I was at a rock climbing gym last night and they had a pair of gymnastic rings in the back. My buddy and I decided to go over to the rings and do some muscle ups. Soon enough, guys — and girls — were lining up one after another to try to do one but no one could manage to. One guy was barely able to but he was swinging and kipping a lot, his form was awful, and he nearly injured himself on a few attempts.
A muscle up is when you do a pull up and lift yourself over the bar into a chest-dip and lock your arms. You’ve probably seen someone do this move before. In fact, it’s a common technique used in gymnastics, so if you’ve ever watched a gymnast do their routine on the rings or the high bar, you’ve definitely seen a muscle up. When you watch a pro do muscle ups, it looks incredibly easy, but the reality is most people — even very fit individuals — cannot not do one.
If you want to be able to do muscle ups, you can’t just go for it; you must follow a clear progression.
Step 1
The first thing you will need to do is master pull ups. The first step in a proper muscle up is a good pull up, so until you can do at least one perfect pull up, you have no chance of doing a muscle up; however, you should practice pull ups until you can do at least six to eight, before moving on.
Step 2
Now that you’re a pull up pro, you have to start mastering the second half of the move: dips.You’ll need to go to a gym that has a dip bar, build your own at home, or use a pair of chairs or stools. Just like pull ups, practice dips until you can do at least six to eight with perfect form before moving on.
Step 3
Now you can do pull ups and dips, but you still can’t manage to do a muscle up. Believe it or not, the hardest part of doing a muscle up is the transition from pull up to dip. You’ll need to find a park or a gym that has pull up bars set at different heights. You’ll need a low bar, a medium bar, and a high bar. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to practice this step on a door-frame pull up bar.
Start with the lowest bar, which should be about the height of your shoulders or chin, and just work on pushing yourself up over the bar and locking your arms, and then slowly lowering yourself back down. It’s perfectly okay to jump up to help you get over the bar if you have to. Next, move on to the medium-height bar, which should be just a little higher than your head unless you’re very tall. Just like with the low bar, work on getting yourself over the bar, locking your arms, and lowering yourself back down.
Lastly, move over to the highest bar — the one you might actually have to jump up to just to grab. This time, you’ll have to jump and do a full pull up before you push yourself over the bar. You might be thinking, “well, isn’t that a muscle up?” Not quite. You’ll need to keep practicing this until you can start from a dead-hang and transition from a pull up to a dip. Once you can do about 10 reps by jumping and using your momentum to get you over the bar, you’ll want to move up to a higher bar or start attempting a muscle up from a dead-hang. You can also practice on gymnastic rings if you prefer.
