While there are many exercises you can do without the need of any equipment. You will soon come into some limitations. Finding tree branches to do pull ups off of for example can be quite inconvenient in everyday life.
So, naturally that begs the question of what single piece of equipment will provide the most bang for you buck when it comes to exercise?
Is it the humble pull up bar?
certainly not a bad option fairly cheap but as the name suggest their main use case is pull ups. What about resistance bands again another great option, highly versatile but can be fairly difficult to make exercises harder, over time. Unless you get more bands but that defeats the purpose of being 1 piece of equipment and ofc makes it more expensive so, not pull up bars, not resistance bands, dumbbells are great but costly and the same for barbells. So what's left?
Now the answer I've been building up to may surprise you, but any one who's used these in their workouts will agree...
Gymnastic rings are the most versatile bang for you back piece of equipment... Now let me tell you why. You'll find them priced around £30 for a solid wooden pair (I wouldn't recommend going for the cheap plastic kind)
They completely replace the need for a pull up bar, Meaning you can work your back with Pull Ups. You can do dips with them to work your triceps, lower them some more and you can do extended range of motion push ups to really feel your chest. Or if you advanced enough handstand push ups... or more realistically for the non elites among us, pike push ups to work your shoulder.
There's also many more creative ways to workout different muscle groups with less commonly known exercises such as, the pelican curl essentially a bodyweight bicep curl. Or body weight facepulls to target that rear delt. when it comes to leg training ill admit its harder to work them out with just rings but, I'm gonna count assisted pistol squats as an exercise you can perform with rings even if that feels like cheating a little bit.
For the price of just one piece of equipment you can workout your whole body!!!
But I'm not just gonna tell you how rings can help you and leave you empty handed... Below is a full body workout program you can do with just rings
Monday
Push (chest focused)
- Dips
- Pike Push Ups
- Extended ROM Push Ups
- Ring Flys
Tuesday
Pull
- Pull ups
- Rows
- Body Weight Bicep Curls
- Body Weight Facepulls
Wednesday
Legs
- Pistol Squats (Assisted)
- Sissy Squats (Assisted)
- Hight rep bodyweight squats (finisher)
Thursday
Push (shoulder focused)
- Pike Push Ups
- Dips
- Extended ROM Push Ups
- Body Weight Triceps Extensions
Friday
Pull
- Chin Ups/Neutral grip pull up
- Rows
- Body Weight Bicep Curls
- Body Weight Facepulls
Saturday
Legs
- Pistol Squats (Assisted)
- Sissy Squats (Assisted)
- High rep bodyweight squats (finisher)
Sunday
Rest Day
By now you should be convinced gymnastic rings are the perfect first piece of equipment for a home gym. If you'd like to stay on the same website. We offer our own pair of Sly Fitness Gymnastic rings. You can buy from us below, or I'm sure amazon probably have a pair too.
Id recommend the 32mm thickness for average/large male hands and large female, or 28mm thickness for small/average female hands and small male hands. Dw they come with the strap ;)
Much love,
The Sly Fitness Team