Beginner Rings - Nerve pain in hand/forearm

I bought my gymnastic rings a week ago and have been training around an hour and a half every other day. Today my hand has started hurting, only on the right hand though. It seems to be a nerve pain starting from the bottom left of my palm and spreading up towards the inside of my forearm. I have been practicing all sorts of workouts however I have also started trying muscles ups within the last two days. I can muscle up on normal bar so I thought I'd give it a go. I watched some tutorials on YouTube and realised the ring holding technique for a muscle up is different, could this be the reason for my hand hurting? The fact that I'm not used to holding that way, and the body weight forcing down onto that specific point of my wrist? Is this normal amongst beginner ring gymnasts?

Thanks

I'm no expert but here's my two cents: I don't know if it has anything specifically do with your training the muscle ups, but I will say it is way too much way too fast. You said you're spending around 1 1/2 hours training every other day. Does that mean ring specific training? If so, this is wayyyyy too much for someone who's only had rings for a week! I believe this is why your forearm is strained and am surprised that nothing else in your body is signaling you to slow down.

When I got my rings nearly three years ago, I would spend probably around five minutes on them a day, learning support and kind of trying to lift into a tuck planche. Heck, even now I don't spend too much more because when it comes to rings I sort of have a get on-get off-and get on with your life approach. They are an intense training tool to begin with. If I were you I would peruse the forum to look for good beginner training methods. But don't forget to take it slow. I could be wrong but I don't think that most beginners spend the amount of time on rings in a week that you do every other day. Anyway, good luck, choosing rings was a smart decision because they're an awesome tool for training strength, but they are also quite unforgiving. Good luck on that muscle up.

PS: did you learn the rings 'false grip' yet?

mirroredrain said:

I'm no expert but here's my two cents: I don't know if it has anything specifically do with your training the muscle ups, but I will say it is way too much way too fast. You said you're spending around 1 1/2 hours training every other day. Does that mean ring specific training? If so, this is wayyyyy too much for someone who's only had rings for a week! I believe this is why your forearm is strained and am surprised that nothing else in your body is signaling you to slow down.

When I got my rings nearly three years ago, I would spend probably around five minutes on them a day, learning support and kind of trying to lift into a tuck planche. Heck, even now I don't spend too much more because when it comes to rings I sort of have a get on-get off-and get on with your life approach. They are an intense training tool to begin with. If I were you I would peruse the forum to look for good beginner training methods. But don't forget to take it slow. I could be wrong but I don't think that most beginners spend the amount of time on rings in a week that you do every other day. Anyway, good luck, choosing rings was a smart decision because they're an awesome tool for training strength, but they are also quite unforgiving. Good luck on that muscle up.

PS: did you learn the rings 'false grip' yet?

Hey, thanks so much for your feedback. I guess the "ring holding technique" I mentioned in my first post is what you would call the 'flase grip', sorry I'm still not familiar with all the terminology

I had taken a 6 month break from sports but have returned to things now and have been getting into things for the past two weeks, after getting my rings last week I decided to shift my whole workout solely to rings. After checking some videos on YouTube I decided to make my own workout program, I can post it here if it helps however I'm not sure if the names of the workouts are correct, I collected them from the videos:

Bicep curls - 9 x 3

Dips - 4 + 4 + 5

Reverse tricep - 10 x 3 

Pull ups - 4 x 3

Crunches - 30 x 3

Chin ups - 4 x 3

Ring Flys - 8 x 3

Ring arrows - 10 x 3

Ring pulls (reverse pushup) - 6 x 3

Push ups - 6 x 3

This is the current state of my program, I thought that with this workout I would get used to my body weight on the rings and develop my hands to withstand the weight of my body and reduce the shaking. Should I carry on with this workout or start a fresh new one from the forum?

I don't know all of those movements but essentially, you want to transition to rings slowly.

For pulling movements it doesn't make much of a difference (can even be easier) but for pushing, rings add a lot of instability.

I'd suggest to at least drop ring dips for now and definitely no MU work. You can work those dips on chairs or something for now.

