Ring Dips

 Main muscle worked: Triceps

 Other muscles worked: Chest, Shoulders

 Equipment: Rings

 Mechanics Type: Compound

 Exercise Instructions: Ring Dips

1. Adjust the height of the rings so that your feet will not touch the ground between repetitions.  
2. Mount the rings and assume the support position. You should be above the rings, arms straight, supporting your body weight.
3. Lower your body down by bending at the elbows and keeping shoulders close to your sides. Keep the movement steady and controlled. If possible, continue down until your shoulders almost touch your hands for a full range of motion.
4. Press your body back to the original starting position.

Notes:

• Leg position can be bent, crossed or straight during the exercise.
• To ensure the triceps are targetted ensure your body is straight up and down. Leaning over will bring the chest muscles into the exercise.

 Exercise Information: Ring Dips

The standard dip exercise is a solid favourite. A compound exercise that is great for working the triceps, chest and shoulder muscles in one movement.

Performing these on fitness / gymnastic rings add the free motion instability of the rings and increases both the challenge and reward for those that practice it. Many more muscles are recruited to keep the body stable throughout the movement.

 Exercise variations:

Wide ring dip

The wide ring dip greatly increases the difficulty of the exercise and can be effective when training for the advanced iron cross.

Carry out the exercise as per the stanard ring dip except the arms are moved out from the body to the sides. Perform the exercise in a slow and controlled manner.

 Beginners

If you are just starting out with ring training you will probably find the ring dip very difficult if not unachievable. We recommend that you first master the support position, which is essentially how you start out on rind dips.

The support position involves holding your body weight whilst stationary above the rings, arms straight. When you can hold this try introducing partial dips and gradually increase the range of motion as you get stronger until you can do full dips.

 Experts

If you are proficient at ring dips it's a good idea to use a weighted vest to supplement your body weight. This will allow you to continually and incrementally promote strength gains and additional triceps development. Just make sure you get quality rings that will support the weight!

If you can comfortably perform ring dips and ring pull-ups it's probably time to start training for the muscle-up. Full range ring dip repetitions will help you develop the shoulder strength and flexibility for the notorious muscle-up.