OLYMPIC RINGS


 One of my favourite pieces of equipment is the Olympic rings. A set of them would definitely be my one luxury item if I had to leave Stockport to live on a desert island. You can take them anywhere and all you need is something to hang them from. Over the last couple of years since we emerged from lockdown being able to train outdoors, I commandeered a tree in the local park and hung my Olympic rings there. The tree also provided shade in the summer and some shelter in the rain, which is another unintended added benefit, particularly with the unpredictable Manchester weather! I bought my Olympic rings from decathlon and they’re currently £24.99. They are affordable and versatile - there’s a range of exercises that can be done with Olympic rings (scroll to the end for an Olympic ring workout).

Before lockdown I was doing a lot of calisthenics and some people would be put off by it. A lot of the exercises in calisthenics are high skill movements and sometimes clients will look at these movements and doubt they would be able to perform them. For a long period of time during the pandemic gyms were closed and we didn’t have access to the same facilities and equipment. I also don’t drive so I was limited in terms of the equipment I could transport. Each day I would set the rings up on a tree in the park and showed clients how to use the Olympic rings, adapting workouts to their individual abilities and fitness goals. Some clients would do basic push and pull, isometric and static exercises on the rings.

Clients started to enjoy using this piece of equipment and some bought sets of Olympic rings and set them up at home. I would set them home workouts which they could do in their own time and as people had more time on their hands during periods of lockdown restrictions, they found it easier to maintain consistency. Consistency leads to results and from there we were able to introduce progressions which improved strength, conditioning, and skills. Many of my clients have now progressed from basic exercises such as ring rows to ring pull ups and some have even progressed to strict ring muscle ups!

It's a fantastic item that’s brought great rewards for clients who wanted to improve strength and skill. 



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