Keep with ring pushups for at least a month and train proper support hold. Then you can proceed with ring dips.

Also add false grip work, you can do one or two sets of pullups with false grip and do some false grip hangs.

You may also want to add russian dips and/or diamond pushups to condition your triceps when you eventually get to really work on those MUs.

Also if you do that full workout every other day, it's way too much volume for someone just starting.

Have fun with your rings!

I'm not really qualified to give you approval for a workout routine on rings, or to suggest a new one, so I hope someone else chimes in to help you out. From personal experience though I can say that this looks like a pretty well structured beginners routine. With A small amount of straight arm work, and mainly bent arm work, you're just familiarizing your body with the unstable nature of the rings, which I view to be a good thing. Basic push ups and their variations, as well as pull ups and dips I think are great to start you off on your rings journey.

The other exercises you mentioned are really decent too, although one suggestion I would give you is to add some very light volume, low intensity straight arm exposure. Learn the basic support hold with proper form and gradually increase your hold times on that. Also, what are you short and long term goals?

When you say ring arrows do you mean archer push ups? And as an aside, I may just be paranoid now but here's a piece of advice. Be extra cautious with ring flyes. Done right and at the right intensity I'm sure they are a fine conditioner but about a month ago I had a high intensity training day and I decided to end my workout with a set of 'deep' chest flyes on rings where I basically started with my arms extended behind me for each rep and then pulled into a flye. During the rep I heard a pop and ended up straining my rotator cuff and biceps tendon pretty badly. The injury was likely a mix of me being stupid With the flyes and the previous exercises I had done that day. Don't worry, if you're careful this shouldn't happen, but when it comes to flyes I would be diligent to apply a pretty low ROM and keep your hands below shoulder level. Anyway good luck my friend!

Not going to comment on the routine here. Essentially you jumped in too fast and unprepared. Do not underestimate the difficulty or how long it takes to adapt. If you are still shaking a lot then you need to reevaluate where you actually are. Doing advanced work while still a beginner will get you nowhere or injured fast.

Nic Branson said:

Doing advanced work while still a beginner will get you nowhere or injured fast.

Very true.

In my opinion this is the most common source of injuries with beginners in Gymnastic Strength Training™. As people we just can't seem to accept that the "stove" (GST) is "hot" (don't do advanced work too soon) until we personally get burned a few times; regardless of how many times other people try to warn us about the stove beforehand.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Flameous said:

I don't know all of those movements but essentially, you want to transition to rings slowly.

For pulling movements it doesn't make much of a difference (can even be easier) but for pushing, rings add a lot of instability.

I'd suggest to at least drop ring dips for now and definitely no MU work. You can work those dips on chairs or something for now.

Keep with ring pushups for at least a month and train proper support hold. Then you can proceed with ring dips.

Also add false grip work, you can do one or two sets of pullups with false grip and do some false grip hangs.

You may also want to add russian dips and/or diamond pushups to condition your triceps when you eventually get to really work on those MUs.

Also if you do that full workout every other day, it's way too much volume for someone just starting.

Have fun with your rings!

Thanks for your feedback, what exactly do you mean by MU's?

mirroredrain said:

I'm not really qualified to give you approval for a workout routine on rings, or to suggest a new one, so I hope someone else chimes in to help you out. From personal experience though I can say that this looks like a pretty well structured beginners routine. With A small amount of straight arm work, and mainly bent arm work, you're just familiarizing your body with the unstable nature of the rings, which I view to be a good thing. Basic push ups and their variations, as well as pull ups and dips I think are great to start you off on your rings journey.

The other exercises you mentioned are really decent too, although one suggestion I would give you is to add some very light volume, low intensity straight arm exposure. Learn the basic support hold with proper form and gradually increase your hold times on that. Also, what are you short and long term goals?

