Ring biceps curl progression

I was wondering how it would be best to progress with this exercise because i just realized there are many different ways to increase the difficulty since there are many factors: feet position, rings height, straight or bent legs, height of the person etc..

This is the exercise im talking about just to be clear:

And also, what would be the "final" position with this exercise? Or the hardest way to do it? Body completely horizontal with feet elevated perhaps? For instance with other exercises this is easy to know; with the planche the final position is obviously the full planche with the body completely horizontal, with FL the same and so forth. But with this one?

I've tried this exercise 2 different ways. I'm 5'7" by the way. Ive usually had the rings at 100cm from the floor and my heels 31 inches from where the rings are hanging. My legs are straight and not bent by the way. It's a bit hard to keep my feet in this position because i havent come up with anything yet to prevent me from sliding forward so i have to focus in order not to slide forward. Ive only been able to get 4 good reps this way.

The other way i tried was with the rings 4ft high from the ground and my legs fully straight with feet in the same spot, 31 inches from the anchor point. This was easier and i could get 8 good reps.

Ive also been wondering about the ROM. Ive noticed that anything beyond a 90° angle between your arms and your body probably results in reduced ROM. I dont know if its just because its a lot harder when your head goes from the anchor point and beyond or if its just not good to go past that.

Yo...

Warrior said:

I was wondering how it would be best to progress with this exercise because i just realized there are many different ways to increase the difficulty since there are many factors: feet position, rings height, straight or bent legs, height of the person etc..

This is the exercise im talking about just to be clear:

In general, the ways you increase progression is by moving your feet toward (and then eventually past) the point directly below the rings. You can also increase progression by using straight body instead of bent legs. On the flip side, you can decrease progression by putting your feet behind the point below the rings and moving backwards. You can also bend the legs. Lastly, you can just do "negative" reps.

And also, what would be the "final" position with this exercise? Or the hardest way to do it? Body completely horizontal with feet elevated perhaps? For instance with other exercises this is easy to know; with the planche the final position is obviously the full planche with the body completely horizontal, with FL the same and so forth. But with this one?

Well the true "final" position would be starting from a fully inverted hang and then curling your entire bodyweight up. But the final position while being horizontal would be with your feet elevated at level where your body would be parallel to the floor just as your elbows are parallel to the floor at the same level as your torso.

Biggest thing for me was to decrease progression until I was getting full ROM with no momentum. I did an SSC with just negative reps for 12 weeks to get true ROM under control.

Well the true "final" position would be starting from a fully inverted hang and then curling your entire bodyweight up. But the final position while being horizontal would be with your feet elevated at level where your body would be parallel to the floor just as your elbows are parallel to the floor at the same level as your torso.

What I don't get is that Slizzardman (Josh) said that regular DB or BB curls work the biceps less compared to doing horizontal ring curls (similar to curls using a cable machine) due to the angles, but then in the video he said the final version should be the inverted curl, wouldn't that have the same angles as a regular DB or BB curl and shouldn't the angle that works the biceps best be the ring curls with body raised parallel to the ground instead?

It also depends how much weight the biceps are supporting. The force curve is obviously different, but you support more weight in inverted ring curls than in an inverted row position.

Vagabond said:

It also depends how much weight the biceps are supporting. The force curve is obviously different, but you support more weight in inverted ring curls than in an inverted row position.

Yeah your right that an inverted curl has a higher load than a feet supported ring curl and that's probably why Josh put it above the ring curls. The ring curl still has a force curve that works the biceps more than the force curve of an inverted curl though. Oh and I believe the back lever curl is the hardest curl exercise as opposed to the inverted curl which was mentioned in the video description by Josh as the hardest bicep exercise.

Here is another curl exercise that the OP might like to try: ring curls with body facing down. It's harder than the ring curls with body facing up, but the force curve for that one might not be biased towards the biceps like the regular ring curls with body facing up.

B1214N said:

Here is another curl exercise that the OP might like to try: ring curls with body facing down. It's harder than the ring curls with body facing up, but the force curve for that one might not be biased towards the biceps like the regular ring curls with body facing up.

You say its harder than body facing up but that it may not be better for the biceps? I dont get it.

Warrior said:

B1214N said:

Here is another curl exercise that the OP might like to try: ring curls with body facing down. It's harder than the ring curls with body facing up, but the force curve for that one might not be biased towards the biceps like the regular ring curls with body facing up.

You say its harder than body facing up but that it may not be better for the biceps? I dont get it.

