No, this is not normal. The piston once in the cylinders should only require light tapping if any to move them, and you should be able to rotate the crank with al cylinders loaded, although a large wrench may be required to turn the crank.
Check your ring grooves again, when cleaned properly you should see shinny metal at the bottom of the grooves, very important to get all the carbon out. Also check the ring gap in the cylinder as Jerry suggested being sure the ring is square in the cylinder by pushing the ring down slightly with a piston top.
You either have a build up in the piston ring grooves or the wrong rings.