Rings and parallette bars, recommendations?

[Safeway]

I'm looking to buy some decent rings to train with. I'll be doing basic movements, ring pull-ups, ring dips, ring muscle-ups, and posing. Anyone know of a reputable brand?

As for the parallette bars, I will probably end up making them myself, but just wondering if there are any reputable pre-made bars.

 

[Safeway]

I found a post after some more searching that suggested the Elite II rings. I see some on eBay for $60.

How important is it to have the width of the rings adjustable? I have a perfect place to install the rings that allows for high, medium, and low ring settings, even muscle-ups.

Here is another question: If I have a 10 foot space, where should I put the rings? In the middle? 3/4 to one side? I want to be able to perform as many motions as possible, and some require you to lay flat or inverted. See: http://www.drillsandskills.com/article/17 I'm thinking they should be mounted at least 6 feet off one of the walls?

 

[Koing]

6ft seems good to me! But depending on how tall you are you may touch the roof!

Koing

 

[brikis98]

I have a set of Elite Rings and they are great. For fairly simple devices, they seemed awfully expensive, but I must admit they have been worth every penny.

However, I'm not sure I understand your question about how to hang the rings. Officially, your rings should be 50cm apart. The elite rings have straps that are easily adjustable, so the height can be changed based on the exercise. For example, for ring push-ups, I have the rings very close to the ground. For ring rows, they are a little higher. For ring dips, I bring them up a bit higher still. For front and back levers, skin the cat, inverted pull-ups and anything where you hang upside down, move them up again so your head doesn't hit the floor. And finally, for pull-ups and muscle-ups, put them so you have to stand on your tip toes to reach them. Just make sure that for muscle-ups, there is enough clearance above the rings so you don't smash your head on the ceiling when doing the dip portion.

Oh, and as for parallette bars, I've only seen home-made ones (from PVC), which work great, so I can't comment much there.

 

[Safeway]

This is the space I am going to use them in: http://img.photobucket.com/alb...feway/RingPosition.jpg

The orange box is the tentative plane the rings will be in. That gives me additional width for more arm motion. My body on most moves would extend to the back wall. This position gives me 4 feet of clearance in front of the rings and 6 feet behind. I won't be able to do muscle-ups at the height you described -- I'd need about one additional foot of overhead clearance. I can easily bend my legs for the mount, though. These are secondary practice rings. I use taller rings at the CrossFit gym.

What do you guys think? Where do you use your rings?

 

[brikis98]

Looks just fine to me. I've hung my rings in a variety of places: on the support beams in my basement, the pull-up bar at the gym, soccer goal, football uprights and a random tree. The basement was the worst, as the ceilings are really low (about 7') and it's so cluttered that there was little room to move. Despite that, I still managed to do everything except muscle-ups there, so I expect that your much more spacious room won't give you any issues.

 

[Safeway]

I installed the rings today after a ridiculous CrossFit double header. Ring exercises are so damn intense ... I was dripping sweat in no time. I tried a lot of the moves on this page: http://www.drillsandskills.com/article/17 Just a few motions of each. (Of the ones I could actually do ...)

So I realized that:
#1 I'm not in good enough shape for a lot of ring exercises.
#2 Gymnasts are beasts.

I'm going to stick with it, though. I had a lot of fun on the rings.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I think everybody who, as an adult, approaches the rings is humbled their first time. I really have to ease into the rings due to my history of bad shoulders, but starting with them was really fun. I'm going to start playing on them a bit more with some light work, but greater volume. I love 'em though. Cheers to you, my ring noob brother

 

[Safeway]

I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

What aspect are you worried about? Soreness? Stabilizer fatigue? General fatigue? What?

 

[silverpig]

parallel bars?

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

What aspect are you worried about? Soreness? Stabilizer fatigue? General fatigue? What?

Yes, yes, and yes.

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

What aspect are you worried about? Soreness? Stabilizer fatigue? General fatigue? What?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Unless you ABSOLUTELY have to stick to the mainpage WODs, I find ring-work to be a great break in the usual CF workouts. I'd love to visit GSX and take some classes from Tucker.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

What aspect are you worried about? Soreness? Stabilizer fatigue? General fatigue? What?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Do some skilled ring work before your CF WOD as part of your warmup then. It won't negatively affect your WOD. In fact, it may improve how warmed up you feel for the workout.

 

[SP33Demon]

If you have had shoulder injuries in the past, would you recommend rings?

 

[katank]

@sp33demon, never heard of ring rehab for shoulders before. Have you tried any kettlebell work? Jeff Martone (Crossfit kettlebell expert) swears by the rehabilitative power of kettlebells for shoulders. It supposedly fixed for him what 3 surgeries couldn't.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

What aspect are you worried about? Soreness? Stabilizer fatigue? General fatigue? What?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Unless you ABSOLUTELY have to stick to the mainpage WODs, I find ring-work to be a great break in the usual CF workouts. I'd love to visit GSX and take some classes from Tucker.

I don't do main page, I go to a CrossFit gym. For instance, yesterday we did:

WOD1:
Front squat, 3 rep max; 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3

WOD2:
10 burpees, 1 kettlebell swing (#53)
9 burpess, 2 swings
8 burpess, 3 swings
7 burpess, 4 swings
...
1 burpee, 10 swings

But I'm hoping SocChal is right about using it as a warm up. It would also be good for of days.

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: EvilYoda

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Safeway
I'm worried that ring work will mess up my CrossFit WODs ... what do you think? Will my body adjust?

