Muscle Up Guide - Book
Transcript of Muscle Up Guide - Book
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L T I M A T
BY MAX SHANK
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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
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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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