Muscle-Up Progression: 6 Steps to Master the Move

Unless you are already trained gymnastthe barbell muscles are one of the most difficult bodyweight movements you can try. In addition to requiring significant core resources and upper body strengthmuscles require excellent mobility, body awarenesscoordination and timing.

If you’re determined to add muscle to your gym repertoire, know that there is a right way and a wrong way to develop this skill.

• In the wrong way: Swing and slam your body repeatedly against the bar until you are tired, frustrated, and possibly injured.
• The right way: A muscular progression.

A muscle-up progression is a series of increasingly difficult movements that gradually develop your muscle-up technique while building strength. Each step of the progression includes markers indicating your willingness to move on to the next exercise in the progression.

The final step is, of course, a muscle-up performed safely with confidence and impeccable form.

Barbell Strength Training Progression in 6 Steps

Dr. John Gallucci, Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT, CEO of JAG Physiotherapyexplains that a muscle-up is actually a series of small movements linked together:

1. Kip swing
2. Knee raise
3. Leg raise
4. Bar chest pull up
5. Triceps Dip

To do a muscle-up, you must be comfortable performing each of these movements repetitively. This is where muscular progression comes into play.

Developed with input from Gallucci and Jeff Waters, registered American boxing trainer and owner of Watt performancethe next muscle progression begins at the beginner level. Depending on your gymnastics experience and current strength level, you may be able to advance.

Step 1: Hanging Knee/Leg Raise

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight (a position known as dead hanging) and your legs straight and together.
• Bend your knees to 90 degrees and raise them to hip level. Hold for a second, then return to the starting position.
• Once you are able to perform three sets of 10 repetitions, perform the same movement keeping your legs straight so that your body creates an L shape. Once you are able to perform three sets of 10 repetitions of lifts legs straight, proceed to the next step.

Advice: “Make sure you’re not swinging and using your momentum to lift your legs, and that all the work is coming from the hip flexors and core,” says Gallucci.

Step 2: Assisted Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up

• Wrap one end of a large resistance band around the pull-up bar. Grip the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and place one foot at the other end of the resistance band.
• Hang at arm’s length with your legs straight and heart And glutes engaged.
• Without swinging or jumping (using your momentum to propel yourself upward), engage your lats and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause, then lower back down to a dead point.

Advice: “Start with a thicker strip,” says Watters. “If you can make 10 full pull-upsuse a thinner strip. Over time, continue going down until you can do 10 strict pull-ups with the thinnest band. So keep going. »

Step 3: Strict Chest-to-Bar Pull

• Grasp a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly beyond shoulder-width apart.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms extended and your ankles crossed behind you.
• Without swinging or jumping, engage your core, glutes, and lats as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause, then lower back down to a dead point.
• Once you can do three sets of 10 reps, move on. But keep practicing chest-to-bar pull-ups while working on new skills.

Advice: “At this stage it is important to also work on the ‘push“feature that you use in a muscle-up,” Watters explains.

He suggests incorporating push ups into your workout plan, including leveraged push-ups, in which you lower yourself to the ground and temporarily raise your arms before pushing back toward the plank to eliminate any momentum from the movement.

“Start from the ground position to halfway up, then lower back down to the ground. It’s the hardest part of the job, that’s why we insist on it,” he says.

Step 4: Tricep Dip

• Grasp the handles of a dipping station and jump or climb to the starting position: feet off the ground, arms extended, and ankles crossed. (To make the movement easier, you can wrap a large resistance band around the handles and place your knees on them.)
• Keeping your forearms vertical and your elbows tucked in (not flared), let your torso lean forward as you lower your body until your elbows are at about a 90-degree angle.
• Reverse the movement, returning to the starting position. Once you can do three sets of 10 reps, move on.

Step 5: Kip swing

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight and your legs straight and together.
• Adopt a hollow body position: engage your core and lats to flex (round) your spine and tilt your pelvis back (tuck in your tailbone).
• Use the shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine, allowing your legs to swing behind you.
• Use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to a hollow body position and begin pulling up in the same way you do for chest-to-bar pull-ups.
• Once you are able to perform three sets of 10 repetitions of kip swings in which your chest reaches the level of the bar, progress to full strength training.

Advice: Make sure you use your shoulders, not your hips, to generate the swing.

Step 6: build muscle

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Hang with your arms straight and your core and glutes engaged.
• Initiate a kip swing: Starting from a hollow body position, use the shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine. Next, use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to a hollow body position. (Once behind the bar, lean back and lower the bar to get as high as possible.)
• Squeeze your shoulder blades and pull your hips toward the bar. Once your abdomen contacts the bar, rotate your wrists forward, lean forward and straighten your elbows so your torso is above the bar.
• Hold, then lower into a hanging position.