A few years ago my friend Gipper bought some rings and brought them in for us to give it a try. They don't look so hard at first. Sure doing the iron cross and hand stand push ups on them looks near impossible. But how hard could a dip be? Or a muscle up? Or even a chest-fly? But then it took me a few days to get a 'correct' muscle up, apparently they are that hard to do. I also found that when you can do 40 or so dips straight don't expect to get more than 20 on these....or maybe 10.
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| borrowed from Topz10 |
Now here I am a few years later and my AWESOME wife bought me some of my own for Christmas. So out here in this wonderful sandy country I am trying anything and everything on them. My chest hates me. But the workout is so much better. The difference is that instead of having a machine or a bar hold everything still for you, you have to stabilize EVERYTHING by yourself. When doing something like a push up or a dip this works not only the obvious muscles (chest, tri's, etc.) but also your stabilizer muscles with the long funny names that no one knows. Making them obviously stronger and helping you get those cool cut muscles in weird places. The pros and cons are basic:
Pro's:
- Improved all around strength
- Is a multi-muscular workout instead of just being one dimensional
- Tones muscles and helps you get cut
- Easy set up
- You can use it for almost anything, think of it as the original TRX.
- You do not have to wear tights
- Being hard to balance on "could" make it dangerous for falling off of
- Needs extra room for set up and overhead space
- Unlike the TRX the handles are not easily modified and good for doing some of the crazy stuff you see the TRX used for.
- you can't leave it out because no matter how old people are they want to play with it like they were a kid again and either hurt themselves or tear it up. (ie back flips, swinging, etc)......I learned this quickly.
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| Weighted push ups off of a chair. Sorry its so blurry, an Ipod only does so well in the dark. |
Right now I am using them for basic stuff like dips, chest fly's and push ups. They make a great add on for my lifting routines. But one day I would like to get the iron cross on them......a loooong time from now. For now though if I really want a good workout though I just throw on a weight vest. Either way its a kick in the butt. What is seriously fun though is talking a new guy into trying to do dips on them. Then watching them wobble around and fall off of them after about 3.
Where as this is not the solve all piece of equipment, I do think it is a pretty useful and low maintenance thing to have. Yes TRX may be better, but I opted for these and I don't have any complaints. I guess it just depends on what you are shooting for. If you want something that is like a universal gym go with the TRX. If you want something simple for basic stuff or obviously gymnastics, go with these. Either way you should get your monies worth.
