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Over the next few weeks, we will be posting The (Free) Complete Guide to Gymnastics Ring Training, starting with the introduction below!

In the series, I will detail the exercises you should do to steadily improve your bodyweight Calisthenic skills using your rings. As you read, you’ll get to discover all of my insider tricks and tips to help you progress as fast as possible, FOR FREE!

So let’s get started.

The very first thing I recommend to anyone new to bodyweight calisthenics is to find a good pair of gymnastics rings. To my dismay, this suggestion is often met with hesitation.

For some reason, gymnastics rings are a lot more intimidating than they need to be. The misconception is that you have to be at an Olympic skill level to make use of them.

That’s wrong!

They’ve been used to Build Strength For Centuries!

Gymnastics Rings and calisthenics have proven over nearly two hundred years that they can be used as a stand-alone method to gain unparalleled amounts of strength AND balance.

In the first gymnasiums of the 20th century, gymnastics rings were a staple everywhere. For some inexplicable reason, they slowly lost their popularity. Recently, they’ve been rediscovered as a top way to increase both strength and balance for all athletes.

So Convenient

With rings, you can train every single major muscle group in your body without having to pick up a single weight. But the best benefit is, that as long as you have a sturdy place to which to attach the rings, you will never have to leave the comforts of your own home or local park, AGAIN!

No more ridiculous gym membership fees. No more waiting for equipment at the gym. Your workouts on your own time, where you want them to be. It can’t get any better than that.

Best Travel Workout Known To Man

I travel A LOT. Before I became obsessed with bodyweight calisthenics, training on the road was an exercise in futility. Never knowing what equipment the hotel gym had (if any) made it hard for my Type A personality to feel like I was accomplishing anything with my training.

So discovering rings was like a revelation. Now, when I travel, I don’t have to book hotels based on their gym. I have my gym packed with me!

EVERYONE Should Train With Rings

Like I said earlier, you can get a full-body workout using just rings alone, no matter what your skill level is. The most magnificent attribute of rings is that EVERYONE can use them. ALL of the “complex” exercises done on rings start out with basic calisthenic movements that make them approachable as a starting point in your training and to build your strength and skill up over time.

Exercises like push-ups, bodyweight rows, and pull-ups, or even modified pull-ups, are greatly enhanced by using gymnastics rings even by beginners.

Rings Help To Avoid Nagging Injuries

The reason that even the most basic exercises are enhanced so much is the freedom of movement that rings give you as well as the benefits that this provides to not only your muscles, but to your CNS (central nervous system).

Through my years of training with and without weights, I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve triggered or instigated nagging wrist, shoulder, or elbow injuries by doing simple calisthenic moments like push-ups, pull-ups or dips.

The problem is that when performing these exercises, your arms are basically locked into one plane of motion – i.e. there isn’t much freedom for your joints to move.

This means that if you are interested in bodyweight training (I hope so if you’re reading this!) doing the required practice to build up your skills can lead to overuse injuries in your wrists, shoulders, and/or your elbows.

This is why gymnastics rings are a godsend.

They eliminate nearly all of this risk because they allow your body to move in all three planes of motion, which take A LOT of pressure off of your joints

Boost Your Balance

A bonus benefit of this extra movement is that it also trains your CNS to be in sync with your body. Not only are you training your muscles to be stronger, you’re developing your sense of balance.

This is why gymnasts can easily pick up other activities like surfing, skateboarding, etc. or generally any sport faster than most other kinds of athletes.

This improvement in your CNS system is demonstrated the first time a beginner tries to simply balance themselves, without moving, on rings. You will notice their body (arms & torso) shaking quite a bit. This is because their muscles are not used to being free to move in any direction with only the slightest force causing that movement. Their muscles might be very strong indeed, but the neural pathways to their brain are clogged with noise that manifests itself by shaking.

Over time the shaking goes away as those neural pathways are cleared. Your CNS is now strong enough to exhibit pure strength on the rings.

IN GYMNASTIC RINGS SERIES SO FAR:

6 Advanced Gymnastic Rings Push Ups Variations for Building Serious Upper Body Strength

Gymnastics Grips: It’s All in the Hands

The Support: The Secret to Exceptional Ring Training

Build Your Own Homemade Gymnastic Rings in 3 steps.

6 MORE Reasons Why You Have To Try Gymnastic Rings Training

How to Get Shredded while using Gymnastic Rings: The Science and The Practice

How to Get your First Muscle Up with Gymnastic Rings: STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL

Help Us Help You

Throughout this series on ring training, I want to provide the information that YOU the reader desire to start or just improve your ring training.

-What exercises are you most interested in developing?

-What struggles have you encountered with ring training?

Let us know, and we’ll be sure to create the most comprehensive guide to ring training for you, the reader!