If you’re looking to purchase the best set of gymnastic rings for you, then you’re in the right place, that’s because you’re about to discover…
- How to avoid costly mistakes most make when buying gymnastic rings
- The one critical component you must look at, and why
- Strap mistakes most make that limit the exercises you can do
- Which ring material is the best
- How to choose gymnastics rings that last you nearly a lifetime
- The 3 things to look for so you can quickly narrow down your options and get the best gymnastic rings for you
This article won’t list 13 different brands of rings and then direct their website. Instead what you’ll discover here is how to choose the best rings for you.
With a great set of gymnastic ring’s you can carve out a physique somewhere close to Brad Pitts in “Fight Club.”
Let’s get going…
Costly Strap Mistakes Most Make And How You Can Avoid Them
Here’s what’s important to consider…
How high off the ground are you looking at attaching your straps?
The reason I ask is…
Because there is nothing worse than trying to lower your rings down close to the ground for ring push-ups or some other exercise, only to find out your straps aren’t long enough. And you can’t get your rings anywhere near the ground.
Strap length is important because short straps limit the number of exercises you can do with your rings.
You’ll want to roughly measure how high off the ground you’re looking at attaching your rings. And maybe you want to travel and take your rings with you.
For example:
If you were hanging your rings 1.8m off the ground, and the straps that come with the rings you’re looking at are 4.5m. Your straps hanging off the 1.8m anchor point would hang down 2.25m, so you’ve got plenty.
If you’re not sure at the moment where you’ll hang your straps, then get a set of gymnastic rings with long straps because you’ll have more options of where you can use your rings.
What Gymnastic Rings Should I Buy?
You should purchase gymnastic rings you can afford and you’re happy with. Don’t get too caught up on brands. The majority of gymnastic rings like most products these days are made in China.
I’m telling you this because it’s surprising how many brands get their products from the same factories, then simply put their own brand name on them.
I have a set of gymnastic rings that are made in China, I’ve had them for over 6 years now and they show no signs at all of wear and tear.
As far as I am aware Rogue Gymnastic Wood Rings are made in the USA.
What Is The Best Material For The Gymnastic Rings?
Wooden Gymnastic Rings
Wood rings are the way to go.
Why?
Wood is smoother in your hands which comes in real handy when you want to do ring muscle-ups. Put a bit of chalk on your hands, and you’ll glide into the ring muscle-up position.
Well, once you get the technique right, you’ll glide into the muscle-up position.
Plastic Gymnastic Rings
I’ve used the plastic gymnastic rings, I’m not a fan of plastic rings because plastic is a totally different texture in your hands and it’s not as smooth as wooden gymnastic rings.
Mental Rings
Metal gymnastic rings get cold in winter, in summer if your hands get sweaty the steel gymnastic rings become a little slippery to hold onto.
What You Can Do With Wood Rings That You Can’t Do To Plastic Rings Or Steel Rings
To make wood gymnastics rings even smoother get some sandpaper onto them. If you want your gym rings a little rougher, take to them with coarse sandpaper.
This is something you simply cannot do with plastic gym rings or steel gymnastics rings.
And you’ll notice Olympic athletes don’t use plastic or steel rings at the Olympics they use wooden rings for a reason.
3 Critical Factors To Consider When Purchasing Gymnastic Rings
1: The Most Important Component To Look At When Buying Gymnastics Rings
You’re going to hang off your rings and maybe upside down at times. Point is, you don’t want your straps to come undone, and you crash down smashing your knees, elbows, or head into the ground.
The buckle you feed the strap into is the most important component. If the buckle system is cheap, made from inferior metal, or weakly grips the straps. It may fail and you get injured.
What should you look for?
Steel or airplane aluminum are two strong metals proven to do the job.
2: Should You Get 28mm Or 32mm Diameter Wood Rings?
You can get two different size diameter wood gymnastics rings.
28mm and 32mm.
Yes, we’re only talking a 4mm difference here, however, in your hands you’ll notice 28mm feels thinner in your hand.
Unless you’ve got a hand the size of a 5-year-old child’s, you’re probably better off with the 32mm diameter.
Why?
A more rounded surface to grip feels better in your hand when doing dips, pull-ups, and ring muscle-ups. And 32mm is slightly thicker than 28mm.
3: The Width Of The Straps Is Important
Straps can range from 20mm up to 38mm in width.
Why does strap size matter?
The wider the strap the stronger the breaking point is. Wider straps are rated to carry more weight. A wider strap is stronger than a thinner strap.
With a 38mm strap, a bigger buckle is used, (I mentioned earlier the buckle is a critical component) 38mm is a wider surface for the buckle to grip. The buckle used in a 38mm strap would have a large breaking strain than a 28mm buckle.
When you hang wide nylon ring straps over a pull-up bar, or whatever you attach your straps to, you’ll feel confident knowing you’ve got strong tough equipment.
Thinner straps are weaker, can feel annoying on your shoulders when you’re doing dips and are slightly less stable.
Price Range Of Gymnastic Rings
Once you start looking at gymnastic rings you’ll notice there’s a fair difference in price.
Is a $149 set of gymnastics three times better than a $49 set? Probably not, maybe somewhere in between.
When you start to hone in on 32mm wooden rings with 38mm straps, what you’ll find is, the field quickly drops away and your choices have narrowed right down. Now you’re comparing gymnastic rings that are similar in specs.
If you look after your gymnastic rings, don’t leave them out in the weather then they are going to last you a very long time.
Whatever amount you pay for your rings, as long as you’re happy with them it doesn’t matter what you pay.
Are Gymnastic Rings Good For Building Muscle?
Yes, you can build muscle with the gymnastic rings, just look at the muscles on Olympic gymnasts. Those guys are ripped.
With a set of gymnastic rings, you can work most muscles in your upper body.
How do you build muscle?
Building muscle requires progressive overload and you’ll need to eat the right nutrition. With progressive overload, you increase the reps or increase the weights.
Let’s say with ring dips you could do 3 sets of 10 reps. To make this harder for you and to build muscle, you could wear a weighted vest. With the weighted vest on, you might only do 3 sets of 8 reps.
The rings aren’t easy to use at the start, they feel unstable and you won’t have the strength to do certain exercises. Which means with many exercises you’ll have to use progressions.
And more, the rings are great for building abs.
As you progress you get stronger and build muscle.
Summary Of What Are The Best Gymnastic Rings?
The best rings for you are tough, strong, and have long enough straps so you can adjust them and do any exercise you want.
There’s lots of brands to choose from.
Emerge wooden Olympic gymnastics rings, evolutionize power gymnastics rings, rogue gymnastics rings elite gym rings.
These are all probably great brands but I haven’t personally used them so can’t comment on how good or bad they are.
But guess what?
You’ll know what the best gymnastic rings for you are when targeting in on your search and looking for these 3 important factors:
1 Wooden Rings
2 The Width Of The Straps
3 The Material The Buckle Is Made From
With 32mm wooden rings in your hands, you’ve got a good size area to hold onto so you can rep out your exercises and get in great shape.
Wider straps are stronger than thinner straps, hold more weight, and they are more stable.
Steel or aeroplane aluminium buckles grip down like a vice on your straps, which gives you 100% confidence.
It doesn’t matter what is the best “brand” because the best rings for you are the ones that build muscle, burn fat, and last.
You can use your rings at home or anywhere.
Go purchase your rings with confidence.
