How to Get Your First Muscle-Up FAST: An In-Depth Guide

By Joseph Hernandez.

Reading Time: 8 Minutes

This guide to the muscle up will discuss the following... 

Key Points:

  • Understanding and using the false grip
  • Technique, mechanics, and training
  • Fixing errors and maximizing progress
  • Tips for the muscle up



Prerequisites:

  • 10 pull ups (minimum req.)
  • 20 pull ups (recommended)
*Note: If you only meet the minimum prerequisite, do not feel intimidated. You don't need to meet the recommended prerequisite. Although, it is very helpful! 

If you would like to meet the recommendation, it is fairly easy to increase your pull up max by 8-10 in the matter of 1-3 months. Feel free to ask for more info on this in the comments!

Muscles Worked

In the online articles, "How To Do Muscle-Ups — Progressions, Benefits, And More" and "How To Do Muscle Ups – Benefits, Muscles Used and Progression", the muscle up primarily works the...
  • Back (Latissimus Dorsi and Trapezius)
  • Biceps, Triceps, and Forearms
  • Core
  • Chest
Keep in mind, the muscle up is not ideal for building muscle. It can be implemented in workouts, although it will not grow your muscles as effective as progressive overload with dumbbells and machines. It's better suited for other applications such as building strength (Dewar; Munye). 

With this dash of information out of the way, let's look at the technique of the muscle up and why it's important.

Technique

The Motion

Fig 1.
Like in the photo on the right (fig. 1), you want the motion of the exercise to resemble an arch shape. This also cued as "pulling up around the bar".

Going straight up from a hanging position and forcefully rolling yourself over the bar is something more suited to athletes that have been doing muscle ups for a while. As someone learning how to do one, you will want the help from momentum. 

Due to the arch, getting the chest over the bar is easier since you wouldn't have to actively pull yourself into it. Rather, it now becomes a matter of leaning forward. 

Keeping The Arch Small

Ultimately, we are making an arch shape in order to use momentum and make things easier for ourselves. 

"But the point of the muscle up is to be difficult." Sure, at some point. If you were to follow this thinking, then you'd be practicing a strict muscle up, with zero kipping, for a while (a really long time). And in this guide, I am trying to teach you how to get your first muscle up quick.

Continuing with the arch in mind, you also want to make sure the arch is small.

If we make the arch bigger, then that means the distance of our body from the bar becomes longer and that brings us to the situation of pulling ourselves into the bar (which we don't want).

Fig 1.1

In addition, more distance also equals more torque! Why is this important? Because more torque, means more work for yourself. 

Torque is the rotational force acting on your arms, and in order to overcome it you must produce more force. By limiting the distance, you don't have to produce as much force during the pull. As a note, your goal in this guide isn't to become the master at overcoming torque. It is to learn how to get your first muscle up.

So, when performing the muscle up you want to limit how far you are away from the bar. As you get stronger and more efficient at muscle ups, you can get away with reps straying away from this technique.

Performing The Muscle Up

Step 1) Setting Up

This is one of the most crucial steps if not the most important step. If this doesn't go right, odds are everything following it won't go right either. You want to ensure the setup is solid!

Part 1: Proper Arm Width

First, you want to get the positioning correct just hanging from the bar. You should grab the bar about slightly more than shoulder with. More specifically, go as wide as you would for chest dips on a bar (because ultimately, you're going to end up in a position to do a dip).

Part 2: Using a False Grip

Next, use a false grip. If you do not know what a "false-grip" is, I'll define it.


False grip: A grip in which you hold onto a pull up bar/rings with your palms facing down, rather than simply away from you. 

For this guide, we are learning how to muscle up on pull up bars as (Olympic) rings require minor adjustments.

The reason behind using a false grip is that 
  1. It reduces range of motion
  2. It engages the forearms more
  3. It removes the need to roll your hands over the bar by having your hands already in position
  4. And it prepares you for slow muscle ups (if you choose to train for them later in your fitness journey)
The gist is, using a false grip makes the muscle up slightly easier and prepares you for other exercises in calisthenics/gymnastics as a byproduct.

Part 3: Initial Momentum


Now that you can hang from the bar in an advantageous position, you can now truly start performing the muscle up. 

