Recently someone asked me a question about endurance for their floor routine. I told them it was a different type of endurance that was needed than long distance running, and to try doing some conditioning for the amount of time her floor routine lasts. Since then I’ve thought more about it and decided I would take my own advice to help with my rings routine. I timed the routine in my video from the Rocky Mountain Open and it was a little over a minute long. Then I tried doing all sorts of different exercises to see how long I could do them before really slowing down. Here are my initial results from this morning (in the order I did them, with a couple minutes between each one to figure out what to do next):
Handstand Pushups against a wall – ~45seconds
Handstand on the rings with straight arms but feet wrapped around the straps for support – ~35 seconds
Planche hold with my feet propped on a chair – ~30 seconds
L hold (hanging from a pull up bar) – ~30 seconds
Front Lever to pull up position and back on pull up bar (several times) – ~25 seconds
Now I really understand why it’s difficult to do anything with good form in the second half of my rings routine – I’m pooped by then! So in the next week and a half before my next competition I’ll do my best to improve those numbers. 🙂
I learned something very important a couple months ago about protecting my wrists while wearing ring grips (this would apply to wearing any grips). I remember having raw and painful wrists after most workouts when we did either Rings or High Bar (which was just about every workout). Over the years I had several different sets of sweatbands, and I remember a few times using coach tape over them or over pre-wrap either alone or underneath sweatbands.
Fortunately (as I discovered later) the first time I came into the gym after Thanksgiving 2010 when I decided I wanted to compete on Rings again, I forgot my gym bag and had to dig grips from the lost and found and borrow a set of wristbands from one of the guys on the ASU team. They fit well and felt good, and my wrists were perfectly fine after working out on the rings that day.
I didn’t think about it much because it had been about 10 years since I had worn grips, but the next time I came in (a week later) I remembered my gym bag and brought my old sweatbands. I had very bad sores on my wrists after that, and even 2 weeks later they were still healing (see pic on the right). So I decided after that I would find the same kinds of wristbands I had borrowed before I went into the gym again. I went to Dick’s sporting goods and found one set that looked the same as those I borrowed among about 20 racks of sweatbands.
The key is the stitching looks a bit like corduroy or a shrunken knitted sweater instead of like cotton candy. See a comparison of my old white sweatbands to my new black wristbands in the pic on the left. I chose the 6″ size because that’s the size I had borrowed and it would provide good coverage even if they got bunched up a little. I haven’t had sores on my wrists since then. I refer to my old wristbands (and all those which look like them) as “sweatbands” because that’s all I consider them good for now – catching sweat.
Since it was difficult for me to find, I’ve included a link to amazon on the right showing the type of wristbands that will protect your wrists during workouts (the Under Armour “performance” wristbands are like my old sweatbands – I don’t recommend that kind). The wristbands I bought are similar to those in the picture except they are 6″. The key is that they are ‘Jacquarded’, which I found mention of at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/jacquard:
Jacquard weave. a fabric in which the design is incorporated into the weave instead of being printed or dyed on
If you look at the fabric it is woven instead of puffy like sweatbands. That means they don’t capture as much sweat but for protecting your wrists in gymnastics they are much better.
Over the weekend I traveled with the Arizona State Men’s Gymnastics Team to the 2011 Rocky Mountain Open where I competed in the competition as an individual. There were 4 college teams, one team of six guys from the Olympic Training Center (which happens to be located in the same city), and 4 individuals (including me). I was not the oldest one there, the same guy who competed in Vault every year back when I was on the ASU team was still there (I heard he’s 49 now). There was another guy who might be older than me but I didn’t want to pry, and the fourth individual graduated from Penn State a year and a half ago.
I was very excited to be there and full of adrenaline – so much that I wobbled on most of the skills, held the front lever way too high, and even fell out of a straddle L near the end. But I had a wonderful time, and I’ve already started thinking about what I’m going to add to my routine for next year. My start value was 14.7 (which is less than expected, probably because one or two skills were devalued by my form breaks) and I scored 11.0. The third place score was 14.7, so all I need to do is add a little more difficulty and clean up my form and I have a chance at placing next year. Considering there are Olympic athletes (from the OTC) competing there I would be very proud to place in that meet.
In the meantime, Scott said I could compete at one of the ASU home meets this year, so I’m setting my sights on the dual meet between ASU and University of Michigan at Aspire on March 2nd. That gives me about six weeks to increase my stamina and change a couple things in my routine to make it easier to perform cleanly. I want to swap out the back uprise straddle planche with a cross pull out after my kip-L cross near the beginning. That will avoid a bunch of bobbles on the straddle planche. I also want to remove the straddle L near the end so I won’t fall out of it anymore. 🙂
A few years ago I received a writeup about the Five Tibetan Rites in PDF form as a bonus for purchasing an ebook about composting. It is an interesting story about an older man who learns five basic exercises that are credited with keeping a group of monks in Tibet young and very fit as long as they live. The exercises are fairly simple but they are invigorating and I’ve been doing them almost daily since then – sometimes I use them as a warmup for working out or a pick me up if I get tired in the afternoon. I’ve lost the soft copy of that writeup since then but I found another one that I’m providing as a free download at the end of this post.
