Ring Fly

What is Ring Fly:

The Ring Fly is a bodyweight chest isolation exercise using gymnastic rings, similar to the dumbbell and pec machine fly exercises commonly performed in gyms. It involves performing mostly only shoulder adduction— bringing your arms towards the midline of your body— without much engagement from your shoulders and triceps. Using gymnastic rings allows flexibility in your exercise selection and easily isolates the pectoralis major in your bodyweight training.

Key Benefits:

  • Size and Strength: Works primarily the pectoralis major, promoting muscle growth and strength improvement.
  • Joint Stability: Enhances shoulder, elbow, and wrist stability by engaging supporting muscles throughout the movement, contributing to joint health and injury prevention.
  • Core Activation: Requires core engagement to maintain stability and control throughout the movement, contributing to core strength and stability.
  • Functional Strength: Improves shoulder adduction strength and overall fitness, improving your performance in daily activities and sports.
  • Versatile and Scalable: This can be performed with or without added resistance and can be modified in terms of body positioning to adjust difficulty, making it adaptable for all fitness levels.
  • Convenience and Portability: With just gymnastics rings or suspension straps, you have the freedom to train anywhere and adjust the intensity as desired.

Variations:

  • Standard Push-up: A foundational bodyweight pushing exercise performed on a flat surface, working the pec major and triceps.
  • Wide Push-up: A push-up variation performed by placing the hands wider than shoulder-width apart, biasing the pec major.
  • Narrow Push-up: A push-up variation performed by placing the hands shoulder-width apart and biasing the triceps.
  • Ring Push-up: Performing the push-up on rings or straps, in turn, works the triceps and front delts and requires more stabilization work due to the instability of using these pieces of equipment.
  • Weighted Ring Fly: Increase the intensity by adding resistance with a weight vest or a backpack.

How to perform Ring Fly:

  • Setup: Hang the rings or straps at an appropriate height where you can perform the movement with proper form and preferred intensity.
  • Starting Position: Grasp the rings or straps with an overhand grip, palms facing inward. Lean forward on the rings as you need and prefer, and adjust your body position accordingly. Maintain scapular depression and protraction, and engage your core muscles.
  • Execution: Initiate the movement by lowering yourself between the rings and simultaneously placing the rings out to your sides until your upper arms are straight out or slightly before it. Hold this position briefly, then return to the starting position using only your pecs and without changing elbow positioning.
  • Repetition: Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Breathing Technique:

Proper breathing is crucial for maximizing performance and maintaining stamina throughout the exercise. Experiment with what you're comfortable with and let you perform your best. For starters, you can try the following:

  • Inhale: Inhale at the starting position.
  • Exhale: Exhale at the top/starting position.
  • Rings Height: Adjust the straps to a level where you can properly perform the exercise within the 4-8 rep range or whatever rep range you prefer.
  • Elbows Bent: The degree of elbow flexion (bend) doesn't matter much. So, feel free to experiment with varying degrees of elbow flexion. Focus on finding a comfortable position that doesn't hinder your performance in training the pecs.
  • Eliminating Grip: Since the degree of elbow flexion is an insignificant part of the exercise and the most important part is shoulder adduction, you can experiment with various ways to do the exercise. For instance, you can put the lower extremities of your upper arm (just above the elbows) into the straps and perform the exercise with it without interference from your forearms and wrists in case they become a limiting factor in your performance.
  • Scapular Engagement: Maintain scapular depression while allowing your scapula to protract at the top/starting position and retract at the bottom.
  • Shoulder Rotation: Maintain shoulder external rotation for better stability throughout the exercise.
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    Additional Information:

    Ways to make it easier:

    • Focusing only on the Concentric or Eccentric phase
    • Doing it on a more inclined position / higher ring placement
    • Doing it with a bent elbow
    • Decreasing the Range of Motion - partial reps, only go as far as you can handle
    • Using external force for support - resistance bands, a partner, or something
    • Regressing to an easier variation/exercise

    Ways to make it harder:

    • Playing with the Tempo & adding an Isometric phase (pause/hold)
    • Doing it on a more declined position / lower ring placement
    • Keeping your arms straight
    • Progress to a harder variation/exercise