shaggy

That's what I feel like for the current stuff I'm doing. I started below the recommended reps and am ever so slowly doing better. But I hit plateaus for a while and its taking a long time! Keep it up though! Get strong!

Hey @Elastigirl! I'm still working on the prep exercises myself. They say a month should do it, but I'm still not able to complete a full workout and am doing the lower range of reps. At the rate I'm going, I should think another month might do it.. I don't want to jump to the next phase too soon, and hurt myself in the long run, either with injury or just not being ready. Nice to hear you're progressing! Did you manage to stop the swinging on the tuck to inverted hang? @siscokid, How far are you in Rings 2? If you're done with the prep work, did you feel like you needed to completely have the prep work done before moving on to the next phase? @Pavowski, I had rings for about a year and a half before actually getting GMB, and I was mainly working on muscleups, hanging, and some messing around with tuck to inverted hang. There are a few good muscleup tutorials out there, I can't find the one I used, but basically working on pullups, getting as high as possible, and then dips as low as possible at first. Then working on negatives, hanging the bars low enough to use feet for support if necessary.

Oh man, the first time I tried the shoulder stand up in the air to really work on the balance, I almost fell through the rings and had to splay my legs out to catch the straps. It was pretty funny. I even caught it on video because I was trying to look at my form to compare it to the examples

The shoulder stand and skin the cat are two of the prep exercises I'm working on now. The shoulder stand is pretty tough to balance but I'm definitely getting better at it than I was a week ago.

Hmm.. if you can hold it for 60 seconds on the wall I gotta think its a fear thing. Because that sounds like you have a pretty solid base and shoulder strength. And week 4, that's awesome! Do you think you'll be ready for the phase 2 workouts when you get to week 6? Right now I'm worried I won't be good enough at phase 1 to get to phase 2 when I'm supposed to, or I'll just have to train the prep work a few extra weeks. As to the swaying rings, swinging legs up with long straps is probably the cause. I know when I have my rings hanging down low I swing all over the place.

Makes sense, its beyond me so far as well. How long have you been working on the rings 1? I'm only about 2 weeks into mine. As to the handstand, I was helping someone else with their handstand the other day, and it looked like their problem with the kick up was some nerves but also stability in the shoulders where they would fall into the wall as they kicked up. I think walking up into a handstand is fine to start with until you are strong enough and confident enough to hold it for 10 or 20 seconds until you switch to working on the kick up. Note: just advice from a guy who's been working on handstands and doesn't teach

Oh ok, yes, there is a decent amount of inverted work in rings 2 as well. Another thing that could cause swaying is the length of your straps for the rings, when they're longer they can sway a lot. But did I read that right in your other fitness post? That you do handstands on the rings? Because that terrifies me like no other move, and I can do a decent handstand on the ground.

Also, I was going through your long fitness post one, and have a question, is working up to handstands in rings 1? In rings 2 it just starts with handstands, and I have yet to have the confidence to get into a handstand without feeling like I'm going to fall on my face.

At the beginning of Ring 2 they do a series of prep workouts, to make sure you're ready for the real stuff. Currently the prep workouts are destroying me, which is why I'm wondering if maybe I jumped in a little too deep . But for the inverted hang, are you getting into it by tucking the knees in and then pulling up? Its hard to tell without seeing it, but it could be that you swing your legs up from the ground to get momentum, which might cause some swaying. If the swaying isn't so bad it stops you from balancing, I'd say just accept it and try to work on getting up more controlled as you practice.

Hey! I don't frequent the forums much, but I'm actually just starting the rings 2 program. However I skipped rings 1 (probably a terrible decision but oh well) because I did rings on my own for a while first. While I probably missed a whole bunch of important prep work, if you need someone to encourage you or talk about ring stuff with, hit me up! Shaggy

Artemis, I've never really liked chin ups from dead hang for that reason, you could try changing up the width of hand placement to see if it makes it better, I think I usually go a little narrower that shoulder width myself. It could also be that pulling from the dead hang is the hardest part. On your negatives do you go really slow and controlled through that bottom range of motion, including releasing the shoulders from active hang to passive hang at the end? -shaggy

If its not too late to join.. camp inspired me to try and be more active on the forums so I figured I'd join something that looks fun, and this is it! I just managed 12 pullups while still a little sore, might be able to do 13 or 14 on a good day, but its probably a solid estimate. Also, for Sam Ashen on the false grip, Jim Bathurst's site Beastskills has some pretty good information, the muscle up for rings tutorial has a section on the false grip technique. I definitely suggest working the false grip and the separate parts of the muscle up at the same time, or the grip will hold you back. -Shaggy

Hello all! I've been reading the weekly emails for something like 4 years now, and my first actual involvement with the community was to show up at camp this year. After that great experience I realized that I love the community that came together to make this all happen and wanted to be more active in it. As for what I like to do, I am most definitely an assassin and love doing bodyweight and balance exercises. I've been inspired again by meeting and learning from the instructors and can't wait to level up my progressions and do some totally awesome stuff. My biggest thing I need to work on is the preparation and background work like mobility and stretching because I don't do it often enough and its the main thing holding me back from doing the stuff I want to do. I'm exited to finally post something here and can't wait to meet more nerds. -Shaggy

Congratulations on the wedding! That's some pretty solid motivation and I hope you'll succeed. I definitely think you should get back into the bodyweight strength work if that's what you've enjoyed in the past. Maybe give yourself some progression goals for pushup/pullup/squat variations to get back into it. Good luck on the journey! -Shaggy