Have you always wanted to develop unparalleled strength as an adult throughout your entire body?  With these ring exercises from the GymnasticBodies Courses, you will be able to create serious upper body and core strength to keep you moving strong, day in and day out.

Try incorporating these following exercises into your fitness routine (at home rings are actually fairly simple to install). You’ll notice how the rings are an amazing tool to help wake up muscles in your shoulders, chest, and core in order to keep your body stable throughout each movement.

PLANK SUPPORT

Gymnastics Strength Training™ requires you to support your body in a wide variety of positions, angles, and shapes in order to get stronger and more flexible. One position is called Plank Support, and it entails holding your body in a plank on a set of rings.

How to Do:

When doing this hold, be sure to keep your elbows straight so that you are stacking your joints one of top of the other. Also, spread your shoulders blades apart so that you are in the most stable and mechanically advantageous position to exert your strength.

As you gain strength in this position, challenge yourself further by attempting to hold this exercise for up to a minute on a set of rings. The inherent instability of the rings will add a ton of difficulty, and all the muscles in your shoulders, chest, and arms will have to fire in order to stabilize the rings.

HINGE ROWS

With all the pushing movements in GST, it is important for both shoulder stability and joint health to include several different pulling variations in your weekly workout routine. Coach Christopher Sommer, the founder of GymnasticBodies, included over 26 exercise progressions for Rope Climbs in the Foundation Series, and we will discuss one of those here: Hinge Rows.

Done properly, Hinge Rows will address common deficits or weakness in your rotator cuff, pulling strength, and shoulder stability.

How to Do:

Set up a pair of gymnastics rings so that they are about hip height off the ground. From the bottom of your ring row, bend at your waist and pull your arms up to the outside. At the top position of a Hinge Row, your elbows should be at the height of your shoulders, and your arms should be making a 90-degree angle. Lower back down slowly, being sure to completely straighten your elbows at the bottom. Hinge Rows are a tricky movement to figure out, but we have you covered with more progressions, coaching, and video feedback in the GB Courses.

Prepare for pushing exercises like ring pushups using the GB Foundation Series. 

RING PUSHUPS

Now that you can hold Plank Support and do Hinge Rows, you are ready to amp up to a harder skill: Ring Pushups. These require greater control and core strength, but are a great way to take your upper body and muscle development to the next level.

How to Do:

Set your gymnastics rings just a few inches off the floor, and begin the movement in a tight plank position with your arms straight and shoulders protracted. Turn the rings out so that they are at least parallel to each other, if not further out. This small cue will help condition the muscles that cross your elbow joint, and it will better prepare your body for the rigors of more advanced rings strength later on.

To start, lower slowly and with control all the way down the bottom of your pushup. Now that you are on the rings, you will be able to descend lower than normal, as your chest will not touch the floor until you pass the height of the rings. Pause briefly in the bottom, being to sure to keep the rings parallel to each other throughout the entire movement. Push back up strongly, and squeeze your chest, shoulders, arms so that the rings do not spread out too wide. Finish in the protracted plank position from which you started, then repeat for reps!

If you find that you are having difficulty pushing back up on the rings, then we highly recommend that you check out the Hollow Back Press progressions in the GB Foundation Series. The GB Courses will take you through over 26 progressions for pushups, dips, handstand pushups, and more (depending on where you are at in your fitness journey) in order to build upper body pushing strength in 360 degrees.

The muscles throughout your entire upper body and core will thrive on the variety of gymnastic ring exercises found in the GymnasticBodies Online Courses.  Find your superior strength and a better quality of life today.