Muscle Up Guide - Book

8/20/2019 Muscle Up Guide - Book

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L T I M A T

BY MAX SHANK


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ULTIMATE MUSCLE UP GUIDE

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1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. PULLUPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3. DIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4. “I’M STILL NOT GETTING IT.” . . . . . . . . . . . . 15


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C H

A P T E R 1 INTRODUCTION


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The muscle up is the king of upper body training. It combines

the Pullup and the Dip through a challenging transion. If you

had to choose one exercise for your upper body for absolute

freaky strength and muscle balance, it would be the muscle up.

Specically, the ring muscle up.

Unfortunately, you don’t see a lot of muscle ups used in training

these days. People just simply don’t know how to do them, or

they aren’t strong enough. Usually it is the former.

I have seen this move butchered, aempted, and uerly failed. It

pains me to see, because it doesn’t have to be that way.

Not only will the muscle up build killer strength if done properly,

but it will denitely reward you with some serious beach muscles.

FIRST THINGS FIRST!Equipment: Rings, obviously. There are many good opons of

rings available out there with dierent feels. I have really taken to

a wooden ring but there are lots of plasc versions out there that

work just ne. Be sure to get a pair that is adjustable.

You may nd the surface of your rings too slick for the high grip

demand of the muscle up. You will, of course, be using chalk, but

I would also recommend athlec tape for the ring itself. Pung a

layer of athlec tape on the boom half of the ring will give you a

nice feel and superior grip fricon--this is what I have personally

done with my rings.


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Set-Up: Anchor the rings apart from each other using your arm

(Elbow to ngerps) as a measure--this puts you in a good posi-

on relave to your body type but won’t vary too much from

person to person.

The height of the rings is going to depend enrely on which move-

ment you are trying to work. If you are working muscle ups, the

rings should allow you to hang completely with your feet o the

oor and require you to jump up or step up to the rings with a

box.

If you are simply working dips, the rings should be set at about

chest level.

“How many pullups and dips do I have tobe able to do in order to get a muscle up?”

(I get this question almost daily at this point.)

THE ANSWER IS, AT LEAST ONE.

A muscle up is, one pullup with one dip at the top.

Obviously more would be beer but you should be training pullups

and dips anyway.

I have oen found that the key to the muscle up lies more in the

technique, mobility of the shoulders, and the completeness of the

pullup and dip than of absolute strength.


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C H

A P T E R

2

PULLUPS


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Before we get into the pullup we have to address what is the most

common error of the muscle up– the false grip.

When performing the muscle up, you won’t have a chance during

the transion of the pullup phase to move your hand posion for

the dip poron of the movement. This means that your grip at the

boom of the pullup, has to be the same as your grip at the top

of the dip.


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The pinky side heel of your hand/wrist is going to rest on top of

the ring (All the way on top!) while the rest of your hand grips

the top. Your hand won’t be directly at the boom of the ring but

slightly towards the thumb side of the ring.

If you are doing this correctly, you will noce some callous devel-

opment where your wrist and hand meet on the pinky side.

Once you have your false grip locked in, work a few transions

with the rings below chest level, assisng with your legs as muchas possible by squang up and down. This is going to give you a

good idea of where your hands need to be, and stay during the

movement.

Feeling condent? Bring the rings up and try some pullups. Aempt

to bring the pinky ngers to draw a line through the middle of

your chest reaching toward your navel. Lower back down to afull hang with your palms facing outward. Do not let the rings

move outward toward your shoulders, keep them in ght. Stop

and reset if you lose your false grip at any me.


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C H

A P T E R 3 DIPS


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The rst step of mastering a ring dip is nailing down a support

posion.

If you can’t stabilize yourself at the top of the rings, it’s going to

make it very dicult to use your strength to get there. Set up with

your hands on top of the rings with palms facing each other (not

backward) and aempt to have your elbow pits facing forward.


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This may be very dicult at rst, but don’t worry it will improve

quickly.

It should go without saying that if you have major shoulder issues,

muscle ups should be out of the picture. The dip poron of a

muscle up requires you to perform an extreme range of moon

dip. You need to have a great deal of strength and mobility to

move through that posion back to the top.

