Tutorial on how to improve & strengthen the Iron Cross on rings. Instagram / nilemw Twitter / nilemw Facebook / nilewilsongy… SnapChat - nilewilson Website www.nilewilson.com/ Music / wrighteousmusic
Love what you're doing with these videos as ever man, but I'm not sure I 100% agree about the point you made about getting up and trying it being the best way to progress. I think attempting a full bodyweight cross when you're not physically ready can be pretty dangerous, I found this out the hard way just over a year ago when I attempted a cross I was not ready for and partially tore a tendon on the inside of my elbow. I think once you're getting quite close to it, there's no better way to work towards it than attempt after attempt, but it's important to emphasise the amount of basic ground work that would go into it before getting to that point. Just my opinion, maybe I'm a one off and it's actually a fairly safe to skill to attempt :P I'm interested to see what you and the other viewers think x
+Nath Comber Thanks for the support mate... I totally agree & you should already have a good ground work of strength before even training this skill. I should have emphasised it more in the video, thanks for the feedback... A good warm up for the shoulders & elbows is theraband elastic work
do you think beginner should internal rotate their shoulder because when I felt a lot of the stress going to my bicep tendon then my elbow joint and I feel am getting lower to the cross and I just not strong enough to hold it yet and false grip feels okaii it feels different
@@JackaaRetsej start with pressure at the elbow, then slowly move it fudther up your forearm, add a little weight to yourself, if youre stuck at one point
love it! I have been training for the cross for some time now, and i will definietly try these exercises out on tonights training! Are there any prerequesites ?
I have a real question! Is it possible for tall people 190cm/6'3 to perform all these amazing moves such as planches + levers + Iron cross + hefesto etc.?
Look up fitness faq, Dominik sky, and Tom Merrick on RU-vid. They're all over 6'. Only Dominik has done the cross from what I've seen, but they all do planche and front lever
It's probably possible to 2m+ guys too. If something is possible regards to physics, then it is possible to do even if enormous strength is needed. Being taller or heavier just means it takes more time.
10/10 for your awesome video. I am doing this for my own goals. I have been working 5 months already. Would please please tell me how many sets/reps do you recommend for each day. Low intensity high reps/volume or high intensity low volume?
THanks for this cool video. I'm actually not a gymnast, but I've worked on the Ircon Cross a lot in a crossfit gym and I finally managed a solid cross after 4 months or so...
+xzotic92 to be fair, I had been doing strength training before I started to train for the iron cross. Furthermore, I worked for the cross multiple hours a day. Due to joint pain however, I had to rest and couldn't do it since then...
Hi Nile, so I'm on Looped Rings 1 moving to Looped Rings 2 but I'm getting forearm bruising. What do you use in the video to cover the forearm from the straps?
Nice Video, i'm working on mine at the moment. I was a lot closer than I thought I think having a double bodyweight dip and 1.7x bodyweight chin ups and the ability to do weighted muscle ups really helped me. I think a strong foundation and good tenson and ligament strength is a must. Although i'm no gymnast so might disagree :)
Renaissance Fitness were you ever able to do the iron cross in the end? And do you have any tips for weighted chins progression because I keep stalling at around 30kg added
@@TheRedmurk0 3 years late but you need to stick to a certain rep range and never change that. For example, 3 sets of 6 reps. Lets say you can do that with 25kg at the moment. Next time you train, make that 26kg. There should be at least 1 rest day between sessions though. I guarantee you will keep adding weight forever with this program. If you're not able to complete a session with a certain weight, train with the same weight next session, and you will definitely succeed on that one. Then raise it by 1kg next time. Good luck!
Nile, I love your videos you are amazing at gymnastics and so talented I've been watching you on tv at the Rio olympics ! One question does it ever feel like your arm will pop out of their sockets when you are on the. Rings as it looks so painful ! Xx
Lil .miles If you overtrain the skill it can however as long as you are training it safely it doesn't hurt. Younger teenagers and children may struggle to learn the cross as it may cause pain in the elbow tendons.
Do you consider having additional shoulder work a must? All gymnasts have massive shoulders so I think it could be a great help while attempting the Iron Cross.
Damn dude you're awesome! I started my road to the cross only just yesterday but I can definitely feel that it's the right muscles in my upper body I've hit from the soreness today. All the best, looking forward to see more videos from you! Also damn you're a handstand beast. I'll get there too some day! :-)
@@masculineman123 all is good, they're great my kids. I am managing to do some decent muscle ups without much kipping as well as dragon flags, so even though I do not have that much mass my 1-2 trainings per week are still doing wonders, so all good🙂
Hi! Do i have to train Iron Cross everyday? or not? i train iron cross about 3 times a week... what do you think bout´' that Nile ? ... should i train cross more days? like 4 or 5? Greetings XP!!
Thanks a lot for the video, you keep me motivated for training more and i hope i can compete against you one day, i have a question for you and i hope you can remember it but how many hours did you train a day when you were 15 years old?
Hi Nile ! I started working on the cross only recently :D I am able to do it with the straps (without the foam) on the rings but It ain't easy :) I was wondering if you thought it could be possible for me to manage to do it before summer 2018 if I worked hard ? Or will it take me several years?
