Ring Elevator

Secondary muscles
Delts, Traps
Body part
Back
Position
Inverted hanging
Laterality
Bilateral (both sides together)
Category
Strength

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Rings turn scapular control into the whole exercise: hanging from free-moving straps, you raise and lower your body in small increments using shoulder blade motion rather than arm bend. Because the rings shift with every wobble, your upper back and traps get feedback a fixed bar never provides. Keep the arms straight; once the elbows bend, it becomes a row.

How to do the Ring Elevator

  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
  2. Place your hands on your hips or cross them in front of your chest.
  3. Keeping your back straight, slowly bend forward at the waist, lowering your upper body towards the ground.
  4. Pause for a moment at the bottom, then slowly raise your upper body back up to the starting position.
  5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Tip: Think of pulling the shoulders into the back pockets and holding for two seconds.

Muscles worked

Primary

Upper Back · Back

The lower traps and rhomboids pull the shoulder blades down and back, and you should feel the squeeze between the shoulder blades at the top.

Secondary

Common mistakes

  • Bending the elbows — the arms stay straight for the whole rep; the movement comes only from the shoulder blades pulling down and together.
  • Rushing the reps — pause at the top with the shoulders pulled down away from the ears for a full count before lowering.
  • Swinging the body — hang still and let the shoulder blades do the work, without any kip from the hips.

Where it fits in a workout

Scapular pulls go in the warm-up before pull-ups or as an accessory at the end of a pull session. Superset them with dead hangs on the same bar.

How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.

Variations and alternatives

Similar exercises

When to talk to someone

  • Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
  • Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
  • Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.

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More exercises

Sources

  1. ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
  2. ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
  3. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
  4. CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)

Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.

Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.