Ring Push-Ups: Sculpt Your Chest, Arms, and Core Effectively

When it comes to getting in shape, many people think complicated workouts and diets are the way to go. They believe the more complex a method is, the more effective it will be. This is not always the case.

In contrast, and based on my experience as a 30-year veteran personal trainer, I believe that simple workouts and diets often produce better results.

Why?

Because simple usually means easier to stick to.

Complex workouts and diets are fine, but only if you do them consistently enough for them to work their magic.

That’s why I’m such a massive fan of the basics of fitness and health. The basics have stood the test of time and are easy to integrate into even the busiest lifestyles.

Consequently, push-ups are my go-to exercise for upper-body conditioning. They’re accessible and adaptable, and studies suggest that the humble push-up can be just as effective as bench presses for building muscle and strength (1). Plus, you can do them anywhere and anytime, making them the perfect excuse-free workout.

In this article, I discuss ring push-ups, which are one of my favorite push-up variations.

Ring Push-Ups Correct Form  

Get the most from ring push-ups while minimizing your risk of injury by following these step-by-step instructions:

1. Adjust your rings so they are a few inches above the floor. The straps should be roughly shoulder-width apart.
2. Squat down and grip the bottom of each ring, palms facing inward.
3. Brace your core and engage your shoulders.
4. With straight arms and neutral wrists, walk your feet out and back so your body is straight.
5. Bend your arms and lower your shoulders down between your rings. Descend as far as your mobility and shoulder health permit.
6. Extend your arms and press yourself back up until your arms are straight but not locked.
7. Continue for the desired number of repetitions.

Ring Push-Ups: Muscles Worked

Ring push-ups are a compound upper-body exercise. As such, they involve multiple muscles and joints working together. The main muscles targeted by ring push-ups are:

• Pectoralis major
• Triceps brachii
• Deltoids
• Core
• Rotator cuff

Pro-Trainer Tips

Get more from ring push-ups with these tried-and-tested pro-trainer tips!

Keep your entire body tense: Ring push-ups are more than an upper-body exercise! Doing them correctly requires full-body tension. Brace all your major muscles at the start of each set for maximal stability and optimal exercise performance.

Adjust the length of the straps: Make ring push-ups easier by shortening the straps and raising the height of your rings. The increased incline reduces the weight on your hands.

Try decline ring push-ups: Increase the difficulty of ring push-ups by doing them with your feet raised. This puts more weight on your arms for a more challenging workout.

Incorporate pauses into your workout: Pause for 2-3 seconds at the bottom of each rep. Doing so increases time under tension and reduces the effect of the stretch-shortening reflex, making your workout more demanding.

Try turning your rings outward: Some calisthenic athletes and gymnasts advocate turning your wrists out at the top of each rep of ring push-ups. While this doesn’t really affect the muscles worked, some people find that turning the rings out increases stability and wrist, elbow, and shoulder comfort.

Ring Push-Up Mistakes to Avoid

Make ring push-ups as safe as possible by avoiding these common mistakes:

Letting your hips drop: Dropping your hips out of alignment increases the stress on your lower back. Make sure your legs, hips, and shoulders form and maintain a straight line. Keep your core braced to maintain alignment.

Hyperextending your shoulders: Getting a stretch in your pecs may enhance muscle growth (2). However, descending too deeply could hurt your shoulders. Take care not to hyperextend your shoulders at the bottom of each rep.

Not stabilizing the rings: Part of the challenge of ring push-ups is controlling the rings and preventing unwanted movement. Make sure you stabilize the rings before you start your set.

Losing full-body tension: Tense your quadriceps, glutes, core, shoulders, and arms during each and every rep. Think of your body as a plank or bench – strong and rigid. Losing tension could lead to injury.

Ring Push-Up Benefits

Not sure if ring push-ups deserve a place in your workouts? Consider these benefits and then decide.

Versatility

Ring push-ups can be adapted to suit a range of abilities. Shortening the straps and raising the rings makes them easier. In contrast, lengthening the strap or raising your feet makes them much more demanding. Subsequently, you can adapt this versatile exercise to make it as hard or as easy as necessary.