Hey, to start off with, I'm not a gymnast and what you do as well as how hard you've worked to get to that point is brilliant. I was wondering if you could give me a few pointers really, I've worked relatively hard doing cardio based exercises for nearly 2 years which isn't really a long time(Which in a sense has paid off, but not as well as I want it to)... I'm trying to develop my muscles to handle most bodyweight positions such as a planche (Simple for you but an aspiration of mine). I know that it will take a long time and persistence to achieve, it's not going to happen overnight, but I'm having problems with my chest which I believe to be holding me back. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, I've tried doing dips which I've read are good for the chest but after doing 7-8 my sternum area hurts a lot and when it happened the first time, It hurt to breath etc. Wasn't difficult, just hurt. I don't really want to push through chest based exercises if it's going to tear muscles etc. as I know it's not what I'm supposed to be feeling :P I don't want to spend my time doing a varied set of exercises to find out that my chest muscles have fallen behind restricting future improvements on other muscle groups. I have a fairly weak chest, but was wondering what I can do to slowly but surely improve the strength. I'm not sure if there's an injury to my sternum or chest muscles at all but anything involving mainly chest muscles are nearly impossible for me to do. If you've read this, I'm sorry I've written so much, you probably get this on an hourly basis. Thanks...
+YoloFitness The elbows should be fully locked out on pretty much every rings strength skill. Most gymnastics strength skills are done with straight arms. That means planche, handstand, handstand press, maltese, cross, etc. Make sure you properly prepare your elbows, because unless specific work has been put into straight arm strength, you will injure yourself attempting these harder skills. Straight arm strength puts a lot of stress on your tendons which adapt at 1/10 of the rate muscle does. So take your time, start off with the basics, and build your way up to harder moves. Planche lean and tuck planche are a great place to start building straight arm strength.
Sol Hermelin ok, but is this just because that's the nature of the sport gymnastics, like because of the rating system? I mean if the norm is to have fully locked elbows otherwise you will get bad rating, then ofc you wanna train the skill to get the highest rating as possible. but I'm not in the sport of gymnastics involved, calisthenics/SW I'm doing for a hobby, so I wanna reach skills as fast/efficient as possible but at the same time it should look good, so if I wanna learn planche then I could learn it faster with bent-elbows BUT I don't find that very appealing and straight arms is what I personally prefer for this skill, same goes for the FL which I also would like to have a form with straight arms (which is harder for me, but I rather spent more time to learn it straight arms because it's more appealing to me), so those are my personal values in a sense But for other skills like Iron Cross, doing it without complete locked out elbows is appealing to me too, I don't see much difference there (a true gymnast probalby does, but I'm not one).. and bent arms is muuuch easier while holding iron cross, so for me it would make sense holding the skill not locked out and would be more efficient because I can learn the skill faster and I think it still looks appealing without lockout so what do you think about this? and what are the pros and cons in the health aspect? btw, if have a video on my channel where I showed my Iron Cross progress, I made pretty fast progress but with bend arms, if you like you can give your opinion on it, I haven't training it since the upload of the video but I wanna start again
YoloFitness It is partially because bent arms are a deduction in gymnastics, but it's also for injury prevention. So as you've said, bent arms makes any movement much easier. It's better leverage. So easier means less strength gains, which in my opinion is kind of like cheating. Also, I personally want to build as much strength as possible, not just learn movements. But that's just me, you could see it differently. In a pro and con point of view, here's how it is. You will build less strength with bent elbows. You won't strengthen your tendons, so you're at risk of injury. You'll think you're stronger than you are because you can do a bent arm cross but it's truly a completely different skill from a straight arm cross. Many people (such as myself) won't consider it a real cross, however, many will. On the other hand, you'll accomplish it much faster. You'll still gain some decent strength. And it will feel good to get. As for the risk for injury. If you ever accidentally straighten your arms or attempt harder straight arm movements, you will most likely tear a tendon. The tendons in your bicep and chest must be strategically adapted to the strains of serious straight arm work. That means lot's of straight arm ring supports RTO (rings turned out) and other exercises. It will take longer, but you will be stronger and injury free, if you are patient. In my personal opinion, I think any straight arm skill just looks wrong with bent elbows. I hate bent arm crosses. However, that's just me. I checked out your video. You made some great strength! It's significantly easier than a real cross though, and you are in no way ready for a real cross. I can tell because of how you can't lock out at the top. So, if you want a real cross, I suggest taking a step back to strengthen your tendons and make sure you have good mobility to prevent injury. It's really all up to you. I really suggest training it with straight arms, but you can do as you please. You could do it with bent arms and be fine every time. You could also be unlucky and hurt yourself. I really don't know, all I know is that the correct way to learn a cross is with straight arms.
Sol Hermelin wow, thank you so much, I really appreciate your reply ! and another question, I have not really any thoughts on that though: what's the difference between biceps facing downward, forward/horizonta or upwards? pros cons? (internal/external rotation) and this also affects the shoulder position and maybe also protraction/retraction?
YoloFitness For sure! Any time! Great question, actually! It's really personal preference, I prefer having my biceps facing downward. Basically, biceps facing down rolls your shoulder forward and puts more emphasis on your chest. I've heard this is better for cross presses and connecting cross movements, but I have no experience myself so I'm not sure. Keeping it forward is more neutral and uses more of your back. Having your biceps facing upwards isn't anything I know of existing, that would force you to keep your arms locked with your triceps.
Of course, but is it possible to make them stronger to hold that position? A friend of mine told me that archer push ups might help it. I've been doing calisthenics for some time and recently moved to rings, but I don't know too much about gymnastics.
João Girardi try straight arms hold like the hold on p bars with the elbows facing outwards then you will probably have enough tendon and shoulder strength to do the supported iron cross wich liam showed and then walk your way unassisted ic
Let me tell you Iron Cross is so incredibly difficult.ll And hear the cliche question,, As martial artist they ask you if you can break a board , has a magician they ask you can you pull a rabbit out of a hat and when it comes with still rings they ask the million-dollar question , can you do a iron cross.ll people, gymnastics is not for sissies.ll
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