*Note: Keep a small bend in the elbows. Doing so can...
  • Help provide tension to prepare your arms for explosive pulling
  • Prevent yourself from performing the exercise with stiff arms (stiff arms make the exercise harder due to torque)
Begin by doing a small jump to the bar like in the video above. Don't think about swinging back and forth to create more momentum. That will likely not help you because, what could happen is that you can swing too far forward which will leave your body wanting to go straight back. If this happens, that will disable you from keeping the arch small. *Below is a picture of what NOT to do when starting out.

Fig 2. Big no no.

Instead, use your initial jump/hop for forward momentum. A small jump is all you want.

Last but not least, perform a "magic button". In a video by Chris Heria, "How To MUSCLE UP In 5 Min FT. Twan", this cue is explained. This is where after some initial forward movement, you imagine there's an item about 1-2 feet away from you, and you try to pin it to the ground with your feet. You should feel a "yank in your chest" or some springiness if you do the magic button correctly. This will help spring you up during the pull (Heria).

Chris Heria, a YouTuber with 4.28 million subscribers, who produces content on calisthenics does an excellent job of explaining this.

I strongly encourage you to check out the video. Heria covers the total breakdown of the technique for the muscle up. 


Step 2) The Pull

Pull explosively and try to go hips to bar. On the way up go into an L-sit. It's similar to plain kipping, except it's more controlled and strengthens the core. 

To make it even easier, you can tuck your knees to your chest on the way up instead of doing an L-sit. Either way you deal with the legs portion of the technique, focus on keeping your body's path close to the bar and lean forward to land in the bottom of a dip. 

Fig 2.1. Good motion (on the left) vs. "Bad" Motion (on the right)

Step 3) The Dip

Once at the top, extend the elbows and lock out at the top. Put simply: Do a bar dip.

Step 4: *Optional) Doing Repetitions

Congratulations! You have done a muscle up. 

If you want to do another, you can restart from the beginning with steps 1-3. If you would like to perform them consecutively, then you will want to maintain the arch even when going back down. 

An example can be seen below.


Quick Recap of The Execution:

To execute the muscle up

  1. Take a small jump and perform the "magic button"
  2. L-sit, pull, and maintain the arch (It's helpful to record yourself)
  3. Bar dip


Training for the Muscle Up

When training for the muscle up, it is recommended to take breaks long enough to let your body fully recover. Or at least, break long enough as to not feel fatigued. Make sure to take a proper amount of rest days. A good amount could look like 1-3 days. 

You may choose to keep difficult exercises low in reps in order to avoid gathering too much fatigue and to focus more of your energy on establishing technique.

The sets and reps will differ from person to person based on ability. However, if you are continuing to read this guide because you meet the prerequisite, then you already have established some strength. You can find a sample program for training the muscle up HERE.

*Note: In the sample program, the exercises in purple represent the most important exercises. These exercises should be done first.

Pro Tip: One of the best ways to train for the muscle up is to get as close to the real thing as possible, which equivalates to banded muscle ups. The skill you acquire from using a band is transferrable. If you don't have money to buy one, that's okay. A resistance band is not a necessity, but it is a tool to help you. 

If you decide to try the sample program without a band, try substituting banded muscle ups for muscle ups where you jump up to the bar, whether from a box or up to a low hanging bar. 

If you are going to program the muscle up yourself, try to implement banded muscle ups and technique exercises, as well as bar dips as an accessory. Technique exercises are like the "magic button" for example. Drill something like that, among other technique work for 5 sets of 1-5 reps.

Conclusion

The muscle up is a move that requires strength, but also demands technique and skill. Some people may take as short as one month. Some people may take as long as six months and so forth. But ultimately, if you have general strength established, then this guide will help you attain your goal in less than 3 months.

Happy training!


Did you find this guide helpful? Are there any other guides you'd like me to cover? Let me know in the comments below.

Works Cited

Dewar, Mike. “How to Do Muscle-Ups - Progressions, Benefits, and More.” BarBend, 5 June 2019, https://barbend.com/muscle-up/. 

Heria, Chris. How To MUSCLE UP In 5 Min FT. Twan. YouTube, 11 Nov. 2021, https://youtu.be/QIaWg5nBWE4. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.

Munye, Adnan. “How to Do Muscle Ups - Benefits, Muscles Used and Progression.” AMMFitness, 28 Nov. 2019, https://www.ammfitness.co.uk/information-advice/muscle-ups.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts