The Elusive Muscle Up

The muscle-up is one the most popular skills in calisthenics that people want to learn, the muscle up can be performed on a bar or rings using a variety of grips including the false grip.

Beginners tend to use a kip(swing) to help them get above the bar, once stronger people will tend to start working towards the strict muscle up which means using the false grip and zero kip.

I’m sure you would have heard the following question or maybe you’re the same situation yourself, “I’m strong enough to do a muscle up but i can’t get over the bar?”

This question comes from endless videos stating that if you can do 10 strict pull ups and 20 bar dips then you can muscle up, from my experience this isn’t always true.

High Pull Ups

Obviously being able to do 10 strict pullups is important as the muscle up is in theory a modified pull-up but you want to be working on high explosive pull-ups instead.

The reason you want to practise high explosive pull-ups instead of standard pull-ups is that the aim of the muscle-up is to get over the bar.

The higher you can pull up the less work is required to achieve the muscle up, a simple turn of the wrist will get you over the bar if you are pulling high enough.

If you don’t have explosive power in your pull ups then using a resistance band is a great way to start practising, the resistance band will allow you to keep correct form and get used to exploding up above the bar.

If you haven’t used a resistance band before they are a great tool to build strength while learning the correct movement patterns, start with a heavy band and work your way down as you get stronger.

Make sure that if you are going to buy resistance bands that you get a decent brand as you don’t want them snapping, we recommend Rubberbanditz.