Metolius Rock Rings 3D Review

Have you ever found yourself going on holiday or on a business trip and you can’t train for two weeks? Metolius have the answer with the Rock Rings 3D. Only weighing two kilograms for a set, these can easily fit into your suitcase.

A recent business trip provided me with the ideal opportunity to test the latest incarnation of the Rock Ring, the Rock Rings 3D. I was staying with some friends who were happy for me to suspend the rings, using a sling threaded over the branch of a tree in their back garden.

The first thing I noticed when using the rings is that exercises are a bit harder, due to the movement of the rings. This movement forces you to use your stabilising muscles to a greater degree than a finger board, which can be no bad thing. The best comparison would be between using free weights in a gym instead of a machine.

The Rock Rings are beautifully made with no irregularities or surfaces that can damage your skin. The fine texture and curved surfaces offers excellent grip, whilst causing no obvious skin wear. Although skin wear isn’t usually an issue when doing exercises such as dead hanging, a poor hold design can tear at your calluses when doing sustained power endurance work on the holds.

The Rock Rings have four different holds, which caters for a variety of different abilities and exercises. These are a large jug on the top, a deep incut four finger pocket, a four finger flat edge and a three finger pocket.

The Rock Rings come with a really useful user guide. I decided to put myself to the test and try some of the exercises Metolius supplied with the Rock Rings, as well as do some of my own. I started with some pullups on the jugs and finger holds and some double handed deadhangs on the larger holds. Once warmed up I adjusted the Rock Rings so one Rock Ring was two feet lower than the other and did some offset pullups. The independent nature of the rock rings make this exercise really easy to setup.

Doing one arm deadhangs and negatives I found a lot harder on the rings than a finger board. I normally use my other hand to steady myself during the hang or lower. Due to the rotational nature of the rings I wasn’t able to do this. It may well have highlighted the fact that I just need to get stronger!

I have been working through progressions towards a full front lever. The jugs on the Rock Rings were ideally suited to this exercise. The fact that the rings were suspended below a tree also gave me plenty of clearance.

The power endurance training on the Rock Rings worked really well. Using the smallest hand holds and my feet on a step ladder, I hung from both hands for five seconds, removed one hand and did a pullup for three seconds and then returned my hand for five seconds. I kept repeating this with alternate arms for two minutes, rested for five minutes and repeated twice. The end result was a total body pump.

The final exercises I used the Rock Rings for didn’t really fit with the original design purpose, but seemed to work very well. Using some climbing cord, I was able to replicate some of the exercises used in sling training. Not quite as advanced or as easy to adjust as the real thing, but I was still able to do some of the basic exercises, such as flys, suspended pushups, suspended leg raises and rotational leg raises.

By the time I had finished I felt like I had a full body workout. On one very portable piece of equipment I had managed to train my fingers, strength, core, power endurance and antagonist muscles.

The Rock Rings 3D retail around £45 and I would certainly recommend them if you don’t have anywhere to mount a finger board or find yourself travelling and in need of that one vital piece of training equipment.