What aspect are you worried about? Soreness? Stabilizer fatigue? General fatigue? What?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Unless you ABSOLUTELY have to stick to the mainpage WODs, I find ring-work to be a great break in the usual CF workouts. I'd love to visit GSX and take some classes from Tucker.

I don't do main page, I go to a CrossFit gym. For instance, yesterday we did:

WOD1:
Front squat, 3 rep max; 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3

WOD2:
10 burpees, 1 kettlebell swing (#53)
9 burpess, 2 swings
8 burpess, 3 swings
7 burpess, 4 swings
...
1 burpee, 10 swings

But I'm hoping SocChal is right about using it as a warm up. It would also be good for of days.

Our box never uses ring-work for main WOD stuff, other than maybe ring dips and ring pull-ups. Most people can't do even the extremely easy stuff so we only practice it in warmups or in our free time.

I'm THIS CLOSE to a muscle-up and it just won't work...I know it's a matter of persistence, but it's just so many thing to keep track of. I can get the height, but I'm having a hard time getting my chest through while keeping my elbows in. Stupid rings.

 

[brikis98]

If you treat rings as skill work and keep the volume/intensity fairly low, it shouldn't interfere with your workouts too much. Tossing in 10 minutes of ring work 1-3 times per week before or after a workout, or even on a rest day, is a great way to develop some great skills and improve your upper body strength and coordination. Of course, the first time you try new movements on rings you might end up a bit sore, but that won't last long. And I find that upper body exercises don't create too much CNS fatigue (compared to say, heavy squats or deadlifts), so you shouldn't feel any overtraining effects either.

 

[Safeway]

Yea, Yoda and Brik, that's why I want to do some ring work -- so i don't embarrass myself while doing ring push-ups, ring dips, etc. My box does do some muscle-up work, but you can sub in 3 pull-ups and 3 dips for a muscle-up. I figure that a lot of the work in a muscle-up is developing proper form, not merely strength. If I can systematically practice the form and be able to hit a few muscle-ups, that is sparing me from a lot more pull-ups and dips.

Yoda, once you hit your first muscle-up, you'll probably be able to do a set of five immediately after. I have to work on my wrist strength and flexibility more. My front squats yesterday killed my wrists for a few hours and made the burpees more painful than they should have been. Ring work should help my wrists, and muscle-ups require good wrists!

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: Safeway
Yea, Yoda and Brik, that's why I want to do some ring work -- so i don't embarrass myself while doing ring push-ups, ring dips, etc. My box does do some muscle-up work, but you can sub in 3 pull-ups and 3 dips for a muscle-up. I figure that a lot of the work in a muscle-up is developing proper form, not merely strength. If I can systematically practice the form and be able to hit a few muscle-ups, that is sparing me from a lot more pull-ups and dips.

Yoda, once you hit your first muscle-up, you'll probably be able to do a set of five immediately after. I have to work on my wrist strength and flexibility more. My front squats yesterday killed my wrists for a few hours and made the burpees more painful than they should have been. Ring work should help my wrists, and muscle-ups require good wrists!

My box held a MU-specific training hour a few weeks ago...I got more pull than ever and can now get high enough, just not forward enough. Afterward, amidst the frustration (both trainers told me "I would have bet that you were going to get it, judging by your first few tries"), I looked down to see the outer part of my palm is completely ripped off on my right hand. doh.

Tonight is a full WOD plus o-lifting class, so I don't know if I'll feel like practicing MU's...but soon!!!

 

[HN]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
My box held a MU-specific training hour a few weeks ago...I got more pull than ever and can now get high enough, just not forward enough. Afterward, amidst the frustration (both trainers told me "I would have bet that you were going to get it, judging by your first few tries"), I looked down to see the outer part of my palm is completely ripped off on my right hand. doh.

are you choking up high enough on your false grip? palms ripped sounds like you're too low. if anything, it would be the outter part of your wrist. (though ideally nothing should be getting ripped; kinda hinders subsequent workouts )

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: HN

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
My box held a MU-specific training hour a few weeks ago...I got more pull than ever and can now get high enough, just not forward enough. Afterward, amidst the frustration (both trainers told me "I would have bet that you were going to get it, judging by your first few tries"), I looked down to see the outer part of my palm is completely ripped off on my right hand. doh.

are you choking up high enough on your false grip? palms ripped sounds like you're too low. if anything, it would be the outter part of your wrist. (though ideally nothing should be getting ripped; kinda hinders subsequent workouts )

Well, bottom of my palm, right on the bone of the wrist. I was choking up pretty high, but I did start a little low. It kept me away from the rings for a few days, but it wasn't a meaty tear like a pull-up tear. Mostly soft skin anyway, no big deal.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: HN
are you choking up high enough on your false grip? palms ripped sounds like you're too low. if anything, it would be the outter part of your wrist. (though ideally nothing should be getting ripped; kinda hinders subsequent workouts )

The bolded part is really important advice. Not only do you need to use a false grip, but you also need to be holding the rings relatively high up the circle and not in the middle (ie, not at the most bottom part). This image and this image do a pretty good job of illustrating this point. It makes a big difference in being able to keep the rings close to the body and in maintaining the false grip when chaining multiple reps together.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: katank
@sp33demon, never heard of ring rehab for shoulders before. Have you tried any kettlebell work? Jeff Martone (Crossfit kettlebell expert) swears by the rehabilitative power of kettlebells for shoulders. It supposedly fixed for him what 3 surgeries couldn't.

Hey katank, thanks for the info. I'll def check out the kettlebell! Are they expensive?