In this video we’ll share with you a whole-body fifteen-minute weekly workout plan that requires just one piece of equipment – gymnastic rings. We’ll be training at our favorite environment – the outdoors (recommend previous video “outdoor training benefits”) and for hanging our GRS we’ll be using a basketball hoop’s body. This is one of the most practical solutions you’ll find to hang your GRs if you live in an urban or semi-urban area and you don’t have pull-up bars available close by.
Circuit training (Train quick, Burn Fat & Build Muscle)
Each workout is structured into a circuit. During a circuit, you perform one exercise after the other with a short break (ten to fifteen seconds) in between. Circuits are ideal for people with a limited amount of time. While short in duration, they can also be very intense. So, besides being a quick muscle-building workout, circuits are quite efficient at burning fat as well. Overall I find that circuits are the type of training most people enjoy and stick to in the long term nowadays.
Workout details
The workout plan in this video/blogpost is suitable for beginners but in the next video(s)/blogposts I’ll share an intermediate and a more advanced gymnastic-ring workout plan as well. For a complete novice, the recommended workout frequency for this plan is three times per week. Ideally, alternate your strength workouts with at least one day of rest. For those wondering, supplementing your off-days with a moderate cardiovascular workout (i.e. twenty to forty minutes of jogging, swimming, cycling, etc.) is also ok…
The workout plan in this blogpost is suitable for beginners but in the next videos & blogposts I’ll share an intermediate and a more advanced gymnastic-ring workout plan as well. For a complete novice, the recommended workout frequency for this plan is three times per week. Ideally, alternate your strength workouts with at least one day of rest. For those wondering, supplementing your off-days with a moderate cardiovascular workout (i.e. twenty to forty minutes of jogging, swimming, cycling, etc.) is also ok…
You’ll need an interval timer which you can download for free on your phone. You can find my favorite one here for android and here for apple. Set four sets for your total exercises per round, thirty seconds as your work interval and fifteen seconds as your rest interval. In total, you’ll be doing three rounds with two to three minutes rest in between. Let’s have a look at the exercises…
Inverted rows, Wall sits, Push-ups (incline for beginners) and the Hollow body… these are the best-bang-for-your-buck bodyweight exercises to invest in as a beginner when you only have a set of gymnastic rings at your disposal. Let’s have a look at each exercise separately.
INVERTED ROWS
Inverted rows are a great back and arm exercise. If you spend a lot of time sitting hunched on a desk, over a computer screen this is a must-do exercise for improving your musculoskeletal health and posture. Place your feet in an angle that allows you to perform the exercise with proper form but also challenges you enough during the last ten seconds of each set. Keep your glutes squeezed and your core braced (pull your belly button a bit inside) at all times. This will help you maintain your body in a straight light line. Keep your shoulders back & down, your elbows close to you ribs (scapular retraction and depression) and go all the way up until the rings touch the sides of your chest.
WALL-SITS
Find something to lean against, either that’s a wall, a post or a tree. Try to see if you can hold a 30-second wall-sit at a ninety-degree knee angle. If you can’t, increase the angle of your knee a bit. You can increase the time of this station up to a minute. Once you can hold a wall sit for a minute, start experimenting with single leg wall sits. Try to hold 15-20 seconds per leg in the beginning and build it up again. Keep your shoulders relaxed and try to also have your back flat against the surface you’re leaning on.
Push-ups
For a beginner, doing thirty seconds of flat-on-the-ground push-ups is not possible. So, find an incline angle you can perform push-ups on with good form for thirty seconds. Use a pavement, a bench or anything you can lean against safely. Once again, keep your glutes activated and your core braced (pull your belly button a bit inside) at all times. Keep your shoulders back & down and your elbows close to your ribs (scapular retraction and depression). Usually we recommend that you try to go all the way down during every rep. For people with tight shoulders this might not be healthy option and therefore we recommend you go down until you feel a slight stretch in your chest and then push up again.
Hollow body
This is the best abdominal exercise one can do with zero use of equipment, yet a few people are familiar with it. Done with bad technique it will feel like a piece of cake. Do it right though and your whole body will shake like a leaf. Lay on your back and bring your legs up at a ninety-degree angle. Press your lower back against the floor. Start lowering your legs slowly while maintaining your lower back flat on the ground. Once you find an angle that challenges you (you’ll start to shake a bit), maintain that angle for thirty seconds. If you feel your lower back coming of the ground, move your legs a bit higher again.
I like placing a band beneath my trainees’ lower back which I pull while they’re executing the exercise. If the band moves, it means that they’re not pressing hard or that they have to lift the legs a bit higher to perform the exercise properly. If you feel the exercise is not working your legs, try this with a friend!
Let’s get started
Press the start button on your interval timer and get set for inverted rows. Do thirty seconds of good-form reps and make sure that the level of difficulty you’re using in each exercise is challenging enough (this takes a bit of trial and error in the beginning, but you’ll figure it out). Once the thirty seconds are over, use your resting time to slowly walk to your next station and to get ready to perform the next exercise. After each circuit set, rest for 90 to 120 seconds and repeat it two more times.