The article is based on a book called “Eye of Revelation”, which is a good story whether you believe it to be true or not. I can say from experience that the exercises are very easy to do and help me feel better in general every time I do them. The five rites are like yoga exercises, good for both flexibility and core strength.
In the writeup I found, there is a sixth exercise mentioned which reminds me of the Buteyko breathing techniques I also learned about several years ago – see image link to the left, which is based on the research of a Russian doctor named Konstantin Buteyko. You can learn more about his research and legacy at buteyko.com. I’ve used the buteyko method to help me overcome sinus infections, nasal allergies, and even just clear blocked nostrils. I try to breath through my nose all the time now, even when I workout – I’ve found that I have more stamina that way (for example while doing circles on the mushroom).
So if you haven’t yet, download and take a look at the pdf document about the Five Tibetan Rites here. They are a good complement to any workout routine.
originally posted at https://www.goodfeelingplace.com/my-gymnastics-rings
This year my wife got me a pair of rings for fathers day, exactly like the ones you can see to the right. I thought it was great but the only place I had to hang them at the time was on a chinup bar in a doorway. That was kind of neat, the kids enjoyed it, but it was pretty low to the ground with limited space and the straps were way too long for that setup (and I didn’t want to cut them yet).
In the fall when it began to cool down here in Phoenix I began planning how I would set them up in the garage. I think it was sometime in late October when I got them installed there. I secured a metal pipe to the ceiling using so many bolts that I could probably hoist a car on it (see image below).
Rings secured to the ceiling in the garage
Although I setup the rings for myself, my kids (and their friends) kind of took over. I was relegated to being the traffic cop to tell the kids when their turn is up and make sure no one cuts in line. I think it’s like having a roller coaster ride in your backyard with only one seat in it. You can see how my youngest son Hani spins in the first video below, and one of my older sons Demitri is in the next video.
However, on Thanksgiving day a few weeks ago I decided that I would put together a routine on rings and compete again at the Rocky Mountain Open in January 2011. That’s the same competition I had planned to compete in on pommel horse this year, until I got discouraged by how much different circles on the mushroom are to circles on the horse (I challenged the Arizona State University team to a circle contest in late 2009 after doing 74 on my mushroom at home, but was only able to do 46 on the horse when I got to the gym).
About a week before Thanksgiving I had began listening to the guided meditations CD from the Getting into the Vortex book (as pictured to the right). We had recently gotten all our kids out of diapers (after almost 9 years of having at least one child in diapers), so I was feeling very good about life. I continue to listen to the guided meditations because it helps me to see past any negative thoughts in my mind and to look towards emotional freedom and infinite possibilities in my life. It was in this context that I decided I could compete again.
Last Friday I went to Aspire to workout with the current ASU gymnastics team, which is 28 members strong now. I was very excited, so much so that I forgot my grips at home. Fortunately they have a well stocked lost and found bucket and I was able to procure a decent pair of ring grips to swing with. I wanted to practice swinging (like giant swings, which I don’t have the height for in my garage) and also get an update to the routine requirements, which I know have changed a great deal since I competed.
Scott (the ASU head coach, who was my coach 10 years ago when I was in college) gave me the rundown on the current requirements and answered some questions I had, then I watched some of the guys practice their routines to get an idea of how they are put together. I also got a chance to do some tricks I hadn’t done in 10 years. I found that as a general rule I was about half a rotation slow on any flip (I only dismounted into the pit for this reason), but I was pleased to discover that I could adjust and tune myself quickly – for example after about 20 minutes on the tramp and then tumble trak I was able to do a standing back flip on the floor again.
I had a great time at the gym, then I went home and felt like I had been run over. I took a long hot bath with epsom salt (I picked up 2 large bags at walgreens because I figured I’d need more later) to help my body to recover, and now a few days later I’m no longer sore and ready to continue my strength training at home. I’ll return to the gym once I have a plan for a routine with several strength moves in it that I can do at home – probably next week.
Dec 20th, 2010 Update: I was pleased to discover that I could do both dips and pullups on the rings with my son Hani (in the first video above) on my back when we were playing on the rings over the weekend. I’ve also gained about 5 pounds since I began training in earnest (at least 20-30 minutes a day) – I’m naturally underweight so I’m happy to gain weight while exercising. I’m planning to go back to the gym Wednesday, and I will work on putting together the following skills for a routine: Kip L-Cross, Backuprise L-Cross, Backuprise Straddle L, Press to handstand, Front Giant, Back Giant, Tucked Yamawaki, Backuprise Planche, Pike Press to Handstand, Double Back Dismount.
The above routine is scalable so next year I can replace the strength moves with more difficult ones as I’m able to do them.
Dec 23rd, 2010 Update: I was able to do about 5 of those tricks above in sequence yesterday, but I need to make some modifications so it will flow better. I bought my plane ticket today to travel with the ASU team to the meet, I figure I will get 2-3 more chances to go to the gym and fine tune a routine before then. 🙂
Jan 2011 Update: I did compete at the Rocky Mountain Open, you can see the video in my review of the meet.
Later, in 2016, I moved the rings to my bedroom and added a few pieces to allow the straps to spin freely. I added a PVC pipe around the steel pipe and 2 plastic bushings to keep the straps from getting caught on the sides:
