I done bought me some dangle-hoops

[wafter]

Went round a mate's a while ago who's lucky enough to have a small home gym. Amongst his modest but effective ensemble were found a set of gym rings, which of course had to be abused..

Some research later I was sold on their accessibility and value for body weight exercises; as they allow a lot of movements you can't achieve with free-weights alone.

A bit more research later I had some in my possession; lashed over a beam at the homestead. Yesterday I dangled and rowed to my heart's content; today my pecs and to a lesser extent my lats are shot to pieces

I see value in these since, having the physique of a potato with dental-floss arms I'm too heavy / insufficiently strong to do either pullups or dips; so rings set at an appropriate height should allow me to build up to this with some of my mass supported on my heels.

The rings seem like an excellent compliment to dumbells and I plan to start with some static "supports" and ring rows. Hopefully if I can build up some strength I can push on to some dips and proper pullups.

Does anyone else use rings? If so I'm very interested to hear how you use them and any tips you might have

 

[FrankCrank]

A few years ago, on the island of Koh Chang, a friend had some travel hoop thingies that he attached to a tree on the beach, and was doing some pull-ups and things with them.
Now then, he's a lot younger and fitter than me, but undeterred I had to prove that I could do a bit on the hoops. Really straining, I managed several pull-ups, but no lie I had pains in my forearms for many months afterwards. Silly me.

Moral of the story - don't try to compete with someone half your age

 

[wafter]

A few years ago, on the island of Koh Chang, a friend had some travel hoop thingies that he attached to a tree on the beach, and was doing some pull-ups and things with them.
Now then, he's a lot younger and fitter than me, but undeterred I had to prove that I could do a bit on the hoops. Really straining, I managed several pull-ups, but no lie I had pains in my forearms for many months afterwards. Silly me.

Moral of the story - don't try to compete with someone half your age

Yeah, having just about managed a 30 second static hold, I have a lot of new-found respect for proper gymnasts!

 

[Legs]

"I done bought me some dangle-hoops", ITYM.

 

[wafter]

"I done bought me some dangle-hoops", ITYM.

Apologies for my terrible grammar - now corrected!

 

[oldwheels]

Sorry but I cannot resist getting confused and thinking of dangle berries.
If you don’t know please don’t ask.

 

[presta]

thinking of dangle berries

Is this what you were looking for?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

How many minutes on them today?

 

[Drago]

What are you going to dangle your bits from?

 

[oldwheels]

Is this what you were looking for?

View attachment 727830

Not quite. May be a term confined to Vale of Leven area.

 

[slowmotion]

I bought some when I had an iffy disc in my back with the idea of just dangling from them. I was already having hour-long sessions of spine stretching with the physios at Charing Cross Hospital and thought I would do some more at home. It seemed to work well but I found that the wooden rings were pretty uncomportable to grip for any length of time. For my application, it would have been better to have padded ones.

 

[cyberknight]

suits you

 

[CXRAndy]

I bought a set for helping grip and intermediate step for building up to chin ups

 

[wafter]

I bought some when I had an iffy disc in my back with the idea of just dangling from them. I was already having hour-long sessions of spine stretching with the physios at Charing Cross Hospital and thought I would do some more at home. It seemed to work well but I found that the wooden rings were pretty uncomportable to grip for any length of time. For my application, it would have been better to have padded ones.

Good work and yes; I'm a proper convert to just limply dangling off stuff for decompressing the spine and stretching the neck muscles; seems to have largely sorted the nasty tension headaches I used to get after any form of neck / upper back exertion.

How big are your hands? Not sure if you're aware but the rings typically come in two sections (can't remember what these are now; something like 1 1/8" and 1 1/4"); might be that the other size might have fitted you better. I went with the smaller ones as I have relatively small hands and they've been OK so far. I guess you could always go small and wrap them in leather or similar

Do you still stretch your back in this way? I do it fairly regularly and am sometimes rewarded with a few satisfying pops and cracks..

I bought a set for helping grip and intermediate step for building up to chin ups

View attachment 727871

Yes; that was my intention also as I struggle to do even one... plus a good basic mantra for strength training seems to be to load the muscles in each direction (i.e. both pushing and pulling) in every axis; some of which can't be achieved with free-weights alone.

How are you finding the rings? Seems you have a nice setup


Today the rings got their first outing in the wild. They went to work with me in the Brompton's bag and were lashed around the monkey bars in a park on my route home.

Beginning at the absolute bottom I started with some ring rows with the rings set to around hip height and my feet approximately below where they were hung, to give a body angle of about 45 degrees in my mind. As above these approximate pullups for those who lack the strength to do them "straight"; an exercise that's not easy to replicate with free weights unless you have the ability to hang upside down..

Ten of these and I was reasonably shafted, so I moved onto some knee raises while hanging limp off the bars to give my arms a rest. 10 of these (to quads perpendicular to torso, as I'm not flexible) was enough..

Finally I got back on the rings and did a supported static dangle (holding my body weight on the rings with my arms straght down by my sides) for 30 seconds. Looks easy but the reality is far from it for most.

I attempted to repeat this routine for another two sets; the static dangle being the hardest and being the only one I couldn't maintain throughout - pretty much destroying me by the end.


Initial impressions were generally positive; it felt good to be hitting bits I couldn't without the rings; however setup was a bit of a faff and the rings themselves have a few shortcomings in their use. With today's limited exercises the setup time was a fair chunk of the total time spent; so it would be good to find a few more routines to include; however only so many are accessible to the beginner (as they're all b*stard difficult) and they all tend to be arm/upper-body based so give limited options for recovery between each.

Now back at home and in bed I'm feeling it most in my abs, but no doubt tomorrow will reveal the true extent of the damage.. after trying the rings at home last week it took about three days for the aches to fully abate.

I can do most of these exercises at home but it's less-than-ideal for various reasons; so I think I'll try and continue this post-work regime.. perhaps on a Monday as Wednesdays see the bag packed with butcher's treasure (which both takes up space and doesn't like sitting in the warm) and look to supplement it with some work at home later in the week.


Proof of my hoops a'danglin in the (not insignificant) wind

 

[slowmotion]

Good work and yes; I'm a proper convert to just limply dangling off stuff for decompressing the spine and stretching the neck muscles; seems to have largely sorted the nasty tension headaches I used to get after any form of neck / upper back exertion.

How big are your hands? Not sure if you're aware but the rings typically come in two sections (can't remember what these are now; something like 1 1/8" and 1 1/4"); might be that the other size might have fitted you better. I went with the smaller ones as I have relatively small hands and they've been OK so far. I guess you could always go small and wrap them in leather or similar

Do you still stretch your back in this way? I do it fairly regularly and am sometimes rewarded with a few satisfying pops and cracks..

Yes, they are quite big....205mm from my wrist to the tip of my longest finger. Maybe I should try wearing some gel pad track mitts or ski gloves. After all, I'm only dangling, not twirling about.