Muscle-Up Progression: 6 Steps to Master the Move

Unless you are already trained gymnastbarbell muscle-ups are one of the most challenging bodyweight movements you can try it. In addition to requiring significant basic resources and upper body strengthmuscular exercises require excellent mobility, body awarenesscoordination and synchronization.

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

• The wrong way: Repeatedly swing and slam your body against the bar until you are fatigued, frustrated, and possibly injured.
• The correct way: A bodybuilding progression.

A muscle-up progression is a series of increasingly difficult movements that gradually develop your muscle-up technique while building your strength. Each stage of the progression includes landmarks that indicate your readiness to move on to the next exercise within the progression.

The final stage is, of course, a muscle executed safely, confidently and flawlessly.

6-Step Barbell Bodybuilding Progression

Dr. AS John Gallucci, Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT, CEO of I physiotherapyexplains that a muscle-up is actually a series of smaller movements linked together:

1. swing
2. knee lift
3. leg lift
4. Chest to bar get up
5. Triceps Dip

To do a muscle-up, you must feel comfortable performing each of these movements repetitively. That’s where muscle-up progression comes into play.

Developed with input from Gallucci and Jeff Waters, USA Boxing registered trainer and owner of Watters performanceThe next bodybuilding progression begins at a beginner level. Depending on your gymnastics experience and current strength levels, you may be able to advance.

Step 1: Hanging Knee/Leg Raise

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

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

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

• Wrap one end of a large resistance band around the pull-up bar. Grab the bar with an overhand grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width and place one foot on the other end of the resistance band.
• Hang with your arm extended and your legs straight and center and involved glutes.
• Without swinging or jumping (using momentum to propel you upward), engage your lats and squeeze your shoulder blades as you pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause and then lower yourself to a hanging position.

Advice: “Start with a thicker band,” says Watters. “If you can do 10 pull-upsuse a thinner band. Over time, continue lowering until you can do 10 strict pull-ups with the thinnest band. Then move on.”

Step 3: Strict Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups

• Grab a pull-up bar with an over-shoulder-width grip.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight and your ankles crossed behind you.
• Without swinging or jumping, activate your core, glutes, and lats while squeezing your shoulder blades and pulling your chest toward the bar.
• Pause and then lower yourself to a hanging position.
• Once you can do three sets of 10 repetitions, continue. But continue practicing chest-to-bar pull-ups while working on new skills.

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

Suggests incorporating Lizards into your training plan, including lever push-ups, in which you lower yourself to the floor and temporarily raise your arms before stepping onto the board to eliminate any momentum from the movement.

“Start from the floor position halfway and then lower yourself to the floor. This is the most difficult part of the effort and that is why we emphasize it,” he says.

Step 4: Triceps Dip

• Grab the handles of a dip station and jump or step up to the starting position: feet off the ground, arms straight, and ankles crossed. (To make the movement easier, you can loop a large resistance band through the handles and place your knees on it.)
• Keeping your forearms vertical and your elbows tucked (not flared), allow your torso to 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 repetitions, continue.

Step 5: Kip Swing

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhead grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight and your legs straight and together.
• Assume a hollow body position: Engage your core and lats to flex (round) your spine and tilt your pelvis back (tuck your tailbone).
• Use your 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 lifting yourself up the same way you do for chest-to-bar pull-ups.
• Once you can complete three sets of 10 repetitions of kip swings during which your chest reaches the level of the bar, progress to a full muscle lift.

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

Step 6: bodybuilding

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhead grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Hang with your arms straight and your core and glutes engaged.
• Start a kip swing: Starting from a hollow body position, use your shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine. Then, use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to a hollow body position. (Once you’re behind the bar, lean back and pull the bar down to reach as high as you can.)
• Squeeze your shoulder blades and pull your hips toward the bar. Once your core makes contact with the bar, rotate your wrists forward, lean forward, and straighten your elbows so your torso is above the bar.
• Hold down and then lower to a full sleep position.