The push up is referred to as a staple bodyweight exercise which everyone in the fitness world is familiar with. But regular pushup can sometimes become too mundane. Thus to add an element of instability in the workout routine, many people make use of gymnastics ring.

Ring pushup can vary the normal routine and bring a variation in the regular push ups. The independent movement of the rings increases the intensity of the exercise as they are more difficult to control.

Due to this, a number of body muscles are engaged in your workout session, resulting in more benefits overall.

In static floor push up, the range of motion is limited. Ring pushup overcomes the barriers of a range of motion. It allows a greater range of motion which is good for the flexibility and mobility skills.

Ring pushup also serves as a mode to increase your grip strength. Once you realize that regular pushup is getting too easy to be done, you can add ring pushup variation to your workout routine for enhancing your muscles.

Ring Pushup

Because of the instability factor in ring pushups, the stabilizer strength required in this exercise is much more as compared to normal pushups. Increased control and stability are required because you can no longer have the friction from the floor to stabilize your body.

When push up are done on the ring, a lot of pressure and stress will be exerted on the abs and on your chest muscles. By altering the height of rings, you can even change the level of intensity of the exercise quite easily.

In this segment, we will discuss the basic ring pushup, different types of ring pushup, benefits of ring training and its comparison to other pushup techniques.

Variations of Ring Push up

There are many calisthenics ring workout that can give you strength and endurance. It is a total body workout without the need of any cumbersome fitness equipment. When doing the basic ring pushups, ensure that you engage the glutes and contract the abs muscles to provide balance and stability to the body.

Do not sag your hip.

Try to maintain a good form all the time. And if initially, you are struggling with the form and bodyweight, do the ring pushup by getting into the knee position. It is always a good way to start the routine for beginners.

Weighted Ring Push-ups

Adding a weighted vest around the vest increases the resistance. The movement remains the same. Engage the core of the body and always put more pressure on the shoulder, back, hands and core muscles.

Initially start with a few pounds, and increase the weight gradually as you get comfortable with the exercise.

Ring Flye

This is one of the most difficult ring exercises in any fitness regime. Though it is not specifically a push up exercise, it is worth mentioning. The initial position of the exercise is similar to the wide pushup position.

You are needed to push the rings out on the side, and your palm must be facing each other. In this exercise, the hands must remain straight in a stretched out position, and the body must not fall to the ground. The straighter your arms are, the more difficult is the exercise.

Ring archer pushup

In this exercise, you are required to straighten your arm as you get down to the floor while maintaining the other hand tucked close to the side. This position resembles quite a bit with an archer who is ready to fire the arrow, but in the bottom position.

Now while getting back to the initial position, push with the arm closer to you and pull with the other hand to return to starting position. The exercise can be made more challenging by keeping your body fully static from the chest down.

These are few of the ring pushup variation. Remember, the more you lower the ring towards the ground, higher will be the difficulty level of the exercise. If need be, you can keep lowering the height until the rings touch the floor.

Sets and Reps

Ring pushup can certainly be tried by everyone. The level of your experience is not the matter of concern here. However, you are required to have an incredible amount of strength and balance in your body.

For beginners, you can try to attempt the ring pushup, provided that you have the strength and balance prerequisites.

It would be more fruitful if you try this exercise once you have mastered the art of regular pushup. Try doing 1 – 2 set of 5 – 6 repetitions once you have completed the regular pushup. Gradually increase the number of repetitions while maintaining the correct form required.

For intermediate, increase the number of sets and repetitions. Try attempting 2 – 3 sets of 8 – 10 repetitions.

For advanced level, attempt the more difficult variation of the ring exercise. You can choose any one of the variation discussed above based on your strength abilities.

Breathing pattern and Proper Form

Maintaining a correct breathing pattern is quite a requirement in attempting these exercises. The breathing pattern involved in the basic ring push up is no different than regular push ups.

Breathe out as lower yourself towards the floor and breathe in as you push yourself back in the starting position.

Performing exercise on an unstable surface is as difficult as it can get. Thus ensuring the correct posture of the body becomes quite difficult. It becomes even more difficult when you do not get the resistance from the floor.

During such instances, the body tends to fall out of shape more quickly. While doing the pushups on the ring, you hip tends to sag away. Try to keep the balance and control on entire body position so that the exercise can be more effective.

Challenge yourself with Ring Pushup Variations

Ring pushup is not an easy exercise to be achieved. But once you get to learn the art of balancing, things tend to become relatively easy. Once they get easy, they are no longer challenging and doesn’t engross you as much.

This is where the variation factor comes into play.

You want to increase the intensity of the exercise by including new elements in your fitness routine. To increase the level of difficulty with ring push-ups, you can try any one of the variations discussed above.

All these variations are specifically designed to work in certain areas of your body. Thus include them and create different angles to work on your body.

Muscles group ring pushup works on?

Ring push up targets the same muscle group like the standard pushup. It is a total upper body exercise that works on the chest, shoulder, triceps, biceps and other smaller muscles.

Additionally, this exercise is great for your abdominal muscles, as it is the core that needs to be engaged to maintain the balance of the body. This exercise will provide great flexibilities opportunity to the body, increasing its range of motion and making it less injury prone.

Ring pushup vs. regular pushup

Ring pushup and regular pushup involves the same set of movements. The difference lies in the range of motion. In-ring push-ups, the range of motion is greater as compared to regular push-ups. The muscle group that this exercise works on are similar.

But the bodyweight is increased and a little heavier in ring pushup. This is because of the instability feature of this exercise.

Do not attempt the ring pushup, if you had any previous shoulder or wrist injury. So take the proper advice of the experts and then include this exercise and its variation in your fitness routine. But it would be incomplete without saying, that both of this push up is an excellent way of training your upper body.

Wrapping Up

Gymnastic ring is an amazing training tool, and they are inexpensive and long-lasting. It is one of the efficient ways of training and attaining superhuman body strength.

Transitioning from static floor to moveable rings can be strenuous at first. But once you get comfortable with unstable rings, you will want to try out a different variation of this exercise.

Make use of the rings to attain extra pumped chest. This exercise works on your chest muscles like no other. The chest needs to bear that extra pressure on the body while pushing it up to the starting position.

Also, the abdominal muscles are engaged more actively in this calisthenics exercise. Speaking of which, if you need to flaunt your abs in public, this is the best exercise for you to try out. So go ahead, get some rings and chains, and start doing push-ups. But remember to maintain the correct form of the body.