Old swimmer tries rings

I am 56, in reasonably good shape from many years of Masters swimming, and two years of basic strength training (Stronglifts 5X5). I found your website, and was hooked! I got the rings in April, book and DVDs shortly after. Here is where I am after 5 months of work, for general critique and/or derision:

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Am I on the right track? Am I crazy to do this at my age? Anyone have any experience combining this program with swimming? Thanks

Welcome, you are definitely not too old. We also have a 70 year old rower in the board who is kicking butt. Check him out under the name "Fritz."

On to the critique...

Try and slow down your fall to inverted hang.

Front lever looks good.

You didn't do a back lever since your hips never lowered. They need to be at the same height as your shoulders.

With that said, before doing back levers you should first practice german hangs. Get to where you can do 3x30 seconds of the german hang and then move onto back lever. You'll need to raise the height of your rings for that.

Other than that, practice the l-sit a whole bunch.

Awesome stick with it! Work on that support hold would be my first recommendation. You want to get steady on the rings in a support...Start trying to work a support w/RTO (Rings turned out = thumbs angled away from body to about some degree, generally just think 30-45 degrees to start).

Like triangle said, keep working that front lever and back lever....nice negative muscle up, as your strength increases try to slow everything down and make it more smooth.

You are well on your way.

Might try fixing a mirror to your side so you can see how level you are on the levers. I often think that I am parallel to the ground, when I am way high off the angle. Or, get a spouse, friend, or very intelligent dog to tell you once you get to parallel.

Wolf with one Ear said:

Or, get a spouse, friend, or very intelligent dog to tell you once you get to parallel.

I think a very intelligent dog would be perfect.

Thanks for all the feedback! My "fall" from support to the inverted hang really feels like a fall rather than a controlled movement, probably a strength issue. Any advice on addressing that weakness?

And that last move is my attempt at a German Hang, which may be limited by flexibility? Advice on that also would be appreciated.

I second working on the support hold. I'm unsure of the type of strength training you were doing, but I do know that simmers generally have very weak shoulder stability. Support holds will do you well.

U60. Yes, you are crazy to try this at your age. But, so what. That only means that you are not conforming to a norm of what aging is supposed to be like in our society. So, don’t worry about that. Yes, you are on the right track. I suggest, however, that you minimize your free fall going down to hang. That kind of shock load can do real damage to your ligaments. Do spent some time on reading postings on this board about joint preparation and warming up. Coach Sommer, Ido Portal and, especially, Slizzardman have a lot of very good advice on that subject. I spent at least half an hour on joint preparation before I do my program of simple holds (look at my posting under Digital Coaching). Have patience and enjoy every little bit of progress that you can still make. You will be surprised.

Nicely done!

My only recommendation at this time is to follow Frits advice regarding the German Hang. Be sure to descend slowly and then also adjust your rings so that your legs can be used to control the depth of the stretch.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I am not a competing swimmer, but I have swam with some discipline in the past. The difference I have noticed since strength training again is lack of cramps. My lats used to cramp randomly, I haven't had it happen yet since playing around at the pool. As for superior stroke length and speed, I was faster 10 years ago. I was much more flexible from head to toe. I used to train streamline stretches and shoulder work everyday. Now, about 3 times a week. My ankles were also more flexible, too. On the other hand, some people have made claims that muscle-ups have made their freestyle stronger even after a 5+ year absence from the pool.

Only thing I'd say is don't rush through the progressions, as useful as levers are you need to scale things to your ability. I thing pull-ups, ring push-ups and pistols should be staple before even the easiest ring work. I tried starting with levers and found them to cause elbow problems due to weak forearms. The ring push-ups in the book even state a good RTO position at the top with is a scaled down version of support hold. I hope I'm not out of line and this may not apply to you, but even if they are a bit easy for the first SSC I think it's important to work your way though the easier progressions first and not jump ahead.

Thanks for the replies. I agree rushing the progressions would be a bad idea. I am going to work on support with RTO and hold off on the roll from support to hang until it feels less like a fall. Any suggestions on how to work on the strength to slow down that transition? I have the same problem with the basic reverse muscle up. Also, what is a pistol?

U60

A pistol is a squat using only one leg, while maintaining your balance, with the other leg and your arms pointing forward. If you lack the necessary flexibility in your hip flexor, stand on a box so you don’t have to hold your balancing leg parallel to the floor.

To gain the required strength and to learn to control the transition for your MU, I found (after quite a bit of experimenting) that using a basketball or soccer ball as a support for your feet works best. I tried russian dips, but did not find them as effective as the support from a basket or soccer ball while doing a transition on the rings. You can gradually decrease the support by grabbing the ball with you toes only and a foot in front of you,; only using it when you go up, holding your position for a couple of seconds half way up and/or down, etc., etc. I limit the support from my feet to the point that I can do 3 to 5 sets of 5 transitions. A transition is from the highest point in the pull-up position to the lowest point in the dip position and back down to the highest point of the pull-up position, while maintaining a false grip. That ensures that you are only using your triceps and shoulders to pull your elbows back while going up. I was very surprised to find how different a slow and controlled MU transition is from (what I call) the sling shot version. I hope this helps. If you need a video, just tell me.

Frits - i'd love to see a video of your ball assisted transition prep workout.

Here is a short video that shows what I am talking about. I still move pretty quickly through the transition, but I expect that I will be able to slow it down as I get stronger. You can also see that there is quite wide range over which you can scale the amount of support from your feet.

Thanks Frits! That looks like a great way to work on the transition, i will definitely try that next ring strength day.