and smaller muscles used to stabilize our body (conveniently called stabilizer muscles).

When we are more or less able to perform an exercise or hold a position on the rings but keep shaking, this means our primary muscles are strong enough but our stabilizers can’t keep up and struggle to support our body.

We might be able to do 20 dips on parallel bars and not even 1 on rings because bars are too stable to engage our stabilizers.

Training with rings ensures there is no imbalance between our primary muscles strength and our stabilizer muscles strength, and allows us to use our full potential in unstable environments and can also potentially reduce our risk of injury.

It is always a good idea once you are able to perform an exercise comfortably on a stable surface to try and do it on gymnastics rings, as long as proper progressions are followed. Training with this kind of method will make sure your strength gains are always adequately supported by your stabilizers and that you can produce maximal force in all kinds of environment.

This is why gymnastics rings are thought to be one of the most comprehensive strength tools out there.

Another great advantage of training with rings is that it will develop smaller muscles in proportion to your bigger muscles, which in turn will make you look perfectly proportionate and more ripped. Think gymnast body.

With that being said, you should not rush into it without solid foundations and following our recommended progressions. It would be too bad to hurt yourself while training specifically to avoid it!

Do not discard other tools either, every piece of equipment in a gym has its purpose. However, every calisthenics gym without rings is incomplete!

Hail the Rings!