I bought a set of Xtreme Rings and...

Where should I start? I have a years experience with kettlebells and I am quite fit, but I have never used rings. I am 6' 4" and weight 230lbs at 20% body fat. What exercises do I start with in order to learn to use the rings and build strength with them? I would eventually like to be able to do most of the standard ring moves.

Thanks

I'll give you the short story of my life.

Was active, the I wasn't for four years.

Bought some rings, had fun for a few months. Started serious ring training after getting some basic strength from playing, and last week I did my first Iron cross.

The "have fun" part may have been the most crucial.

That's where you need to start, just do any kind of movement on the rings. I started with supports, rows, skin the cats, inverted chins, and ring push-ups.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

drillsandskills.com has an article on basic rings stuff.

I'm 6' 3" and weigh 205 pounds.

I also started with kettlebells (after years and years of stupid bodybuilding routines) and considered myself quite fit. So I tried ring dips and failed.

I started with chins, ring-pushups, roll-outs and support, support, support..

When I was able to hold the support with palms facing eachother for 30 seconds, I added the ring dips in my routines.

The supporthold helped A LOT to get a feeling for the instabilty of the rings.

This might be what you've been looking for:

http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/vi ... =14&t=1724

(basic ring strentgh development)

I'm following the WODs for several weeks now and I'm making excellent progress. I gave up benchpressing and bicepscurls and I'm stronger than ever.

I still use kettlebells but only for cardio.

Have fun with your rings and good luck!

Thanks for the ideas. I have had a lot of success with kettlebells and I can handle heavy ones, but I want the ability to handle my own body weight easily, and rings seem to be the tool for that job....they will force me to do it.

I have a chinup bar in my bedroom just inside the doorway. I would practise stabilising every time I passed. I know a guy who could do 35 parallel bar dips and not a single ring dip on his first go. It is quite off putting but once you are used to incorporating all the stabilising muscles you will be find.

You can do self assisted dips, i.e. have your feet on the ground just barely assisting you, and do dips, bending the knee as you go down. Thats how I started anyway. Pullups, bodyrows should be fine.