Has any non gymnast started to learn the various elements on the rings and noticed any changes in muscle mass? I’m not talking about doing chin ups and dips but rather learning the back lever/ front lever/ planche/ iron cross ect. I am interest to hear any experiences, especially the 80+kg men.
You’ll get ripped and develop more mass. It places a lot of stress on the tendons, a stress not commonly experienced outside gymnastics ring training. This is because many of the skills such as levers, iron cross and planche require straight arm strength. Be patient and consistent with your training and you’ll see the results.
I’d be surprised if that was the only reason why gymnasts are jacked. They are mainly isometric exercises. I can say that the regular lifts do work for hypertrophy on the rings, but with time. Probably because your stabilizers have to catch up at first (especially on pushing exercises like weighted dips and push ups).
[quote]Manofdanger wrote:
Has any non gymnast started to learn the various elements on the rings and noticed any changes in muscle mass? I’m not talking about doing chin ups and dips but rather learning the back lever/ front lever/ planche/ iron cross ect. I am interest to hear any experiences, especially the 80+kg men.[/quote]
I weight between 225 and 230 and put some rings up at my gym about three months ago. Probably about 4 days a week most weeks I practiced the back lever and can now do one half way decent. It is much easier if you start on your knees and then pull yourself up because then the rings move much less. This cuts down on being light headed and having to stop. I have not noticed any increase in strength during this time but my arms do seem a good bit bigger.
Yep. I weigh around 95kg. Just started on the rings three months ago, and I’ve only got a straddle BL and tuck FL so I’m definitely no expert, but I noticed change in my biceps, delts, and upper back pretty quickly. It takes a lot (a loooooooooooooot) of conditioning to get the biceps ready for even basic straight-arm skills at my weight but that process got them noticeably bigger and stronger almost immediately. Training for the back lever really convinced me that there was something to this whole ‘loaded stretching’ thing people are talking about.
I bought some rings a year or so ago, and they are incredible. Be prepared to be humbled. It gave me a whole new appreciation for what gymnasts do. A routine, if I am not mistaken, is somewhere around 2 minutes. Try just holding yourself up, elbows locked, hollow position, for that long. I can’t do it. But I love using them for dips, L-pull-ups, push ups, flys, rowing, and trying the levers.
Definitely great assistance work, but if you have primarily body building goals, they aren’t going to produce the kinds of gains you are looking for.
[quote]MarcF wrote:
I’d be surprised if that was the only reason why gymnasts are jacked. They are mainly isometric exercises. I can say that the regular lifts do work for hypertrophy on the rings, but with time. Probably because your stabilizers have to catch up at first (especially on pushing exercises like weighted dips and push ups).
[quote]Manofdanger wrote:
Has any non gymnast started to learn the various elements on the rings and noticed any changes in muscle mass? I’m not talking about doing chin ups and dips but rather learning the back lever/ front lever/ planche/ iron cross ect. I am interest to hear any experiences, especially the 80+kg men.[/quote]
[/quote]
I think what is often over looked is the volume to which gymnasts do these exercises. You take something like a back lever, or some easier variant like a skin the cat. You do that for 45 min or so, that is a lot isometric contraction while stretching at the same time.
1 Like