Increased Challenge

Conventional push-ups are an excellent exercise, but if you can do 20-30 or more reps, they probably aren’t challenging enough to do much for your fitness. Ring push-ups are considerably more demanding than regular push-ups, making them a great way to increase the difficulty of your workouts.

Variety

We have a saying in fitness: If you always do what you have always done, you’ll always get what you have always got. In other words, if you want to change your body, you must change your workouts. Adding ring push-ups to your chest workouts allows you to hit your muscles in a whole new way, stimulating new muscle growth.

Develop your stability

Stabilizing your joints is critical for injury prevention and sports performance. The more stable your joints are, the less likely they are to move out of their natural range of motion. Ring push-ups are a great way to develop shoulder, elbow, and wrist stability, strengthening and bulletproofing these joints.

Ring Push-Up Alternatives

While standard ring push-ups are an excellent exercise, that doesn’t mean you have to do them all the time. Here are three exercises that affect your muscles in a similar way and that you can use to keep your workouts interesting and productive.

1. Chaos Push-Ups

Rings aren’t the only way to introduce instability to your push-ups. You can achieve a similar effect with a strong resistance band. This exercise will make your arms shake so much that you’ll think you’re doing push-ups in an earthquake!

Steps:

1. Tie a strong resistance band between the uprights of a power rack.
2. Grip the band with an overhand, shoulder-width grip, and adopt the push-up position.
3. Bend your arms and lower your chest to the band. Shaking is inevitable, but do your best to control the wobbling.
4. Push yourself back up and repeat.
5. Adjust the band height according to your strength; raise it to make the exercise easier, or lower it to make it harder.

2. Ring Archer Push-Ups

Archer push-ups shift your weight onto one hand, overloading that side of your body. This is an excellent exercise for anyone who wants to build muscle and strength with push-ups but doesn’t want to use a weighted vest.

Steps:

1. Set your rings to about knee height.
2. Grip the rings and walk your feet back so your body is straight.
3. Bend one arm and push your other arm out to the side.
4. Descend until your chest is between your hands.
5. Push up, pull your other arm in, and return to the starting position.
6. Alternate arms rep by rep.

1. Shorten the strap or rest on your knees to make this exercise easier.

3. Medicine Ball Push-Ups

No gymnastic rings? No problem! You can challenge your chest and stabilizers another way – with medicine balls. This is an excellent option for home workouts where you may not have an overhead ring anchor available.

Steps:

1. Put two medicine balls on the floor, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Place your hands on the top of each ball and walk your feet back so your legs, hips, and shoulders are straight.
3. Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back.
4. Bend your arms and lower your chest down between your hands.
5. Push yourself back up and then shrug your shoulders forward at the top of the rep to activate the serratus anterior fully.
6. Reset your shoulders and repeat.

Closing Thoughts

Push-ups are an awesome exercise that should be part of almost everyone’s workouts. In terms of convenience, functionality, and effectiveness, push-ups are all but unbeatable. However, that doesn’t mean you need to limit yourself to conventional push-ups; there are many challenging push-up variations to try.

Ring push-ups are one of my favorites, and they’re a big hit with my army of personal training clients, too.

Try them – I think you’re going to like them!

References:

1. Kikuchi N, Nakazato K. Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain. J Exerc Sci Fit. 2017 Jun;15(1):37-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jesf.2017.06.003. Epub 2017 Jun 29. PMID: 29541130; PMCID: PMC5812864.
2. Warneke K, Lohmann LH, Lima CD, Hollander K, Konrad A, Zech A, Nakamura M, Wirth K, Keiner M, Behm DG. Physiology of Stretch-Mediated Hypertrophy and Strength Increases: A Narrative Review. Sports Med. 2023 Nov;53(11):2055-2075. doi: 10.1007/s40279-023-01898-x. Epub 2023 Aug 9. PMID: 37556026; PMCID: PMC10587333.

---