Olympic Rings

I

ian

New Member
Has anyone tried using Olympic Rings for any part of a workout?

They’ve put some in the gym, only about 0.5m off the ground so that people can do press-ups using them and they are brilliant!

I thought I’d be quiet good at them as I love dumb bell presses (and therefore thought my co ordination would be quite good), but it really shows any lack of ‘core strength’!.
Its like doing bench press with two magnets that keep pushing away from each other and you have to think about every stabilizer in your upper body.

I was just wondering whether anyone else had tried something similar or had any ideas with what else we can do with them. The gym isn’t big enough to hang them as high as they do in the Olympics, but the size of the athletes that use the rings indicates that they definitely work?
 
There is a brilliant compound exercise that you can do using rings but it requires that the rings be set above head height.  
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You basically pull yourself up with a neutral grip and then rotate your hands so that you are able to press downwards and raise your body as if you were doing the concentric part of a dip. Lower back down and repeat.

Sorry, not much help!
 
I used to be a gymnast - and one of the things we used to do with the rings lowered was simulate doing an iron cross - albeit in a push-up fashion. So - if what I'm picturing as to the height of the rings is correct (sorry ian - us Yanks ain't too swift with metrics), get into a push-up like position and lower the rings to the sides, lowering your torso toward the ground. You may want to put something under your chest in the event that your shoulders/chest fail on the way down to avoid injuring your shoulders.

If in fact you can get down to the position where your hands and chest are parallel, hold the position for a slow 5-count, then release. Another fun one is to go about 75% of the way down, then squeeze your way back up to the starting position. The chest pump you'll get in maybe 3 reps will rival benching a heavy 10 x 10.

There's another variation - move your hands vertically, so the load is supported more by your anterior pecs and the whole of your deltoids. I was never able to go back up from that position, so I'd do maybe 10 total reps, holding the position for a slow five count before dipping my knees down to release tension, and start over. KILLER deltoid work!

Hope that helps. Enjoy.
 
I have been using them for the last 5 months. They have become the center of my workout.

I can hold an iron cross for 5 seconds. It took 5 months to achieve this. I do all sorts of movements , hanging upside down, handstand pushups.etc....

I am working towards a planche. I alos bought a set of Gibson PArallettes to practice L-Sits.

The movement you mendtion is a Muscle up which is a pullup straight into a dip and it is KILLER!
 
The CrossFit folks are somewhat into these workouts and, while I have yet to try it, I have been thinking it might be a useful supplement.  There are plenty of ways to get a good body weight workout if you are creative.  

American Gymnast has a downloadable guide to parallettes that is often referred to.  You have to create an account with them, but can download it for free.  Go to  American Gymnast Training Articles
 
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