While doing dips with the intenon of achieving a muscle up, youneed to bring your hands all the way in to your arm pits--as deep

as possible. This is where your pullup transion will nish during

the muscle up. Your legs should hang straight down and slightly

angled forward rather than the tradional dip with legs crossed

behind you. This is also important for the transion.

As I menoned before there is no upper or lower limit of pullupsand dips to do for a muscle up, but I think that 5 good ones of

each is a nice starng point. Remember though, it’s more about

how well you do them--how high you pull up, and how deep you

dip--than how many you do.

Go back and work a few transions using your legs as much as

you need to just to get the feel again.

Next set the rings up around shoulder height and jump up to a

support posion. Now we are going to work the full negave.

Descend into a full ROM dip and slowly bring your pinkies together

in front of your chest. Finish by lowering down into a pullup. Jump


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back to the top and repeat. Go as slow as possible; going fast is

just highlighng a gap in your strength in a given range of moon.

Do no more than 3 reps. Just focus on going slow and smooth.

Maintain your false grip at all mes.

The full muscle up: Now that you have nailed down false grip

pullups, dips, and the full negave, you are well prepared to

aempt the full muscle up.


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KEY POINTS

• Maintain your false grip• Li your chest up toward the ceiling with legs in front of you

during the pullup.

• Once you reach the apex of the pullup, bring your legs

upward (toward parallel to the oor) as you drive your head

and chest forward placing you at the boom posion of a

dip. Think of a jackknife moon where your chest and legscome closer together. This is necessary to move your center

of gravity directly over the rings.

• Keep the rings close to you and your hands close together.

• Imagine you are drawing a line with your pinky ngers

through your sternum (breast bone) down and back through

your boom rib.


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A QUICK WORD ABOUT KIPPING:

Don’t do it. These are called muscle ups, not kip ups. You look like

a sh out of water. Use your strength.

Aer the false grip, the hand posioning during the transion is

the second most common mistake. If you bring your hands out

to the side to early, you have no leverage. In fact, performing a

muscle up on rings with a wide grip is called a Bulgarian muscle

up--this variaon is used by high level gymnasts as an accessory

exercise for the iron cross. If you can already do an iron cross, it

is safe to say that you don’t need any help with your ring muscle

ups.

Once you get that boom posion of a dip, with hands close

together, simply press out and you are done. Move slowly back

down through the transion and try for a second rep withoutlosing your false grip.


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C H

A P T E R 4 “I’M STILL NOT

GETTING IT.”


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No problem if you don’t get it right away, it can take pracce.

Here are some things you can try to x your muscle up if you are

sll having trouble.

Back Ups: Start at the top and lower down into a negave

moving only slightly into the transional phase and then reverse

the moon before you lose control. Try to increase your range of

moon unl you are doing a full muscle up.

Pullup isometric holds: With a false grip, loop a band or beltanchored to the oor around your foot and pull hard upward at

the top of a pullup. This will build strength in this top end range

of moon making the transion easier. Just remember, the higher

you pull, the easier the transion.

Weighted pullups and dips: Add some weight. Maintain a false

grip on pullups. This will build up some extra strength which willmake things easier--including your life. Yes being strong makes

life beer.

Supported Muscle up: Set the rings at a height where you can

assume a false grip while seated with legs out in front of you at

an “L.” Perform a muscle up leaving your legs on the oor. This

will signicantly lighten the load but allow you to work on your

transion.

Flexibility: If your shoulders are too ght to get a solid range of

moon pullup and dip, you are going to need to be extremely

explosive and strong to compensate, or work on your mobility.


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Just work on your mobility–stretch the pecs out and own that top

end range of moon of your pullup.

If you’ve made it this far, chances are you are crushing muscle ups

on the rings, great job.

Once you can do 6-8 muscle ups you have a couple opons for

progression.

• Add weight via a weight belt.

• Hold an “L” posion with legs extended in front of you paral-

lel to the oor the whole me.

• Go super slow and own each poron of the movement.

I wouldn’t advise moving toward a wide grip muscle up as a

progression, it’s a very specic drill for gymnasts and can bemurder on the shoulders.

So there you have it, a full zero to hero guide to take your ring

muscle up as far as your dedicaon will allow. Be sure to use

your newly acquired strength for good and don’t let those beach

muscles go to your head.


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Muscle Up Guide - Book