You have a limited amount of time to pursue your many training goals – you’ve got a job, a family, and a whole host of other responsibilities, on top of wanting to get stronger, improve your conditioning, and learn some cool tricks.
And the way most people approach this dilemma makes it feel impossible to achieve.
If you’re looking for a program that does EVERYTHING, you’ll be sorely disappointed…
Instead, a better way to work on all your goals while maintaining a normal, balanced lifestyle, is to use an approach called periodization – or cycling your goals.
We’ve written about goal cycling at length but in this article we’ll show you how it works in action with three gymnastic rings workouts. Using these workouts will help you cycle through:
- Building pushing strength
- Conditioning-specific training
- Core strength training
If you have access to a set of rings, cycling through these workouts will help you hit your major training goals over the course of 3-4 months. This approach will allow you to maintain what you’ve built in the previous cycle, without trying to cram tons of goals into one workout.
How These Workouts Will Help You Reach Your Goals
The most common concern we hear about cycling goals is people are worried if they focus on one goal for a period of time, and then move on to another goal, they will “lose their gains” from the first goal. In reality, this approach actually helps you gain ownership of the skills and attributes you’re building.
Here’s a short excerpt from our periodization article to show you how this works:
When your attention is split and you’re working on 5 or 6 different things at once is, you don’t truly own any one of those things. You simply won’t have the solid retention you’d gain with the unrelenting practice in a well planned cycle.
In contrast, when you focus your efforts on one thing for a while, by the end of that training block, you’ll own it.
That doesn’t mean you’ll have reached perfection. It just means that you’ve given your body the chance to say, “I’ve got this.”
The work you’ve put in will stay with you, and it won’t take much effort to get it back to the prior peak and climb past it when you come back around in the next training cycle.
With a good plan, you keep most of the gains you made in earlier training periods, and when you come back to that goal, the skills and abilities you built in the intervening periods enhance your progress.
As you can see in this graph, when your programming is set up properly, as you cycle through one attribute, it will peak and maintain for quite a while as you work through the next attribute. Yeah, that first attribute might get a little rusty while you focus on others. But you won’t lose it.
The three gymnastic rings workouts below will help you focus on one primary goal at a time, then cycle through the next, and so on. You’ll find that, by the end of the cycle, you’ll have gained tremendous benefit in each of their intended areas.
1. Rings Workout for Pushing Strength
This is an example of a cycle to address pushing strength. You’ll notice that each of these exercises either involves actual pushing, or engages the muscles that will help you build pushing strength through holds.
This routine should be performed as a circuit (one exercise after the other without breaks). Go through the circuit 5 times, resting 2-3 minutes between each circuit. Make sure to finish all reps of one exercise before moving on to the next move or hold.
| Do This | Exercise/Movement | Key Points |
|---|---|---|
| Hold for 5 secs | Plank Hold | • Make sure to keep your wrists directly beneath your shoulders - or in front as you get stronger. • Turn your rings out and keep your body tight throughout the hold. • Go into and out of the hold slowly. |
| Do 3-5 reps | Push-Ups | • Start in the plank hold position, with the rings turned out. • Lower yourself slowly and with control, and don’t let your shoulders drop below your hands. • Slowly push your body back up to the starting position, with control. |
| Do 3-5 reps | Dips to Top Position | • Start in the top position hold with the rings turned out. • Let the rings roll in so your palms face each other and slowly bend your elbows, dipping your body. • Push your body back up to the top position with the rings turned out. |
| Hold for 5 secs | Top Position Hold | • Start by standing with the rings at waist height. • Jump up and pull the rings close to your body. • Keep your shoulders down away from your ears and lift your chest up. • Push down and turn the rings out. |
Stick with this routine for 4-6 weeks.
Work on increasing the number of reps/seconds per exercise, but make sure to maintain impeccable form. Once you feel confident you’ve improved your pushing strength, you can move on to your next goal.
