Gymnastic Rings

[msteele]

I would really like to get my hands on some gymnastic rings, but the commercially available rings seem a bit pricey to me. Does anyone have a suggestion on a substitution or possibly an idea for constructing a set?

[kevo]

check this great site out http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/grunt.html
i'm sure you'll find it here

[Dr. Jacob]

Hey, I promote a product because I believe in it whole heartedly. Check it out.

http://www.weightvest.com/images/Straps/Strapindex.html

Click on the picture for videos.

These are better than rings for many reasons, price being one of them. And for anybody else out there I answer questions on these straps, weightvests, and any of my many interests including slacklines, triathlon training, and general fitness. I sell these straps as a hobby and I promote the weightvest as a fitness consultant.

[koltz]

making them is too easy.....

I don't think you will spend over 20$ for this

[Dr. Jacob]

making them is too easy.....

I don't think you will spend over 20$ for this

You could make your own, if you have the right materials. It is a matter of time investment, finding webbing the right length, sewing the pieces together in the proper proportions, and trusting your work will hold you.

$20 is a little optimistic. Maybe 35-40 for materials plus time.

So I encourage you to make your own if it is worth it to you. I personally spent more than what I am selling them for in time and resources on my first set. Of course I want ease of use while adjusting them, fail proof strength, and comfortable handles. My time is worth a fair amount of money like many other people. If you have hours to spare then please give it a shot.

[koltz]

I made mine for about 15$ and half an hour time of work to it.

and I bought really really thick webbing...

[Dr. Jacob]

I made mine for about 15$ and half an hour time of work to it.

and I bought really really thick webbing...


ok. Have fun with those.

[hara_12]

Koltz,

I have been looking at making my own as well. What did you use to do it? PVC pipe?

[Dr. Jacob]

Koltz,

I have been looking at making my own as well. What did you use to do it? PVC pipe?

PVC pipe makes a great handle. I use schedule 40 for more strength. The best webbing is nylon because it doesn't wear out with friction. Cam buckles are of course the secret for super adjustability. You can tie knots all over the place for an ugly set that works fine, or you can sew the straps if you have access to an industrial strength machine. I make mine with a high density industrial strength foam handle to protect the nerve in your palm that can cause numbness in your last two fingers.

Last thing, make dang sure your straps will not come loose. You do not want to be inverted when a knot comes untied or a cheap buckle breaks. Spinal cord injuries are life threatening.

I consider myself very experienced in designing these. I have tested many different configurations and materials. Of course I am a perfectionist and that is what I have, but you can get by with some searching, just be careful.

That said, adjustability is the key to making the straps worth it. Push ups alone are awesome but attacking your whole body's stailizing muscles is untouchable.

Here are sample exercises:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI1DgWYnqZs

[PAV]

Dr. Jacob,

Are you also the guy who sells the weighted vest?

[Dr. Jacob]

Dr. Jacob,

Are you also the guy who sells the weighted vest?

I am a fitness consultant for weightvest.com
I don't sell vests. I am more into research and development. I am currently writing a book on weightvest training that will be finished soon. I am closely involved with the owners of the company and technically could sell vests if the opportunity presents itself. I do sell the bodyweight straps and abslings via www.weightvest.com (http://www.weightvest.com) and I wrote a small exercise manual to go with the straps.

[PAV]

I am a fitness consultant for weightvest.com
I don't sell vests. I am more into research and development. I am currently writing a book on weightvest training that will be finished soon. I am closely involved with the owners of the company and technically could sell vests if the opportunity presents itself. I do sell the bodyweight straps and abslings via www.weightvest.com (http://www.weightvest.com) and I wrote a small exercise manual to go with the straps.

All right, I was going to ask you. I have a weight vest from your company. It is extremely uncomfortable and makes my shoulder fall asleep. I thought it was only me, but same happens to other people who try that. Could I return it?
Thanks

[koltz]

Koltz,

I have been looking at making my own as well. What did you use to do it? PVC pipe?
sort of an old broom handle that was basically a thin but hard hollow metal...
I just cut two pieces and made handles from it.

in fact you don't really need something hollow for a handle
you can time something to the webbing , warp it in a band for grip and tie one edge of the webbing to the rest of it.

Just a tip , the handle should be around 8-11 inches in length and the loop should be pretty long too so there is plenty of space for your forearms and they won't rub on the webbing.

[koltz]

Koltz,

I have been looking at making my own as well. What did you use to do it? PVC pipe?

oh and another tip , the best and simplest way to attach the end of the webbing to create the loop is by cutting a hole at the end of the webbing and the part where you want to attach and using a band\string to tie it up (serval times so it will be strong enough... each of my straps can support my body weight and a 30KG weight on it's own)



what I'm looking for in rigs\straps is the ability to hang them aesthetically at home when then only places you can are a door bar or the roof.
I think using a vacuum pump large enough you can safely hold up to 1000 pounds on the roof each strap... so that would eb awesome

[Dr. Jacob]

I am having a hard time following your instructions.
As a big fan of straps I am always looking for ways to improve upon what I have.

The current strength of mine is ridiculous. I tested a single strap using a fork lift and a pallet attached to the handle of my BW strap. I loaded the pallet with 1400 lbs of Lead bricks, it didn't break. I ran out of lead so I still do not know the break strength.

