Basic Ring Strength Development

Below are several areas of interest which I feel will help you to more effective
ly train on the rings.
As one forum member mentioned, "I know stabilizer muscles blah blah blah", havin
g heard it before however does not make it less true. The rings will move anywhe
re & anytime within 360 degrees. And the direction they will move will always be
toward your weakest area.
For those experiencing trouble with dips (in this category I would place anyone
who cannot perform a dip and turn the hands out as described below), I would bac
k up and first work on static support holds or at least be sure to work on them
concurrently. Unless you can come close to achieving a correct static hold, you
are pretty much spinning your wheels working on the harder variations.
Basically a support hold is simply holding yourself up on the rings with straigh
t arms. Eventually, to perform these in the most productive manner, they should
be done with elbows straight (almost straight is still bent) and the hands turne
d out to 45 degrees. To visualize this, simply put your hands overhead in a chin
up grip and, keeping that grip position, lower your hands to your side and then
let them turn in slightly.
For beginning ring strength development I would focus on support holds, front le
vers, and back levers. Once reasonable proficiency is achieved in support holds,
then add dips which in turn progress to muscle ups which progress to handstand
pushups which progress to reverse muscle ups (basically a bodyweight curl follow
ed by a handstand pushup).
Regarding form, a perfect muscle up should have no movement forward or backward
of the upper body, simply a pulling & straightening of the arms. To make a muscl
e up harder (outside of adding weight), you can adjust the arm position used dur
ing the pull/push. Easiest is pulling the hands into the center of the chest, me
dium is keeping the hands in front of the shoulder, hardest is keeping the hands
wide outside of the shoulder and not using a false grip.
By the way, the record for muscle ups in our gym is 13 (they actually did 15-17,
but only perfect repetitions were counted), and that is with no swinging, pulli
ng up with no piking of the hips and no leaning forward of the chest, and finish
ing with elbows locked and rings turned out at the top for the repetition to cou
nt. This was just for fun one day. Outside of a few specific conditioning sequen
ces designed to build event specific strength-endurance, I generally focus on po
wer development. Usually we only do 3-5 reps and add weight where appropriate.
Be sure to also include the basic bodyweight conditioning exercises mentioned in
my article. These will develop the shoulder girdle and core strength that will
allow you to progress to harder ring strength variations later.
This short discussion is by no means comprehensive. I will go into extensive det
ail on ring strength development in the second of my upcoming books. Exercises,
progressions, workout structure, equipment needed (including some specialized eq
uipment that I have developed for my athletes) will all be discussed.
FYI, the cross is much closer in nature to a pullup than a dip. The lats, should
er girdle and biceps work extremely hard during a cross. The pecs are also worki
ng, but I feel they are secondary to the lats. The cross is essentially a combin
ation of a straight arm dip with a straight arm pullup. Some world class gymnast
s are actually able to pull up into a cross from a dead hang with straight arms.
Some can also hold a cross with substantial weight hanging on their feet (one o
f my old college teammates could hold a cross with an extra 60lbs, while Brad Jo
hnson mentions that Jasper Benincasa could hold a cross with 90lbs. extra weight
!)
Yours in Fitness, Coach Sommer