In this section, we’ve compiled some of the most common training questions for Rings One, Phase One.

Phase One FAQ

I am still having difficulty with some of the exercises in Phase One. Should I repeat it again?

We understand the feeling that you would like to “master” an exercise before moving on. However, this can be very limiting to your progress. There is a difference between working well and hard on the basics and fundamentals for further improvement, and forcing an artificial plateau on yourself.

The exercises in Phase One are meant to prepare you for what’s ahead in Phase Two, but the objective is not mastery or an arbitrary number of sets and repetitions and hold counts. The objective is to become more comfortable on the rings, improve your strength in an appropriate amount of time, and make your body ready to practice the next level of work.

There is a lot of variability in how much people progress and where they will be when the go on to the next phases. And we recognize this variability and that is built in to the range of work that is recommended throughout the program.

Don’t be afraid to move on. If you’ve been practicing well and have not skipped too many workout sessions, you are ready.

I notice that you haven’t included some exercises that I’ve seen done in other places. Why is that?

These days there is no shortage of information available to us on virtually any topic. Given the glut of resources out there, we can easily develop a tendency to assume we need to do everything (again with the “more is better” philosophy).

Rings One is not an encyclopedia of gymnastic ring exercises. One thing we do when designing programs is make decisions about which exercises to include. Equally important are the decisions we make about what not to include. The latter is often the more difficult decision, so some trainers avoid it by simply throwing in everything they can think of.

Given infinite time, infinite energy, and an infinite capacity to recover from training, it would be tempting to add in every single exercise that might provide some small benefit. But you don’t have unlimited capacity for practice, so we don’t include exercises that:

1. Don’t directly contribute to meeting the main goals of the program, or…

2. Might be useful, but aren’t as beneficial as other exercises that achieve the same outcomes more efficiently.

As a result, everything that is part of the program is essential. Do these with your full attention, striving to do each repetition as close to perfect as possible, and you’ll easily surpass the results you’d have if you tried to do it all.