Here is a photo:
http://www.weightvest.com/images/Straps/hyster.jpg

If any of you have ideas on ways to improve them or cool exercises I would love to hear about them.

[koltz]

Well all the gymnastic stuff...

[BrutalityisLaw]

I can make rings for free!!! If any of you have any exprience in construction and things of that nature you should be able to come up with something that works good and costs little to nothing. Thing I find about all the rings people are making is that they do not work grip strength with them tiny little handles. Im going to get a thick pipe and bend the into 180 degrees then weld them together. The only problem Im going to have is hanging them. I go to a gym with a 20 foot high ceiling cause its an old mill. I think If i get some old pulleys run a good amount of rope through them then anchor them to the wall it will make it adjustable.


Dr. Jacob where are your rings set up? Seems like a rather low celing to use them on...

[Dr. Jacob]

Dr. Jacob where are your rings set up? Seems like a rather low celing to use them on...

Brutality, Mine are hanging in my basement which has 7 foot ceilings. Unfortunatle but works fine. I am moving next year and have high hopes of a better gym. Making your own is fine idea, but free is tough to come by especially with pulleys. I have looked into pulley and unless you ahve some laying around the strong ones are very expensive.

Grip strength on a larger handle is a good idea in some aspects but you must realize that the swivel of the smaller handle on mine requires a stronger grip than you'd think to keep them from rolling out of your hand. By the way I am selling ab sling with my straps. These are very difficult to make your self, if anybody has any reasonable ways of doing this I would love to hear about it. I am a big fan of DIY.

Also I am going to be making another Youtube video with more advanced workouts any ideas from you guys out there on this forum??

[BrutalityisLaw]

Ya, Good luck man. I got some things to make a ring setup. My gym is a private MMA gym in an old mill so there's tons of heavy duty pulleys laying around. I undesrtand what you're saying about the swivel Ill be sure to add it to my set up.

[NeilC]

That looks like a pretty snazzy webbing product Dr Jacob. I see the Weightvest website doesn't sell em outside of the US and Europe. Do you know of a good equivalent product available in the UK?

What are the buckle things called in case I need to make my own?

Thanks

[george]

I made my own rings from this design from crossfit message boards. Iwrapped pipe compression tape around the bottoms of the rings. It's kind of like thin rubber. Give it a try. If they're building any houses near you, you might even be able to dumpster dive for the PVC for and even cheaper set!
...Yeah, I'm cheap.
P.S: I had to "cook" my rings a little longer than this suggested, just peek at'em, to see how they feel. They are hot, so don't forget the gloves. They don't stink up the house either.


I made my first pair of Rings today!!

Thanks to Misha, Don, and James for your ideas and input!

Okay, I used 1 ¼ inch diameter PVC pipe. I cut the PVC pipe into two 27-inch lengths. As Don suggested, I filled the pipe with sand (packed in real tight) and capped each end of the pipe with plenty of duct tape. I pre-heated the conventional oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the oven was ready, I placed the sand-filled PVC pipe into the oven and allowed it to bake for exactly 10 minutes. After the 10, I took the pipe out (with gloves!!) and wrapped it around a small trash can (the can had a circumference of 24 inches which gave the rings a diameter of about 7 ¾ inches). I held the pipe in place for about 5 minutes. The sand definitely helped prevent kinks, but did not completely prevent the pipe from flattening (but believe me, it does the job just fine). Once the ring hardened, I peeled off the duct tape and poured out the sand. And that was it! I had a new pair of rings!

I fed a half-inch thick rope through the inside of the ring and secured it with a couple figure knots. I then used 13-foot lashing strap to hang each ring from my hut. I got some grip tape at Walgreens and applied appropriately to each ring.

Other than the grip tape, I purchased everything I needed at Home Depot. With $26, I bought enough in materials to make two sets of rings (4 rings) and one pair of parallettes.

Basically, this is what it boils down to:

Trip to Home Depot: $26
Manual Labor: 3 hours
2 sets of Rings and 1 pair of Parallettes: Priceless!

On another note: I also did my first muscle-up! I could never do the MUs on a bar, but as soon as I grabbed my rings, I knocked out 3 consecutive MUs!! I then went on to do 20 MUs in 20 minutes!!

Thanks Crossfit!!
And thanks again to everyone who contributed to this board!

-Ralph
http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=12572&page=4

[NeilC]

That sounds excellent. I'm gonna try that too.

I've just made a simple strap exercise "system" like the ones described and shown earlier in the thread. I bought a pair of 5 metre cam straps (basically a length of webbing already attached to a spring-loaded cam buckle) for a few quid and tied a knot to make a loop about 4 inches away from the cam buckle so I can suspend cam straps from those loops (I thread them over my chin bar but you could use fixings or whatever ). You then thread the loose ends through the buckles to get completely adjustable loops - from a few inches to about 2 metres. TIt takes about 2 minutes to make - no cutting or stitching - just one knot in each strap.

I made some separate handles using lengths of pipe and short loops of rope which can be threaded onto the strap loops (so there is only rope touches the strap removing the risk of fraying). I'm well pleased. The adjustability makes it east to replicate the exercises in the video - except ones requiring the slings.

The Oly rings you made would be perfect as I could just thread those onto the straps instead when needed.

[george]

Good luck. I tied a threaded and piece of rope through mine, then bought a small carabiner from Home Depot for like a buck, they hold 150#'s each.
I'll try to post a pic. I am very computer ignorant.