I feel the body facing down curl to be harder, but may not emphasize the biceps as much as the body facing up curl. There are at least 3 elbow flexors with biceps being one of them so the body facing down curls probably emphasize the brachialis more than the biceps.

B1214N said:

Well the true "final" position would be starting from a fully inverted hang and then curling your entire bodyweight up. But the final position while being horizontal would be with your feet elevated at level where your body would be parallel to the floor just as your elbows are parallel to the floor at the same level as your torso.

What I don't get is that Slizzardman (Josh) said that regular DB or BB curls work the biceps less compared to doing horizontal ring curls (similar to curls using a cable machine) due to the angles, but then in the video he said the final version should be the inverted curl, wouldn't that have the same angles as a regular DB or BB curl and shouldn't the angle that works the biceps best be the ring curls with body raised parallel to the ground instead?

The instability of the rings makes things very different, but when using these as a progression towards inverted MU you would of course end up inverted.

Face down is a lot of long head of the biceps, and is much much harder on the inner elbow, and does require stronger biceps in general because of the high load and bad leverage.

If you're going to try and specifically target the biceps brachii just do full ROM and don't over think things. One of the main reasons that standing curls don't work the biceps as much as they should is because people let the elbows drift back behind the ribs and under the shoulders. The elbows should stay slightly in front of the shoulder socket and unbraced by the ribs if you really want some crazy bicep work. At very heavy weights there will be some rib bracing, just as there is during inverted MU most of the time, but that's nothing to worry about.

Most important thing: Just train the movements full ROM and eat a lot afterwards. Do what you actually feel where you want to feel it. What you feel is what you are working.

Thanks for the great info and advice Josh. My post there was just me trying to know more in depth about the angles and biceps emphasis in the ring curls out of interest and curiosity. When I do workout my biceps, I only care about getting stronger in curling movements not if it works more biceps or brachialis unless I need to emphasize one over the others to further increase my elbow flexion strength. Nowadays I mostly do back lever curl eccentrics in tucked body form for curling work since I workout at home now.

B1214N said:

Thanks for the great info and advice Josh. My post there was just me trying to know more in depth about the angles and biceps emphasis in the ring curls out of interest and curiosity. When I do workout my biceps, I only care about getting stronger in curling movements not if it works more biceps or brachialis unless I need to emphasize one over the others to further increase my elbow flexion strength. Nowadays I mostly do back lever curl eccentrics in tucked body form for curling work since I workout at home now.

This is a good progression. Try to continually make the eccentric as slow as humanly possible. Eventually you will be able to stop a short way down and pull back up to bent arm planche, and then continue back down through an eccentric. Once you hit that point, it's all about slowly extending the range of that one concentric bit until you have full ROM.

This is a good progression. Try to continually make the eccentric as slow as humanly possible. Eventually you will be able to stop a short way down and pull back up to bent arm planche, and then continue back down through an eccentric. Once you hit that point, it's all about slowly extending the range of that one concentric bit until you have full ROM.

Yeah, these are becoming my new favorite biceps/curling exercise and thanks for the nice tip. I have been doing slow eccentrics and sometimes with concentric attempts at the bottom which I can only curl a small ROM currently, but now I will either mix it up or replace it with your suggestion. I do the negatives starting from the bottom of a ring dip or korean dip on rings instead of bent arm planche though. I thought they were supposed to be multiplanar.

B1214N said:

This is a good progression. Try to continually make the eccentric as slow as humanly possible. Eventually you will be able to stop a short way down and pull back up to bent arm planche, and then continue back down through an eccentric. Once you hit that point, it's all about slowly extending the range of that one concentric bit until you have full ROM.

Yeah, these are becoming my new favorite biceps/curling exercise and thanks for the nice tip. I have been doing slow eccentrics and sometimes with concentric attempts at the bottom which I can only curl a small ROM currently, but now I will either mix it up or replace it with your suggestion. I do the negatives starting from the bottom of a ring dip or korean dip on rings instead of bent arm planche though. I thought they were supposed to be multiplanar.

Either way works, I guess what I am describing is really more of a pelican progression, but the strength requirement is the same or very similar.

What you are describing is almost more of a MU->BL progression, and will probably feel a bit different. Maybe you should focus on that for now, and when you are able to do the concentric for reps you can most likely build the pelican version in a shorter period of time.

Or you could switch between them every other day or something, or whatever feels good to you

Thanks! Yeah, the ones you descibed are in the stage 4 pelicans and are the ones I were referred to as palms down back lever pull-ups in the "Back Lever Pull-ups" thread a while back. Both are very hard and similar in strength requirements.