Tips for Getting Stronger with Gymnastic Rings

 Today’s article explains a technique that will radically change your strength on the rings, on the pull-up bar and using free weights.

We’re talking about hanging from a bar or your rings. One of the simplest and most accessible of all exercises is often one of the most under utilized in people’s day to day training. It’s something children do any chance they get, and something you should do too.

This “skill” is one of the primary biological functions our bodies are designed to perform. Our genetic legacy comes from apes 🦍which are nature’s hanging, swinging, kings of the canopy. Although your iPhone makes you think you’re some how far removed from your hairy ancestors... you’re body doesn’t know that to be the case. Your shoulders are rare in the animal 🦒kingdom and they need to be treated with the respect they deserve; and they deserve a constant diet of hanging and swinging.

Spending a dedicated amount of time each day, or several times a week hanging from a bar or rings will help strengthen your hands, shoulders, decompress your spine and hips as well as build a powerful neural connection which will help to improve any exercise involving your grip.

(Learn more by finding related articles such as: http://www.j2fit.com/articles/passive-hang-stretch )

Gymnasts and climbers know and understand the importance of racking up TUT (time under tension) through hanging. Their sports depend on them being able to suspend their body weight during extended periods of time.

However, the day to day fitness enthusiast, beginner or even long term veteran with a desire to break that training barrier will massively increase their performance by filtering in more hanging.

Whether strength is your goal or just overall well-being, plan to put a few days a week of dedicated work into this skill.

There are numerous ways to hang and some, depending on what style or strength adaptation is desired can change depending on the complexity of the hang that fits your needs.


A very useful beginner protocol is to start by trying to accumulate 3 minutes of time hanging from a bar or rings. Grab the bar, squeeze your hand tightly and have a stop watch or clock nearby to be conscious of how long you hang for each time.

It’s preferable to be completely suspended and hanging in a straight line, but if you need to bend your knees, don’t worry, you can still benefit tremendously.

For truly rank beginners hanging with the feet touching the ground to help displace body weight is a great option to get going. With this method even the extremely elderly or weak con begin to improve their upper body strength and health.

As strength progresses, more challenging variations can be performed.

Hanging with knees raised, or legs extended in L-sit are very challenging next steps.

Hanging and switching from one hand to another further pushes the grip envelope.

Later, one arm hangs and one arm L-sits can be performed as our strength to weight ratio gets higher and higher.

Even bent arm hangs can be used to advance our skills and strength.

When looking at health and well-being, passive hangs to decompress the spine and hips make a big difference in the mobility and quality of our shoulders, vertebral discs and pelvis.

Another great variation is the inverted hang which tractions our shoulder and cervicales spine by turning the body upside down.

Whatever level of strength or desire to improve you find yourself at, working in a schedule to hang with regularity will be one of the best choices you ever make. Start today and in one week you’ll begin to notice a difference in your hand and body strength.

Content courtesy of Happy Fat Rings - HFR

What About The Lunge?

 In sport, athletes display a high variance of movement potential. To build athleticism, strength trainers must select exercises that improve speed, power, and strength. In traditional strength training, the squat reigns supreme for improving lower body power and strength. But what about the lunge?

Since the squat directs force vertically, the lunge takes precedence in directing force horizontally. In running sports, acceleration and change of direction are paramount. Lunging can touch on athletic components that the squat alone cannot.

Why Lunge?
In looking at the athlete’s sporting demands, we see that movement happens in large part on one leg. This unilateral movement demands the athlete to have enough strength to both produce and resist force in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes.
Lunging variations serve to integrate and load multiple planes of movement that help the athlete’s proprioception and timing. Further, multi-planar lunging can help safeguard problematic and injury-prone areas like the groin, hips, lower back, hamstrings, and knees.
Although strength trainers cannot ultimately prevent injuries from happening, they can provide exercises that build multiplanar hip, knee, and ankle stability to make the athlete more robust and resilient. Since tight musculature and lack of mobility often contribute to injury potential, lunging provides an inbuilt mechanism for safeguarding against these risks.

The Lunge is Foundational
An assessment of the athlete at play is vital in determining which exercises to include in their training program. It is appropriate for a tennis player or fencer to train the lunging pattern, as their sports are almost entirely based on lunging and striking movements. However, swimmers, rock climbers, and gymnasts may not need the same training volume or intensity.

Since athletes from all sports must be able to move with precision, the lunge is as prudent as it is pragmatic. If the athlete is able to comfortably cross the midline of their body during cutting, acceleration, and deceleration, their chances of injury lessen while their performance increases.
In programming for strength and athletic performance, exercise selection ultimately comes down to the primary action of the athlete. Both bilateral and unilateral movements are important for the athlete, but the application of when and why to use each is paramount.

The Squat vs. Lunge
In human evolution, the squat is more of a rest position than an exercise, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be loaded for strength and power development. When loading the body with a barbell, kettlebell, or other implement, the squat trains the lower body’s maximum force development in the vertical plane
However, the lunge is advantageous for the athlete that must make a change of direction in sport. Further, athletes with prior injuries to the knees, low back, or hips may find loading lunging patterns easier than loading squats. In order to understand the necessity of lunging, we must look at the role the feet play in the squat and lunge:

Squat: The feet remain in a fixed position. The feet do not move during the movement.

Lunge: The feet move in a stepping motion in any direction. The feet return to the starting position or to a new position.
Since moving into a squat is a downward motion of the athlete, it’s wise to see how a bilateral squat can help improve an athlete’s overall power and vertical jump. However, lunging provides a stimulus for the athlete that must make a sudden forward thrust of the body like in sprinting, cutting, or attacking an opponent.

The Lunge Improves Athletic Ability
There are several progressions that I give to my athletes when learning to lunge. In order to progress, the athlete should demonstrate precision in each movement, loaded and unloaded.

Lunging Continuum
Split Squat  > Reverse Lunge > Walking Lunge > Forward Lunge > Power Lunge