How Important Are The Rings?

I searched around on the forum and didn't come up with a thread.  Please point me to one if there is....

I, like many others I'm sure, live in a small space apartment with no access to rings.  As for Xtreme rings, the pullup bar in my living room (and the ceiling) is too low to be an effective installation site for rings, making things like curls, positions where the body would be pointed up, impossible due to the lack of open space above the ring. 

I'm curious on some opinions on just how important rings are for the developement of maximal strength.  I'm guessing that after a certain point in strength developement, there is only so much you can do with a bar, and to move on to greater heights in strength you need rings.

Are there any here that have gone to gymnastic gyms to use rings?  How would you do a move like the elevator or inverted iron cross in a public park even with xtreme rings?  Is there a point where you simply have to go to a professional gynastics gym?

Haha, And take a friend or two too if you'd like. Rings workouts in the park can be pretty fun with the added members oh, and I used to just use a swingset in the park to hang the rings. It worked out fine. We actually used to gather a bit of an audience.

My rings hang from ceiling height and I can still do lots on them. There's plenty of room to tuck through my hands, but obviously I can't extend when inverted. All other basic positions and exercises are fully possible and IMO they're still well worth having even if you have limited head room. As a beginner you'll want them close to the ground quite a lot, anyway, for things like pushups and rows. I'd bet that 95% of ring installations by casual enthusiasts (that's us) don't have enough head room to invert or swing.

are you ready to do inverted crosses or elevators? most basics don't REQUIRE rings. and even from a pullup bar there is plenty to do. 

I have my xtreme rings on a pullup bar going into my closest, and I'm able to perform the following:

front lever progressions

back lever progressions

support hold & l-sit+support hold.

ring pushup variations

rows

bicep curls

So I would say they are still very much worth it even if your limited to a pullup bar.

quick question about joshua video.

can this exercise be productive for gaining strenght later on for one arm chin up? ty.

The real question should be how important are the moves to you that require rings. Ex. Iron Cross, Inverted Cross (You can get pretty close to do it on floor), Elevators and so on. Some moves can only be performed on the rings. But you can definitely build a lot of strength just with parallel bars and a bar from what I've seen. 

Me personally, I prefer the parallel bars and floor variation of the moves to ring variation, no real reason just preference. 

Right, I agree with you AlexX but remember, he asked in terms of developing maximal strength.

alec_ar said:

Right, I agree with you AlexX but remember, he asked in terms of developing maximal strength.

I thought my answer covered that, meaning it is a matter of preference. Maximal strength is a VERY broad term and really needs specificity to matter. Hence why I said if his idea of maximal strength is an Iron Cross than he needs the rings, no way around it. If he instead wants things like manna, maltese/planche/wide arm handstand on floor then they are not needed (judging from the people that have obtained these skills without using rings). Not a whole lot of people have skills like Iron Cross, Planche, Inverted Cross, Maltese on rings AND can do all the floor variations as well as moves like manna. 

Unless you are coolgymnast on youtube. Then you can do all of these skills anywhere and laugh at the rest of the mere mortals. 

I agree, Alex.

Maximal strength is a pretty vague term, but if you want the ultimate bodyweight resistance challenge, you need rings. With long straps.

Joshua Naterman said:

Maximal strength is a pretty vague term, but if you want the ultimate bodyweight resistance challenge, you need rings. With long straps.

One thing I don't think many people appreciate here is just how much harder skills become when you increase the length of the cables/straps. Subjectively speaking, most skills on short cables are about 50% easier than on long cables simply due to the increased stability. 

50% eems a little steep. They are definitely more brutal and feel entirely different, which was weird the first time haha, but I've found that with straight arm skills like the cross, if I can do it on a pair of low rings I can pull off a proper one on my higher rings with the straps supporting my wrists. Maltese and Victorian I just need to push the straps up a couple-few inches higher on my forearms than on the low rings.

I understand its more difficult but 50% more...maybe. Oh and obviously I don't have a ring tower. I just have one setup with some decently low rings, and another on a tree branch about 12-13 feet up. So maybe that's why I'm disagreeing. The higher setup feels vastly different from my low rings but it might not be close to that of a competitive setup.

MirrorMaze said:

... I'm curious on some opinions on just how important rings are for the development of maximal strength ...

- Rings are essential to advanced GST maximal strength.  

