Making a Dream Machine

Today I made a "Dream Machine" for rings training. I made videos of the process and put them in a playlist. Didn't edit it into one video as i don't have a "director" account on Youtube.

I hope this is useful to anyone, the machine is amazing and lots of fun! Obviously be careful and don't over use it as a training aid.

One thing I will say is that I am definately going to change the belt to have 2 attachments, one at each hip. I am going to post a video next week and add it to the playlist.

Have fun!

That was just about the most awesome set up tutorial I've had the pleasure of watching! Thanks alot Breaks! Have fun training and, needless to say, keep us posted I'd like to see a strength series on that :twisted:

Thanks Finnbar

Played around with it tonight and FL, BL, PL and stuff is all crazy easy...good times.

Meant to say two other things. Sorry for shaky camera work was doing everything 1 handed and if anyone has any questions please post

Breaks that was an excellent tutorial! Its much easier to make than i realized.

Thanks for sharing this! Definitely is a great tutorial.

Good work. A tip for getting the ropes even lengths is to do all the tying at the same time, each and every step. i.e. if you do a loop in one rope, do it identical on the other rope and then go to the next step. If they are both identical looking when they are pulled taut they should be the same length.

Otherwise if you tie one and try to get another the same it is more difficult, as it is hard to gauge how much the rope will "grow" after pulled tight.

I might have a go making one with my dip belt. Have to find the pulleys.

I tired a very simple version of this, just to get the feel for it to see if I will bother building it (I will)

I was using just the rings and my smooth pullup bar. You take the rings off the bar and rethread them so now you have loops. Now sling the loops over the bar and step into each dangling loop with each leg, left leg in left loop, etc.

So they look like the loops on this guy

Now you hold onto the rings and the loops are half lifting you. The friction on the bar means it is nowhere near as good as the proper pulleys but you get a good idea of it. I could do a slow controlled negative muscleup, which I also cannot normally do, pulling back up was the difficulty due to weakness and friction. It could be useful for beginners even training the support hold.

I am overweight and don't think I will ever do the advanced moves. I do not compete in gymnastics and just do it to stay reasonably strong and not as fat as I otherwise would be! This would allow me to try other moves and relieve the boredom of basic moves. But is there any danger in me training harder moves with this setup, or is that warning really aimed at competing gymnasts?

Just a wee update video for people to see the changes I've made, i'm pretty happy with the Dream Machine now and will probably keep it like this for the foreseeable future.

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Rubadub, not totally sure I understand what you are doing but so long as you are sensible not to overload on the more difficult moves then you should be ok, just listen to your body and be careful tying yourself to things ;D

Hi Breaks. I made my Dream Machine, following your instructions except for the waist belt. Instead of using a belt around my waste, I am using my climbing harness with leg loops for support. I simply put each locking carabiner through the leg loop and one of the gear loops on my belt. That way it is much more comfortable and easier to hold my body horizontally since I am supporting my lower body farther down from the waist (than with your suggested belt contraption). I am still trying out different moves, but I am really surprised about how well it works: iron cross, maltese to planch, L-sit muscle up. Of course, I realize that it is not the “real thing†when you support half your body weight at waist level, but I simply like the training effect on my chest, shoulders and lats. Thanks again for posting your excellent instructions.

Michael,

Great video. Well done.

The secret to not getting tangled in the ropes during your forward roll work is to alternate a forward roll with a backward roll. This will ensure that the ropes remain properly placed.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Great new video, I really want one now. I found these pulleys on ebay which should do the job, unless somebody thinks otherwise, or has a better source.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Small-Climbing- ... 53d74447ab

I have seen cheaper Chinese ones rated to 100kg each, but I imagine it is worth paying the extra. The ones I linked are made by http://www.usrigging.com/ which seem to be a decent company.

Rubadub. If you mean by “setup†the contraption you described: my advise, don’t use it for any type of move. Even not for your reverse muscle up. I found that a good pulley, that has a minimum of friction when you do your moves, is essential. Also, your dream machine should support you if you are upside down. I first tried my dream machine with two cheap pulleys from the local building store and found that they had too much friction, so it became impossible to smoothly execute the more dynamic moves (like a muscle up). Last week I bought a couple of Petzl climbing pulleys (like Breaks) and was really surprised at how much better my DM works now. Apart from using my climbing harness with leg loops, as I described in an earlier posting, I have also left my rings in their original straps. I have lengthened the ring straps, but I still do have a back-stop as long as I hold on to my rings in the eventuality that something goes wrong with my dreaming. I noted that the pulleys you show have a 20kN (kilo Newton) breaking (?) load. The Petzl pulleys that I use have a 23 kN breaking load and a working load limit of 5kN. Between my rings and my climbing harness, I use 6 mm static climbing rope, rated at 750 kg breaking load. Have fun.

FritsMB said:

Rubadub. If you mean by “setup†the contraption you described: my advise, don’t use it for any type of move. Even not for your reverse muscle up.

Hi FritsMB, thanks for the info. I do not plan on using the setup with the rings over the chinup bar again, I did it just to feel the sensation of weightlessness and to see if it suited me, and it felt OK. I am planning a setup similar to Breaks.

I can well imagine the friction makes a huge difference, as I found this myself even when shifting about in the support position, I could easily increase or decrease resistance. The pulleys I linked seemed similar to the petzl and are intended for climbing (while the cheap pulleys are not), I see the term "arborist" is a person who climbs trees & tends to them. I will have a look on climbing sites to see if they get Ok reviews since those petzl seem the standard to get, but are about twice the price.