2. Rings Workout for Conditioning
For this next cycle, we’ll focus on building up your conditioning, or your ability to do a lot of work for prolonged periods of time. This will be helpful if you are looking to improve your muscular endurance for a particular sport, or just want to be able to get through your day without getting winded and tired.
In this routine, we’ll use supersets (two exercises performed back-to-back) to build up endurance. Do one superset, rest for up to 30 seconds, and then move on to the next superset.
Work on adding a round of supersets with each workout.
| Do This | Exercise/Movement | Key Points |
|---|---|---|
| Superset 1 | • Push-Ups (3-5 reps) • Plank Hold (5 secs) | Push-Ups: • Start in the plank hold position, with the rings turned out. • Lower yourself slowly and with control, and don’t let your shoulders drop below your hands. • Slowly push your body back up to the starting position, with control. Plank Hold: • Make sure to keep your wrists directly beneath your shoulders - or in front as you get stronger. • Turn your rings out and keep your body tight throughout the hold. • Go into and out of the hold slowly. |
| Superset 2 | • Neutral Grip Pull-Ups (2-3 reps) • Dead Hang L-Sit (5 secs) | Neutral Grip Pull-Ups: • Start in a dead hang position with your palms facing each other. • Slowly pull your body up until your shoulders meet your hands. • Lower yourself slowly into a dead hang before starting your next rep. Dead Hang L-Sit: • Start with your body below the rings. • Straighten your arms, hanging from the rings. • Without shrugging your shoulders or bending your arms, bring your legs off the ground into an L-Sit position. |
| Superset 3 | • Dips (3-5 reps) • Top Position Hold (5 secs) | Dips: • Start in the top position hold with the rings turned out. • Let the rings roll in so your palms face each other and slowly bend your elbows, dipping your body. • Push your body back up to the top position with the rings turned out. Top Position Hold: • Start by standing with the rings at waist height. • Jump up and pull the rings close to your body. • Keep your shoulders down away from your ears and lift your chest up. • Push down and turn the rings out. |
Work on this routine for about 4 weeks, adding as many rounds of supersets by the end as you can – of course, while maintaining perfect form. You’ll definitely notice improvements in your endurance as you go along.
3. Rings Workout for Core Strength
This cycle will help you learn to really engage your core so your body can do what you want and need it to.
For this routine, you’ll perform 3-5 sets of the following exercises, resting 1-2 minutes between sets. Complete all sets of one exercise before going on to the next (don’t circuit train). Keep a fairly fast pace, but be very careful about your form.
| Do This | Exercise/Movement | Key Points |
|---|---|---|
| Do 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets | Tuck to Inverted Hang | • Start by locking out your arms beneath the rings, with your feet on the ground. • Pull your knees up into the tuck position. • Keep pulling your knees in until you straighten them above you, in the inverted position. • Lower yourself by bending your knees back into the tuck and coming back into the starting position. |
| Do 3-5 sets of 10 sec holds | Dead Hang L-Sit | • Start with your body below the rings. • Straighten your arms, hanging from the rings. • Without shrugging your shoulders or bending your arms, bring your legs off the ground into an L-Sit position. |
| Do 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets | Plank to Table to Plank | • Start in the plank position, with the rings turned out and body tight. • Push down into the rings as you jump your legs through to the front, landing in reverse table position. Make sure to move with control. • Jump back through the rings, landing back in the plank position. |
Stick with this routine for 4-6 weeks, focusing on building up your time on holds, and the number of reps you are doing. As always, form is the most important thing, so don’t lose sight of that.
Hi, I'm Ryan Hurst 👋
After a training accident ended his competitive gymnastics career, Ryan moved to Japan and competed in various martial arts until another injury made him reevaluate his priorities in life.
As Head Coach at GMB Fitness, his mission is to show everyone that you can define your own fitness as a sustainable and enjoyable part of your life. He loves handstands, dogs, and hiking.