When you say ring arrows do you mean archer push ups? And as an aside, I may just be paranoid now but here's a piece of advice. Be extra cautious with ring flyes. Done right and at the right intensity I'm sure they are a fine conditioner but about a month ago I had a high intensity training day and I decided to end my workout with a set of 'deep' chest flyes on rings where I basically started with my arms extended behind me for each rep and then pulled into a flye. During the rep I heard a pop and ended up straining my rotator cuff and biceps tendon pretty badly. The injury was likely a mix of me being stupid With the flyes and the previous exercises I had done that day. Don't worry, if you're careful this shouldn't happen, but when it comes to flyes I would be diligent to apply a pretty low ROM and keep your hands below shoulder level. Anyway good luck my friend!

Thanks, I've gotten used to the shaking and it has reduced quite a lot, I will do as you say and add the support hold workout to my routine as well:)

Currently I do not have any specific goals, I just aim to get my body into its old shape and improve my strength. As a short term goal I would probably aim to get 2 - 3 consecutive muscle ups, after practicing the false grip I've managed to pull through on muscle ups, the transition is getting quicker so I consider this to be a realistic goal

Yeah I guess they are also called archer push ups:) I'm sorry to hear about your injury, I hope that you have fully recovered and training again. I am generally careful and try not to stoop so low as long as I am confident of how its going to turn out but thanks for the heads up anyway, much appreciated

Nic Branson said:

Not going to comment on the routine here. Essentially you jumped in too fast and unprepared. Do not underestimate the difficulty or how long it takes to adapt. If you are still shaking a lot then you need to reevaluate where you actually are. Doing advanced work while still a beginner will get you nowhere or injured fast.

I have greatly reduced the shaking and am quite confident with the routine I am going through. I can accept that jumping into muscle ups straight away may be a quick way to getting injured. Despite doing a few muscle ups yesterday I will take a break to get better with the false grip so I'll be taking things easier, thanks for your feedback.

MU is short for muscle up.

As people we just can't seem to accept that the "stove" (GST) is "hot" (don't do advanced work too soon) until we personally get burned a few times;

I think the biggest culprit here is the one who came up with training apparatus as fun as the rings.

YagmuRain said:

...am quite confident with the routine I am going through.

Then I cannot help you. Best of luck with it and try to stay conservative and not injure yourself.

Nic Branson said:

YagmuRain said:

...am quite confident with the routine I am going through.

Then I cannot help you. Best of luck with it and try to stay conservative and not injure yourself.

I agree with Nic that this is probably a mistake.

True confidence in training protocols is born of hard earned experience; not blindly hoping for the best. Hopefully you will not come to regret this decision.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Me too. Been there too many times.

Me three! I think I can speak for about 80% of the population of this forum, when I say we have all had certain injuries at one time or another from trying to progress too quickly. The problem is that it's so easy to complete moves way above your current strength level with shoddy form, without even being aware you are doing so. You have some of the best experts in the world here telling you that you are progressing too quickly so I urge you to heed their advice.

The getting started page has plenty of info on the pre-reqs and basic SSC FBE templates, so you would be foolish to ignore this information, or think you are above it. Otherwise if you truly wish to progress I can pretty much guarantee you will regress back to mastering these in a year or so, when you are full of aches and pains and have gotten nowhere. The journey is what it's all about here, so learn to enjoy getting to know your body and mastering the easy stuff first. GB is about far more than building glory muscles. Not much else to say, there isn't much point trying to take advantage of this community unless you are going to listen and leave your ego at the door. If you do the easy stuff right, you will be far stronger and look better than you could hope for! But it requires humilty that unfortunately, is hard to learn without damaging yourself and wasting your time, just like coach said. Best of luck my friend, try not to make mistakes I know myself and many others have made!

Chris.

Edit: Shoddy grammar!

Word to basically everything Chris said. We have all been there, myself definitely included. Do what feels good to you in your training but be careful! Injury sucks. Even if its relatively minor. I'd stay clear from the muscle ups for awhile and just listen to your body. On a side personal note, relating to what Chris said, I have had rings for almost three years and because of stubbornness, am still learning things that I should be proficient at by now. The beautiful thing about ring training is there is no cutting corners. It demands your respect and patience and if you begin without a solid foundation your progress and ability will suffer. I'm speaking from personal experience.

Good luck man, and keep us updated!