ELEVATED RING ROWS

The ring row is a good place to start when it comes to building strength to help with pull-ups. They help develop both the core and upper-body strength, as well as working balance and co-ordination. But where do you go when these become too easy?

Elevated Ring Rows.

The movement is exactly the same as the regular inverted ring rows with your feet on the floor, but by elevating your feet and thus making yourself more horizontal to the floor you are making the exercise more difficult. This is due to the fact that you are pulling a greater percentage of your bodyweight.

Here are some tips:

• Adjust the height of the rings so they are high enough where your back doesn’t touch the ground with your arms extended.

• Place your feet on a box or another solid immovable object.

• Hold a nice firm, straight line with your body by keeping your back and legs straight.

• Squeeze your glutes and keep your shoulders pulled back.

• Don’t let the shoulders and upper back round.

• Imagine you have a pole from your shoulders all the way through the body to your heels.

• Don’t allow your hips to sag, or your lower back to arch.

• Externally rotate your hands so your palms face inwards as you pull your chest to the rings.

• Pause at the top and then lower back to the start with control until your arms are fully extended.

• Don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement.

• Remember about scapula retraction, try not to let the shoulders round.

• Aim for 10-15 reps.

The regular inverted ring row is an often under-utilised movement, as is this elevated version. It’s certainly another exercise that many of us would do well to include in our training programs, especially if we are looking to build some upper-body pulling strength that can transfer to other more complex exercises.