I have long been a proponent of gymnastics rings and their efficacy for building strength and muscle.  I wrote an unpopular Ode to Rings and wrote previously about some inferior rings that I once believed in.

I felt a little like a smoker who told other people that smoking was bad, except I was sort of the opposite, because I told everyone rings were good, but I didn’t have any myself.

I put that hypocrisy behind me when I finally ordered a pair of rings from Amazon.com.

Consequently, I have also put behind me, deep into the forgettable past, my upper body’s weaknesses, my inability to comfortably suspend myself in a dip position for long periods of time, my lack of balance and control on unstable surfaces, and my undefined chest and abs.

All those things are done away with.  Two yellow rings are now dangling before me, three times a week, lifting my body off the ground, away from weakness and imbalance.

The Nayoya Gymnastics rings, dangling in paradise.

Nayoya Rings

I have always been an intelligent shopper, and before making a purchase, I will read many reviews of a product, even if the time wasted in researching a product far outways the cost.  With the Nayoya Gymnastics Rings, I was lucky.  They really stood out to me on Amazon.com because of their high search ranking, five star customer rating, and their yellow color.

The strap and buckle are quite easy to set up and adjust.

Each of the five stars is will deserved.  The Nayoya rings are made of PVC plastic, which is the same sort of thing that PVC pipes are made of, except that these rings aren’t hollow.  This plastic isn’t the smushy type that feels like it’s bending when you hang from them; it’s the type that clangs together almost as loud as metal, and would shatter before it tore.

One person on the helpful Amazon customer review site even said that they ran over the rings with their car one day, by accident, and the rings suffered no apparent harm.  In fact, they would support the downward pressure of two tons.

The straps are easy to connect and adjust.  I use the rings outside.  To keep the rings and straps from getting baked by the sun, I take them down at the end of every use.  They only take a minute each to put back up.

One Negative Point

The only reason why I would say these rings are not the best is because the plastic is rather smooth and, when sweaty, can get slick.  It’s difficult to do muscle-ups on these rings if your wrists are sweaty at all.  To fix this, you’d have to circle some athletic tape around an arc of the ring.

If you don’t want to tape your rings and you still want to do muscle ups, then you’ll probably have to buy some expensive wooden rings.  Good luck justifying a $100 purchase for a pair of rings!

That’s why I just bought a pair of inexpensive Nayoya Rings, for only about $40 at Amazon.com, even with free shipping!

The box used to house the rings during transport.