4 Week Gymnastic Rings Workout: Get Jacked Training Like a Gymnast
Let’s start by stating an obvious, objective fact: gymnasts are jacked as hell.
Most of us have only seen gymnastic rings while watching the Olympics, while some may even have had a chance to play around with them during PE classes.
They are an incredibly versatile and effective piece of equipment, and some might argue that it’s the single best piece of equipment you should buy when it comes to fitness.
Medical Disclaimer
The information in this program, including but not limited to text, pictures, and other material, is provided solely for educational and informational purposes. The content in this article isn’t intended to replace any professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the opinion of your physician or another trained health care practitioner regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or treatment, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in getting it because of something you read in this program. As it is, we can guarantee no results for your specific condition.
Why Gymnastic Rings?
It’s really hard to think of any cons when it comes to gymnastic ring training, so we will inform you about all of the benefits and try reeeeally, reeeealy hard to make up some cons at the end.
(In)Stability
Rings are immensely unstable, and that’s why you need to stabilize your body in order not to fall on your nose.
We constantly have to work to stay stable, so many smaller muscles that don’t get enough love in the gym finally get used—everything from the core to the rotator cuffs.
This will have tremendous carry-over into your weight lifting workouts and contribute to your overall joint health.
Progressive Overload
Probably the most important principle in training.
To keep things short, it basically means that you should do more work as time progresses. This is because you will inevitably get better and stronger, which means that your workouts’ intensity must go up to keep progressing.
Although rings don’t allow us to progress as easily as weights do, they aren’t that hard to progressively overload on.
Besides increasing the reps, sets, and frequency of your training, you can also change the levers on the exercises or do more challenging exercise variations.
Generally speaking, ring exercises like the inverted row, pushups, ab rollouts, etc., are harder the closer the rings are to the ground. This is because your body is more parallel to the ground, meaning the gravity affects you much more.
You can also try out harder exercise variations since they are practically endless, so you won’t run out of new exercises to try and keep things interesting.
Versatility
As you can see in the video demonstrations in this program, you can set up your rings almost anywhere.
Anything somewhat high up and horizontal can be an excellent place for a ring setup.
Trees, underneath staircases, pullup bars, support beams, you name it. The only thing you need to make sure of is that it can support your body weight.
Rings are also small and portable, so you can take them wherever you go.
Cost
You can get gymnastic rings for as cheap as 25 dollars!
The plastic rings are usually a bit cheaper, but we recommend the wooden ones since they feel more comfortable on the hands and can last you a lifetime too. Metal rings also exist, but wood beats them too.
Rings come in two different thickness options, with one being 28mm, and the other 32mm thick.
This won’t make much of a difference in your training. The thicker option is slightly better for pushing movements and using the false grip, while the slimmer one is better for pulling.
The thickness you choose depends on your hand size.
CONS?
The only real con when training with rings is that your options for leg training are very limited.
You can do hamstring curls and Bulgarian split squats, but that’s about as far as you can take them.
While this may be true, rings shouldn’t even be close to your first option for training legs.
If you don’t want to use weights, which doesn’t make much sense, you can do single-leg exercises, Nordic curls, plyometrics, and sprints.
Who Should Use the Rings?
Gymnastic rings are a great option for practically everyone with some strength training experience.
Although absolute beginners can do basic exercises and progress from there, we advise you first to get a decent background in other strength training, such as calisthenics or weightlifting.
Program Overview
Let’s get down to business.
You will obviously need gymnastic rings and a place to suspend them from.
The program consists of 4 weeks, with each one getting progressively harder.
It would be best if you didn’t go to failure on any of the exercises, especially the pushing exercises, until you reach a really good level of stability on the rings.
Control every movement, don’t rush or go into ranges of motion you can’t control. Rings are perfectly safe when used correctly, but you still need to be cautious.
The rings turned out, or the advanced support hold is something you should only start doing once your regular support hold becomes easy. If that means not doing it at all during the whole duration of the program, that’s fine.
When it comes to ring dips, they first appear in the program’s second week, allowing you to get used to the instability of the rings before you try them out.
If they prove too hard during that workout, you can substitute them with ring pushups until you get comfortable enough to do the dips.
Week 1
| Monday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 3 | 20s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 5-8 | 120s |
| Inverted Rows | 2 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Knee Raises | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Wednesday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 3 | 20s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 2 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 5-8 | 120s |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Triceps Extensions | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Friday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 3 | 20s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 5-8 | 120s |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Ab Rollout | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
Week 2
| Monday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 3 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 4 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Inverted Rows | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Ab Rollout | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Wednesday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 3 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Dips | 3 | 4-6 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Triceps Extensions | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Friday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 3 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Pullups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Knee Raises | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
Week 3
| Monday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 4 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Dips | 4 | 4-8 | 120s |
| Pullups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Inverted Rows | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| L-Sit Leg Raises | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Wednesday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 4 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Triceps Extensions | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Friday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 4 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Dips | 3 | 5-8 | 120s |
| Pullups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Ab Rollout | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
Week 4
| Monday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 4 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Dips | 4 | 6-10 | 120s |
| Pullups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Inverted Rows | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Ab Rollout | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Triceps Extensions | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Wednesday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 4 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Pushups | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Chinups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Friday | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Support Hold | 4 | 30s | 60s |
| Ring Dips | 3 | 6-10 | 120s |
| Pullups | 3 | 6-8 | 120s |
| Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 | 120s |
| L-Sit Leg Raises | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |
| Triceps Extensions | 3 | 8-12 | 90s |