The ring rows are a bodyweight pull exercise that targets the muscles in the upper back, shoulders, and arms. In this article we will tell you why you should include more ring row in your training routine.
The benefits of training with rings
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of training with rings:
– They are unstable, which forces you to develop your core abdominal and shoulder stabilizer muscles.
– Improve your grip strength. Being the only contact surface, the strength of the hands, forearm and wrists will be significantly increased.
– They are one of the most useful functional training tools for developing upper body strength in a coordinated and balanced way.
– Low risk of injury, allowing the joints to rotate freely in any exercise, limiting tension.
– They will develop your coordination and balance. Many exercises require simultaneous movement of various parts of the body while remaining stable.
- Increase flexibility in shoulders, back and wrists. If you have limitations, work on improving it to prevent injuries.
Since your bodyweight is the load, it is a great way to develop relative strength. The rings challenge your stability and allow you to adjust the angle of the pull. The only equipment you need for this exercise is a pair of gymnastic rings, but any suspension strap system works.
How to perform a ring row
Hang a pair of rings at hip height. Grab the rings with both hands. Walk your feet out until you form a 45-degree angle with the ground.
Extend and lock out your arms. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your hands keeping your elbows at both sides of your body. While you pull, squeeze your glutes, engage your lats, keep your core tight, and maintain a straight body posture. Once the rings are touching your chest, slowly lower yourself back down until your arms are locked out.
The difficulty of ring rows is controlled by how horizontal your body is. To make it more difficult, walk your feet further away from your hands. You can also elevate your feet to the same height of your hands and add a weight vest to increase the resistance. To make the ring row easier, walk your feet back towards your hands to reduce how horizontal your body is.
With ring rows you will work different muscles of the body using as a load our own body weight which is the one you will have to move.
If you are not used to work with rings or if you are just not comfortable working with rings, you can position yourself in a less inclined angle, to reduce the intensity of the movement, and as you gain strength and practice in this exercise, it is advisable to drop your body as far as possible parallel to the ground.
Remember that your back should be straight all the time and that your torso should move as little as possible. The effort will be made by the back muscles when we pull the rings to bring the chest close to the rings and the elbows pass by the sides of the body, close to it.
The ring row is a compound exercise that works muscles in the upper back, shoulders, and arms–specifically, the lats, rhomboids, biceps, posterior deltoids, and traps.
Traps are the new abs
Your upper back muscles not only help support healthy posture by keeping your head and neck in place, but they also provide a place to rest a loaded barbell and translate to more overall pulling strength.
This exercise when performed for higher reps will have you feeling your upper back muscles more than ever before. It’s also a great option for beginners who want work up to weight training, and/or people who want to avoid loading up their joints with weights. Because this is a bodyweight exercise, it’s generally easier on your joints.
Stronger shoulders for overhead stability
The muscles in your shoulders are involved in every upper body movement, whether you realize it or not. Every pushing and pulling movement you make with your arms uses your shoulder muscles one way or another. That’s why it’s so important to keep them healthy and strong.
Engaged lats
These muscles are extremely important for most movements in CrossFit in order to become a more efficient and stronger athlete.
Having strong lats and knowing how to turn them on can lead to better and stronger lifts. Knowing how to properly engage your lats can help prevent shoulder injuries. Butterfly pull-ups are a prime example of this.
Strong biceps
CrossFit athletes do not normally work muscles in individual workouts, but they do need to build muscle and develop general strength in order to perform. Upper body strength needs to be worked by them, as it is a large component of CrossFit movements. Specific training for the arms can build muscle and strength that will prepare further for CrossFit workouts.
With ring rows, you will develop strong biceps. Their function is to flex the elbow, assist in shoulder flexion and can contribute to separation with the shoulder in external rotation.
Deltoids for push power
The deltoid muscle is the responsible for giving the rounded appearance to the shoulders. It is mainly responsible for flexion, abduction and extension of the shoulder joint.The function of this deltoid muscle group is primarily to allow the arm to be lifted overhead.
The deltoid muscles located at the top of the shoulders are one of the main engines in various press exercises and the ring rows will help you develop this muscle and therefore transfer those improvements for example to the shoulder press.
Triceps strength
With ring rows you will also work your triceps: although the triceps cross the shoulder and elbow joints, these muscles help straighten the elbow during movements like shoulder press.
In short, ring rowing offers athletes a great way to increase upper back strength. With the ring rows you will also work the grip, the arms and all this will transfer to gain strength and improve in most of the movements so specific to functional fitness and gymnastics.
In conclusion, including ring rows, in any of its variations, in you training routines is necessary to gain strength for the vast majority of the movements of traction and muscular training.
If you liked this article you will also like: The Best Ring Row Back Workouts for CrossFit Athletes
Image Sources
- ring-rows: CrossFit epoc