- My apologies for being rather direct here; however It is perhaps instructive to note that it is only those who do not yet possess the strength for iron cross, maltese, inverted cross etc who even consider doubting the above statement.  All advanced GST students know this fact to be indisputable.  For those who have not yet achieved this level of strength; they will simply have to trust the judgement of those who have.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

@AlexX's last post (since my quote function seems to not be working) : Word to the part about coolgymnast haha! There's only a few things he can't do. Talk about maximal strength.

One thing I've learned to accept is that sometimes you just work with what you have. If you don't have a certain piece of equipment or you can't do something for whatever reason, figure out what it is you can do and make the most of that.

You can get very far with your current setup. You can learn front and back levers on a bar, an on the floor you can learn a planche and a manna. If you do acquire a set of rings, there are a lot of exercises you can do that will be extremely useful for building strength. If the rings are just above the floor, you can work an L-sit, planches, pushup variations, and shoulder stands [and ultimately, if you ever get that far, you can start playing around with a maltese]. If you raise them up 3 feet, you can then do dips, rows, muscle-ups (in an L-sit), and levers. When you're ready, it may even be good enough to work an L-cross.

For moves like a handstand, elevator, or inverted cross, where you need a lot of height and there is a high likelihood of falling, you're going to need to find a place with both enough height to hang a long set of rings, and a good crash mat so you don't hurt yourself if you fall. But really, that's three moves. So you're not that limited if you have a pullup bar and some short rings in your house. 

jfslocum said:

You can get very far with your current setup. You can learn front and back levers on a bar, an on the floor you can learn a planche and a manna. If you do acquire a set of rings, there are a lot of exercises you can do that will be extremely useful for building strength. If the rings are just above the floor, you can work an L-sit, planches, pushup variations, and shoulder stands [and ultimately, if you ever get that far, you can start playing around with a maltese]. If you raise them up 3 feet, you can then do dips, rows, muscle-ups (in an L-sit), and levers. When you're ready, it may even be good enough to work an L-cross.

 

 

For moves like a handstand, elevator, or inverted cross, where you need a lot of height and there is a high likelihood of falling, you're going to need to find a place with both enough height to hang a long set of rings, and a good crash mat so you don't hurt yourself if you fall. But really, that's three moves. So you're not that limited if you have a pullup bar and some short rings in your house. 

Very good points.

- Rings are essential to advanced GST maximal strength.  

I definitely take your word for it.

alec_ar said:

Haha, And take a friend or two too if you'd like. Rings workouts in the park can be pretty fun with the added members oh, and I used to just use a swingset in the park to hang the rings. It worked out fine. We actually used to gather a bit of an audience.

Such a simple idea but brilliant, I have sort of the same issue but it isn't the height of my training area at home but the space around me, meaning that I cant fully do straddles and wide arm work can be a bit of a nightmare at times with stair railings to one side and a door to the other.

I drive past the swings at my local park everyday but never thought of hanging them on there thanks .

Glad I could help. But when using equipment that doesn't belong to you, ALWAYS inspect it first oh, and don't hog the swings and make the little kids cry hahaha.

Josh Boosh Binding said:

Such a simple idea but brilliant, I have sort of the same issue but it isn't the height of my training area at home but the space around me, meaning that I cant fully do straddles and wide arm work can be a bit of a nightmare at times with stair railings to one side and a door to the other.

 

I drive past the swings at my local park everyday but never thought of hanging them on there thanks .

I have the same problem with my rings hanging from my doorway chin-up bar where the door frame and walls get in the way. That's why I can't train crosses and rings maltese and victorian. To sort of compensate for that, I do sideways OAFL as a substitute for the iron cross and work the floor maltese as a substitute for the rings maltese. I've also made paralletes recently and use them to work malteses and victorians. For the inverted cross, I guess you can do very wide Japanese handstands as a substitute, but I heard they don't transfer that much to the inverted cross on rings. I thought of an idea of working inverted crosses with paralletes, but I'm not sure if it's good.

I always like to encourage everyone to go to a gymnastics gym.

They are very motivating and exciting places to be. I guarantee you that you will make much more progress training in a real gym (not in just rings but many other things) than you will alone on your own. This is because at the gymnastics gym there are probably people much stronger/better than you and by being around them, you yourself will get better. A few tips here and a few points here from them will do you wonders. 

Gymnastics gyms are one of the few lesser known special places in this world where real magic happens!!!