The QALO Ring Review

Those of you that know me understand that I’m very minimalist in terms of what apparel I choose to wear and what I have my students wear during training. If there is one pet peeve of BRF it’s people that try to train with jewelry, clothing, and apparel that is constantly getting in their way and causing them to be distracted. I don’t tolerate this for a damn second and neither should you.

The QALO Ring…

A few weeks ago I was approached by the folks at QALO. They had an interesting request that I can say was honestly very different in terms of anything that has ever been brought to my attention. They were contacting me about launching an athletics campaign for their popular active wear wedding ring replacement and wanted the BRF stamp of approval on their product.

Now hang on because you’ve got to know what happened next. Up front I had some reservations about this because of my minimalist approach to training and wanting to have clothing that is made for abuse during training while knowing that personally jewelry has never been something that I use in my wheelhouse.

I told them about my reservations, but it didn’t stop them. Then came the challenge. Essentially they wanted to prove the durability and out of the way feel of their product to me in order to ease my doubts. They sent some samples and they said for me to test them with as much abuse as I felt was necessary and if I still wasn’t satisfied then there were no worries and no strings attached. That got my attention.

The Tests…

So the box came and I grabbed my tactical Boker knife and cut that thing open and immediately I sized up a ring to put on my left index finger. Once again I’m not yet married and I don’t wear jewelry, but you’re probably wondering coach why the left index finger?

I chose the index finger because I believe that if there is a place to wear the ring then this is the finger that would put the ring most in the way during just about every gripping movement I incorporate in order to test it to the max. The index finger is the first point of contact and is at the part of the hand where there is a great deal of rotation involving kettlebells and dumbbells with certain lifts. As far as it being worn on my left hand instead of my right that was just because of personal preference.

For the past 3 weeks I have been wearing the ring everyday and purposely pushing it to the max. The QALO ring is made of a sort of synthetic rubber material and is incredibly durable. As a matter of fact, it is so durable that I’m a bit surprised that it hasn’t been torn away from my finger, or stretched beyond all recognition so that it wouldn’t fit right on my finger.

For 3 weeks I’ve lifted heavy weight pulling deadlift after deadlift, performing kettlebell cleans, kettlebell snatches, and engaging in other lifts and movements that introduce a lot of shearing force on the hands. The type of kettlebell and barbell lifting that is done for strength and performance involves a lot of grip strength and gripping stress which I thought for sure would do in the QALO ring, but it’s still wearing strong on my left index finger as I’m sitting here typing this very article.

I took the above photo at the very end of an intense training session where I just finished my 5th set of kettlebell snatches. I used this particular inverta photo effect because it nicely highlights the wear and tear of both my kettlebell and my own hand.

If you look closely the photo highlights the scuffing and discolorations from past and present on my kettlebell handle, and with the calluses on my hand from the training. Oddly enough the ring is unscathed and if you look even closer you can even see the QALO logo of the hammer and pick icon which demonstrates their “Quality” icon in the QALO name. Well then I guess this was very fitting in my case since I just finished testing the quality of it’s durability.

There’s More…

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that obviously my specialty is in the iron game, but I am also a practitioner of the striking art of Muay Thai. To further test the QALO ring I pounded the pads and the heavy bag for 5 three minute rounds with the QALO ring fully exposed. I did this both with wrapped wrists and gloves and without wrapped wrist and gloves when hitting the heavy bag.

I wanted to hit the bag and see if the ring would be affected in any negative way whatsoever and it still held strong. Direct impact and striking didn’t seem to stress the ring in any negative way, nor did it significantly move in any undesirable way along my finger from such stress.

I will say that at certain times the ring would slide just a bit on my finger, but this was very slight and since I’m not a person that wears jewelry of any kind I’m probably more sensitive to the slightest movement on my finger anyways.

Hour after hour, day after day, and week after week I’ve been beating the hell out of this ring and it still looks brand new. Even if there were a presence of a stain, or discoloration it would immediately rub off with the introduction of a bit of water every time. I’ve washed the ring, showered with it, trained with it, and lived with it in day to day tasks and for the most part I forget that it’s even on my finger.

I was also sent other samples as well (as seen in the first photo of this article at the top) of 3 men’s and 3 women’s rings. I’ve distributed these to some other students, family, and friends that are also active and am getting back the same feedback. The QALO ring is one tough hombre.

So for a guy that doesn’t wear jewelry I think I’ll continue to enjoy wearing my QALO ring even during the most brutal training. It doesn’t hold me back and trust me if it did it wouldn’t even be an option. And to be fair I know it’s a legitimate jewelry replacement for active individuals, but I don’t solely consider the QALO ring jewelry. I mean after the hell I put it through I consider it to be a rugged and necessary training piece as well.

I’ve got to admit that the guys at QALO have impressed me. I mean for the past 15 years of being a professional strength coach I have been…and will always be adamant about my students NOT wearing accessories such as jewelry when in training.

Society has enough distractions and people don’t need more of those distractions from loose clothing and jewelry to get in the way of what needs to be done when in physical battle. Well I admit that the QALO ring doesn’t qualify as a distraction and so QALO gets a pass. As far as needing something durable that can take the place of more expensive metal jewelry the QALO has the BRF approval.

Hell, to me the test is this…Does it slow me down or hinder me in any way? The answer to this question is NO. So I’m glad I had the opportunity to test this product out in the most extreme circumstances. If you want to learn more about these check out their inventory here at QALO.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and if so drop a comment in the box below. Stay strong and keep training smart.

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