Women & Ring Training

Hi - I was wondering what is possible for women to achieve on the rings. I did a search on this forum and could not find a lot in regards to women and Gymnastic Strength Training™. (George - if you read this how is your wife going with her training? And Claire as well?)

A search I did on the internet suggested that women don't have the upper body strength to do rings.

I figure that I should be able to at least achieve pull ups, dips, and eventually muscle ups (along with a few other lower strength moves on the rings). What about levers etc.?

This is obviously going to take a lot of training and dedication but I'm out to see just how much is possible for me and it would be nice to at least have a minimum standard to set.

Are their any other females on this site training? What have you been able to achieve to this point?

Cheers.

I've seen and had competitive girls do muscle-up on rings. I can count them on one hand. Probably a few more that did it on a bar.

Eva T, one of the big name CF gals did a back pullover from stand to support. I'm sure there are plenty of CF gals that can do a kipping MU ( which is worthless for what we care for ) and another handful that could do it deadhang.

However, I have never heard or seen any females honestly work lever work on rings. Gals work moving through front lever drills on High Bar, but that's about it. I've played with shoulderstands and handstands with a few gals on rings as well.

Part of it I'm thinking is the desire to work on any classical or ring strength. Some gals have developed and competed straddle planche and manna or straddle V and I've seen that in fitness comps as well.

I'm sure there are some female acrobats who could probably do a flag.

A search I did on the internet suggested that women don't have the upper body strength to do rings.

Hopefully that is limited to the girls that get influenced by this and not you, most people do not have the upper body strength including men and women for rings, it takes work for both ***'s, and of course is more impressive with women and very attractive at least by me.

Check out Lillian Leitzel, she was extremely strong! Please read up on her, it will influence you more than that search by sexist fools, although I wouldn't say they are completely wrong but I do not back this statement up one bit, I don't think many women have tried to work up to a routine on rings yet, but you can work up to those skills just will take time and effect as will the all the skills in gymnastics.

Forgot to mention check out female climbers, very impressive.

http://www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/Chinups.html

I once thought it was impossible for a woman to do a cross, but maybe not at this is all new to me. Having a really good strength to weight ratio and besides I have seen some crazy acrobat strap work on those ribbon like apparatus.

Why women don't do iron crosses? Beacuse not many woman try it and work on it....

PS:About iron cross-> one boxar came to our gym and work on a gymnastic elements, thena weak ago in his first atempt made an iron cross :shock: :shock: a little bend arms, but still....

I have four female students who can complete mutiple strict muscle ups.

One of the girls has started beginning stages of cross development, and that is after achieving ~20 pullups, more than 5 muscle ups and other feats of strength. Mind you, my girls also olympic lift, squat and deadlift heavy poundages and invest only 30 minutes a day on conditioning and not every day.

Hi kez,

Great advice - don't be limited by other people's (unsurprising) lack of achievement in things they are not specifically aiming toward!

Training has been a frustrating afair in our house over recent months! Helen was doing really well with her training until a non-fault car accident where she suffered some injuries that prevented her doing much (she's mostly OK now) ...and then she was on extra child duty (like she doesn't do enough already) when I was recovering from Viral Meningitis recently (also nearly 100% again).

She had made good gains in the gymnastic elements she was working on (rings, handstand) even though the approach was more 'fun' than structured progressions! Chalk and cheese, us.

Best,

George

Thanks for everyone's reply's. I've just ordered Coach's book, DVD's and a set of rings (I'm officially broke now).

Let the challenge begin. At the very least I can only get stronger.

Hi Kez,

Like you I'm a woman who wants to be able to do ring work. I've got a set at home but haven't been able to work much with them recently due to work commitments. I've ordered Coach's book and am really looking forward to starting to do some serious work once it arrives.

One of the things that lets me down with ring and bar work is my grip strength. I just can't hold on for any length of time.

As for what I've achieved so far, well its not much, but then I haven't been training seriously recently. I can do a 60 second frog stand but am having difficulty progressing to the tuck planche. I'm working on handstand pushups and pistols. I mix bodyweight stuff with weightlifting and am currently working on a 1.5x bodyweight deadlift for which I need to add another 10kg to my lift.

My training revolves around skills I think are cool and skills that will improve my martial arts abiilities.

My girlfriend, whom I've known forever, was in competative gymnastics for about 14 years. When she was at her peak, she could muscle up and front lever on rings and bar. So, yes, it's completely possible.

A lot of gals have done straddle planche ( press to HS ) on BB. I've never seen straight leg planche however.

I did recently come across a 12yo girl doing a tuckish flag but I didn't see it in motion so it's hard to comment on them.

Still in search for some crazy acrobat hanging ribbon strap strength work by the gals.