Women and Rings in a Group Setting

[Scott Malin]

Does anyone have any experience or input with adult women and rings...when and how much to introduce them? In my natural strength class I have several ladies who started out without much training background and have progressed to HeSPU wall negatives, multi-second L-sits, basic pull up strength, etc. They're overall well-rounded but I have held off on any ring work because a)the sheer intimidation factor and b)initially they lacked the ability to even do a pull up negative that lasted more than a couple seconds. Even a tucked lever was out of the question without my holding most of their body weight in the spot. I wonder now, though, if I should have introduced support, bulg. dip, and other elements done on the rings right off instead of waiting for their overall basic strength to increase. Guys I generally have no problem beginning these elements, but the women tend to have less musculature and initially spend more time working easier progressions. It's also important to know that my classes draw primarily from the general populace so the reaction to introducing anything with rings early would be, "You want me to do what? No way, you're crazy. The guys can do that, I can't." So I need to strike a balance between training benefit and scaring away students right off. Any thoughts are appreciated!

[Castleclimber]

Hi Cory,

I think that getting them on the rings and holding the basic support position could be of tremendous benefit for them. I'm a relative beginner gymnast but when a friend and I began training last October, we began with just three basic exercises:

1) Holding the support position for time (Rings at sides, turned out and arms locked straight).

2) Ring Dips

3) Ring Press ups

I believe that of these three, only the ring dips may give a reasonably fit woman any real difficulty over more than one rep. The support position will train the stabilisers, opening up the possibility for progression to more difficult ring training later. Everyone -men included- find the support position difficult at first but improvement is relatively quick.

Press ups on rings are great because you can raise or lower the ring height and your feet to make for gradual progressions. The only difference between ring push ups and normal ones is the instability. They feel impossible in the first attempt but adaptation again is usually fast.

I think that once they realise that you're not asking them to pull out Iron Crosses or back dislocations, they'll come to relax into training with rings.

Kind regards,

Richard,

London, Uk

[Blairbob]

Corey, I used to make my preteam girls use the rings a lot. They however, though weak would still have some fair amount of strength compared to your average person.

Look at a lot of the training methods with CF concerning ring training and women.

Start out with ring pushup holds or pushups and eventually graduate to the support position. I teach my boys to grab from the outside so they merely are not discouraged besides grabbing their shorts.

Instead of starting off with pullups, try the body rows instead. It doesn't have to be fully horizontal, as diagonal is ok. I use the same methods in my adult class concerning women and pullups and negatives. Sometimes I put their feet up on a block so they only have to manipulate a fraction of their bodyweight ( and I don't have to spot ).

[braindx]

Yup, start with partial stuff -- lower the rings for pushups and rows, support holds, etc.

[Scott Malin]

Ok, I'll start incorporating some fundamental ring elements at class tomorrow. My students have already become very successful so I look forward to them advancing more

[Mark Weaver]

I think it would depend on the condition of the woman. When I first got my rings, my wife and I messed around a bit. She could hold a support for about 20 seconds. She could do 4 or 5 pullups. She also held a tuck FL for about 50 seconds, much longer then me, LOL. Overall my wife is pretty athletic, so she wasn't as scared as excited about how good she felt after working out on the rings.

I think that with anybody, male or female, you follow the progressions in coach's book. You find out what progression is appropriate, and work from there. I wouldn't do bulgarian dips until they can do the other progressions. If the easiest progression is still too hard, you'd have to modify it.

[Blairbob]

Wow, your wife seems to have some strength and skills. Does she have a twin or close sister?

[Mark Weaver]

LOL, Blairbob.

She has one sister who's single, but they couldn't be more opposite in terms of height, weight, and athletic ability. I lucked out. She kicks my butt to keep me in shape. It's slightly embarassing when your wife can do more pushups than you, and I'm not talking about girl pushups.

She really does like using the rings, though. They're efficient, and challenging, and fun for her. She's not as strong in her dip strength, so she uses those pallet bands coach suggested for dips and muscleups.