The exact time and place where rings first appeared is unknown but it is widely accepted that they evolved from a trapeze-like device that by 1816 featured loops fashioned from knotted rope.
What is more certain but poorly understood is that for nearly 150 years the men that worked the rings were in possession of an upper-body strength that finds no equal in weightlifting or other calisthenics. The ringman, pound for pound, presents more upper-body strength, along more lines of action, than any other athlete.
The fitness that CrossFitters demonstrate cannot be found without ring training. Gymnastics rings occupy a place in our training that only the barbell can match. Kettlebells and dumbbells, medicine balls and stretch bands, while essential to our practice, are second-tier tools to the rings.
Unfortunately, introduction to the rings has traditionally been available only from involvement in sport gymnastics and then only through progressions that quickly discouraged all but those coming to the sport with exceptional strength-to-weight ratios and gripping tenacity.
Our exhortations to buy and train with rings have been successful but the number of reported muscle-ups reflects only a percentage or two of the people claiming participation in our program.
We’ve long worked to reintroduce ring training to athletic strength and conditioning—they were in the gyms for longer than they’ve been gone—but unfamiliarity stops most people and the brutishly tough progressions thwarted the small remainder brave enough to try new things. The rings need a champion.
All great causes need great supporters. Ring training is a great cause and Tyler Hass is ring training’s best champion.
Twenty-one-year-old gymnastics novice Tyler Hass, friend of CrossFit and publisher of Power Athletes Magazine, has produced an instructional DVD, “Ring Strength,” that stands as the best introduction to the rings for athletic strength and conditioning available anywhere, ever.
“Ring Strength” packaging promises “over 40 exercises in a carefully designed progression to accommodate every level of strength from beginner to advanced.” This gem of a DVD delivers as promised. You will never outgrow or tire of “Ring Strength.”
…the men that worked the rings were in possession of an upper body strength that finds no equal in weightlifting or other calisthenics. The ringman, pound for pound, presents more upper body strength, along more lines of action, than any other athlete.
Ringtraining.com, the site offering “Ring Strength,” does a great job of supporting the budding community of ring enthusiasts with a forum and a few supplemental training articles. Training rings (not competition rings) are also available from the site and are perfect tools for the job at an unbeatable $80.
Not only do the DVD’s progressions allow access to the rings for an audience of wide abilities, but the exercises are performed by the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships Gold Medalist in the rings, Jordan Jovtchev. Workable ring progressions for general conditioning demonstrated by a gymnastics legend put this DVD on our “CrossFit must-have media” list.
“Ring Strength” concludes with Jordan’s gold-medal performances at the World Championships and some unbelievable footage of some advanced ring strength work that supports the claim that Jordan Jovtchev is the strongest athlete in the world and our claim that ringmen hold the greatest upper-body strength of all athletes.
The skills and drills in “Ring Strength” mesh wonderfully with our WOD (Workout of the Day). Ring training could be incorporated before, after or instead of any workout, especially those workouts with a strong upper-body component.
With training and practice many of the exercises that were once tough or impossible on the rings can be developed where they become elements in your warm-up or “rest days” goofing off. Imagine “goofing off” or warming up with a planche on the rings!
This article, by BSI’s co-founder, was originally published in The CrossFit Journal. While Greg Glassman no longer owns CrossFit Inc., his writings and ideas revolutionized the world of fitness, and are reproduced here.
Coach Glassman named his training methodology ‘CrossFit,’ which became a trademarked term owned by CrossFit Inc. In order to preserve his writings in their original form, references to ‘CrossFit’ remain in this article.
Greg Glassman founded CrossFit, a fitness revolution. Under Glassman’s leadership there were around 4 million CrossFitters, 300,000 CrossFit coaches and 15,000 physical locations, known as affiliates, where his prescribed methodology: constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity, were practiced daily. CrossFit became known as the solution to the world’s greatest problem, chronic illness.
In 2002, he became the first person in exercise physiology to apply a scientific definition to the word fitness. As the son of an aerospace engineer, Glassman learned the principles of science at a young age. Through observations, experimentation, testing, and retesting, Glassman created a program that brought unprecedented results to his clients. He shared his methodology with the world through The CrossFit Journal and in-person seminars. Harvard Business School proclaimed that CrossFit was the world’s fastest growing business.
The business, which challenged conventional business models and financially upset the health and wellness industry, brought plenty of negative attention to Glassman and CrossFit. The company’s low carbohydrate nutrition prescription threatened the sugar industry and led to a series of lawsuits after a peer-reviewed journal falsified data claiming Glassman’s methodology caused injuries. A federal judge called it the biggest case of scientific misconduct and fraud she’d seen in all her years on the bench. After this experience Glassman developed a deep interest in the corruption of modern science for private interests. He launched CrossFit Health which mobilized 20,000 doctors who knew from their experiences with CrossFit that Glassman’s methodology prevented and cured chronic diseases. Glassman networked the doctors, exposed them to researchers in a variety of fields and encouraged them to work together and further support efforts to expose the problems in medicine and work together on preventative measures.
In 2020, Greg sold CrossFit and focused his attention on the broader issues in modern science. He’d learned from his experience in fitness that areas of study without definitions, without ways of measuring and replicating results are ripe for corruption and manipulation.
The Broken Science Initiative, aims to expose and equip anyone interested with the tools to protect themself from the ills of modern medicine and broken science at-large.
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