Suspension and Gymnastics Ring Training for Muscle Building

Free weights are arguably the all around best tool for muscle building, and if big muscles are your goal, they should comprise the majority of your workout routines.

That said, anything you can do to increase isometric strength, improve core and stabilizer muscle structure and generally improve your mobility is a good thing. Enter gymnastics rings.

Ring training not only builds muscle, it increases muscular endurance, teaches you how activate your muscles for specific exercises and is basically a serious workout by itself. Rings are unstable. They hang there mocking you, a couple of light rings on lighter straps; how can they possibly do any damage?

Don't be fooled! You can increase your gains by adding an element of instability to your workouts, and gymnastic rings are just the tool to do it. They are light, easy to set up and quick to adjust. They are also easy on your bank account. Less than $80 bucks for most pairs of rings.

Combining ring training with free weights can be mutually beneficial as well. The strengthening of the stabilizer muscles in ring pushups will help your bench press and standing military press, for example.

You can also increase mobility with the rings. Get a great stretch doing inverted hangs and ring flyes (also great for building pectoral muscles.) Combine ring flyes and dumbbell bench press for an amazing chest building workout routine.

Gymnastics rings tend to make pullups a little easier as well; plus, you can adjust them to do body rows or assisted pullups, or to superset pullups with assisted pullups. These are serious back muscle builders and a great addition to the program. Gripping the rings you will really feel your lats working differently than in any other exercise.

You could get the same benefits from a suspension trainer, but on average, rings are cheaper, separated for more variety of exercises, and have a unique grip that adds an additional muscle challenge.

For serious muscle-building you need free weights, but when you are hanging from a pair of gymnastics rings, you are the free weight. Let's see if you can handle it. For the best rings, and some cool exercise demos, follow this link and have fun!

See these rings in action