Gymnastic Rings: The All Around Workout

There's a ton of athletic equipment out there that touts amazing results with little effort and expense. Most are gimmicks, which are a waste of money.

Do people actually believe that sending a current of electricity through your abdominal muscles all day will give you a washboard stomach? Judging by how many times I've seen that infomercial on late night television, I guess so.

But there is one piece of fitness equipment, which truly is inexpensive and highly effective at giving a person an all body workout. That piece of equipment is the Olympic style gymnastic rings.

You know, the rings you see the Olympic gymnasts hanging from and performing all sorts of grueling tasks. Why do you think those athletes are so cut and in shape? Of course the countless hours of training help, but a lot of that training is done on the rings.

If you were to buy rings from a retailer, they'll run you around 100 bucks. That seems expensive to me for such a simple piece of equipment. After all it's just a rigid ring hanging from a strap.

To beat this cost I searched around the Internet and found a site explaining how to make Olympic rings out of PVC pipe and straps. When it was all said and done, I'd spent about 15 bucks and had a workable pair of Olympic rings.

The great thing about working with gymnastic rings is the many different exercises you can perform. You can literally hit every muscle group. Here's a list of exercises I've come up with:

• Ring pull ups- just like it sounds, do a hanging pull up. You'll notice it's a lot harder than a standard pull up.
• Ring dips- These are much harder than bar dips because you have to deal with the instability issue.
• Ring push ups- lengthen the straps so the rings are almost on the floor, then use them to perform push ups. You'll find that once again you have to deal with keeping the rings stable.
• Ring rows- lay on the floor and have the rings hanging just within reach. Keeping your body rigid, use the rings to pull your body off the floor as high as you can. Your feet will remain on the floor...great back workout.
• Muscle ups- these are incredibly tough. From a hanging position pull your body up then continue until you're in the ring dip position and perform the dip. If done correctly this is one smooth motion.
• Hanging L and knee tucks- in the extended dip position, arms locked, keep your legs straight and pull them up so your body and legs create an L...hold for as long as possible, or just do reps. This is a gut burner. If you can't make the L do it with your knees bent. This is the tuck.
• Doing the exercises you see in gymnastic competitions are also great, but beyond most of us. Things like the hanging T, where your arms are extended straight out from your shoulders holding yourself in that position. This is grueling and shouldn't be attempted without a spotter.
• You can also do leg work with rings. Lie on your back and put your heels into the rings. Lift your butt off the ground and pull your heels into your buttocks. This is a great hamstring exercise.
• Single leg squats. Standing up, hold onto the rings and use them for balance. Lower yourself and perform a single leg squat, alternate legs.
• Tricep press- hold the rings in front of your face and bend your arms back until your hands hit your forehead, then extend your arms out again. This isolates the triceps nicely.

The nice thing about the gymnastic ring exercises is the instability factor. Since the straps and rings aren't rigid like posts, there is constant movement.

This movement makes the exercises much harder because you need to engage your core muscles to control them. So, when you're doing a ring dip or pull up, or any of the exercises, you're also working your core. That's a two for one deal.

I'm sure there are more exercises you could come up with, but those are the ones I like to do on a regular basis with my gymnastic rings.