Scaling the Pull-Up With Ring Rows

For those clients who don’t yet have upper-body strength, the ring row is a good scaling exercise for the pull-up, Julie Barnes Maurer says in this Gymnastics Trainer Course. Immediately putting them on the bar isn’t a good idea, much less having them kip, she emphasizes.

When performing the ring row, “really think about engaging your lats … I don’t want all the stress to be on your elbow and your biceps,” Maurer says.

Maintaining the hollow-body position with the abs engaged is important.

To put it into practice, attendees partner up to spot ring rows. Afterward, they spot ring rows with the athlete’s feet on a box.

Maurer explains that the rings rows prepare the body for the kind of load that comes with pull-ups.

“All of these things are improving the strength for the movement to do your strict pull-ups and chin-ups on the bar,” she says. “And it’s also getting all these little connective tissues and things ready for that kind of movement because that stuff isn’t just ready to go all the time.”

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Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Episode 211 by Justin Judkins, published Feb. 15, 2012.