How to Improve Your Ring Dips

By JOEL TOLEDANO

What exactly are ring dips and why should we do them? If you have struggled through a WOD like “Elizabeth” that involves lots of ring dips, you have probably asked yourself this very question (though in somewhat saltier language!). Learn how to improve your ring dips and gain a new appreciation for what gymnasts do every day, too.

What are ring dips?

Performing a ring dip with a full range of motion directly transfers to your ability to do muscle-ups.

Let’s start from the beginning. The ring dip exercise is the standard dip, performed on gymnastics rings, and has long been a staple compound exercise in many gymnasts’ routines. As with all dips, the shoulder must dip below the top of the elbow at the bottom of the dip (elbows should be at least at a 90 degree angle); elbows must be fully extended at the top of each dip with the rings pulled in close to the body.

Ring dips are quite a bit more challenging than bar dips because rings are extremely unstable, thus demanding the utilization of numerous stabilizer muscles in your core and shoulders. Not surprisingly,  this goes a long way in building core strength and preventing injury. They are ideal for working the triceps, chest and shoulder muscles in one maneuver rather than working any one muscle group in isolation.

Keep in mind — especially when trying to rep out large sets of ring dips — that ring dips arenot ab crunches: proper range of motion in a ring dip means the shoulders have moved below the elbows, and the height of the hips has changed dramatically. If your hips do not drop with each rep, you might be doing a “crunch”—and your “ring dips” will not help much when you are doing (or developing) muscle-ups, as this CrossFit Journal video highlights:

Why should I bother doing ring dips?

The determination and strength it takes to overcome the instability of the rings takes the exercise to another level beyond standard bar dips, which alone require solid foundational gymnastic strength. It feels like every upper body muscle is called into play to help stabilize and control the movement; using the rings to perform dips really targets any weaknesses in the lats and chest.

What tips & techniques can I use to get better at ring dips?

When in doubt, go back to your gymnastics fundamentals. Check out Carl Paoli’s video on GymnasticsWOD, where he lays out the following key facets of a proper ring dip: 

If you are not yet strong enough for ring dips, apply all of these gymnastics principles to your bar dips, or use a band for assistance on either apparatus.

• Start in the support position with the elbows locked and hands turned out
• Emphasize a long neck and hollow body position
• Initiate the dip by sending the shoulder forward
• Reach the bottom of the dip with your shoulder below the elbow (just like proper squat position with the hip below knee)
• Press back up and finish in the same strong support position in which you started

Also directly from the world of gymnastics, TrainingRings.com has some good tips on performing proper ring dips. To perform the ring dip you should set the rings to a height where your feet will not touch the ground between repetitions. In the support position, you suspend your body above the rings with your arms straight.

Now lower your body down by bending at the elbows and by keeping your shoulders close to your sides. Keep the movement steady and controlled — you should try to achieve a full range of motion by taking your shoulders down until they almost touch your hands. Once at the bottom of the move simply push your body back up to the starting position.

Additionally, check out this video from CrossFit Rockwall for excellent tips and advice on ring dips:

• Work on your ring support every chance you get to build strength
• Keep the rings close to your body throughout the movement
• Push your chest forward and your elbows back as you lower into the dip

If it is flexibility — and not strength — that makes ring dips and similar movements like push-ups difficult, your shoulder mobility may be holding you back from performing a proper ring dip.  Skip ahead to minute 2:15 of this MobilityWOD video from Kelly Starrett to see how to prep your shoulder for a strong dip position.

Progressions and scaling to build up to ring dips

Practicing static holds on the rings at the top of the dip position is a great way to build up strength.

Chris Spealler of CrossFit Park City lays out a simple scaling progression in this video. He starts first with the support position, then moves to negative reps (“think pockets to armpits”), then jumping ring dips from the bottom of the negative rep, before slowly putting it together in one movement.

Many people find the ring dip difficult — if not unachievable — when just starting out.

Gymnastics protocols recommend first mastering the support position, which is essentially the starting position of a ring dip.

The support position involves holding your body weight while stationary above the rings, with your arms straight. When you can hold this for over twenty seconds, try introducing partial dips and gradually increase the range of motion as you get stronger until you can do full dips.

CrossFit Rockwall offers some good tips on scaling the ring dips to your ability: 

Need to scale up? Try weighted dips with a vest or dipping belt. You can also practice wide grip dips for a bigger challenge.

• If you don’t have rings, or do not feel comfortable with them yet, bench dips are a great place to start
• Bench dips provide a stable platform while you are required to push less weight than a full dip
• You can bend your knees at a 90 degree angle to use your legs for additional assistance, or simply keep your legs straight for more of a challenge

Another good technique for building up to ring dips is to use bands for assistance in the movement as detailed in this video from Jeff Tucker of GSX Athletics. 

Advanced ring dip moves

Try some of these advanced moves courtesy of FitStream with weights once you have mastered the standard ring dip:

Adding additional weight to your ring dips is a very effective way of increasing the exercise intensity and maximizing development. Please note that weighted ring dips should only be attempted when fully competent with standard dips, and you should start small and incrementally add weight.

Try the following ways of adding weight to your ring dips:

• A weighted vest is a simple and versatile way of adding weight to ring dips. The great thing about weighted vests is that they’re comfortable and evenly distribute the weight over your body.
• A dipping belt can be used to attach weight plates to your waist and control the amount of added resistance
• Wide dip – much more difficult but effective training technique to build up to the Iron Cross.

Gymnastics progressions are another way to increase the difficulty of ring dips as well as your proficiency with them, and this video shows many of them in action:

By performing full range of motion on the dip and taking the move as low as you can go, you will find this will greatly help you to develop the shoulder strength and flexibility to perform a muscle-up.

Another variation on the standard ring dip described above is the wide dip. This is carried out in the same way as the standard dip except the arms are moved out from the body to the sides. This will greatly increase the difficulty of the exercise but by mastering the wide ring dip and being able to perform it in a slow, controlled manner will stand you in good stead for progressing to the advanced iron cross exercise.