Muscle-up development: 6 steps to control the movement

Unless you’re already a trained gymnast, bar muscle-ups are one of the most challenging bodyweight exercises you can try. In addition to requiring significant core and upper body strength, muscle contractions require excellent movement, body awareness, coordination and timing.

If you decide to add muscle building to your gym routine, know that there is a right and wrong way to develop this skill.

• the wrong way Swinging and punching your body over and over again until you’re exhausted, frustrated, and possibly injured.
• The right way: Muscle growth.

Muscle ups are a series of increasingly difficult exercises that gradually develop muscle up techniques as you build strength. Each stage of development includes metrics that indicate whether you are ready to move on to the next drill in development.

The last step, of course, is to raise the muscles with confidence and flawless form.

6-step bar muscle-up progression

Dr. A.S. John Gallucci, Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT, CEO I physical therapyHe explains that building a muscle up is actually a series of small movements strung together.

1. Kip swing
2. Raising labor
3. Leg raise
4. Chest-to-bar pull-ups
5. Triceps dip

You need to be comfortable doing these exercises over and over again to gain muscle. That’s where muscle growth comes in.

Developed with input from registered USA Boxing trainer and owner Gallucci and Jeff Waters Performance of watersThe following muscle growth starts at the beginner level. Depending on your gymnastic experience and current strength level, you can jump ahead.

Step 1: Hanging knee/leg raise

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

Tip: “Make sure you’re not swinging and using momentum to lift your leg, and all the work is coming from the hip flexors and core,” says Gallucci.

Step 2: Assisted chest-to-bar pull-up

• Wrap one end of a large resistance band around a pull-up bar. Grasp the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width and place one foot on the other end of the resistance band.
• Hang at arm’s length with your legs straight and core and glutes engaged.
• Without swinging or touching (using momentum to lift), engage your shoulder blades as you pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause for a moment, and lower yourself into a dead hang.

Tip: “Start a fat band,” says Waters. “If you can do 10 full pull-ups, use a thinner band. Continue working down over time until you can do 10 tight pull-ups with the thinner band. Then move on.”

Step 3: Tight chest-to-bar pull-ups

• Hold a pull-up bar with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight, and your ankles crossed behind you.
• Without swinging or squatting, engage your core, glutes, and lats as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause for a moment, and lower yourself into a dead hang.
• Once you can do three repetitions of 10, continue. But continue to practice pulling from the chest to the bar when working on new skills.

Tip: “At this stage, it’s important to also work on the ‘push’ behavior you use to build muscle,” says Watters.

He suggests incorporating push-ups into your training plan, including power push-ups, in which you lower yourself to the floor and momentarily raise your arms before pushing up into a plank to remove any momentum from the movement.

“Start from a half squat and then lower back down to the ground. This is the hardest part of the push-up, and that’s why we emphasize it,” he says.

Step 4: Tricep dip

• Grab the handles of a dip station and jump or step up to the starting position: feet off the floor, arms straight and ankles crossed. (To make the movement easier, you can wrap a large resistance band around the handles and place your knees on it.)
• Keeping your arms vertical and elbows tucked in (unbent), allow your torso to lean forward as you lower your body until your elbows form a 90-degree angle.
• Reverse the movement, return to the starting position. Once you can do three repetitions of 10, continue.

Step 5: Kip swing

• Grab a pull-up bar with a hand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Keep your arms straight at arm’s length and your legs straight and hanging together.
• Assume a hollow-body position: engage your core and lats to bend (round) your spine and roll your hips back (close your tailbone).
• Use your shoulders to lift your chest forward and allow your legs to swing behind you to ease your spine.
• Use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to a bare-body position and begin pulling up the same way you would for a chest-to-bar pull-up.
• Once you can complete three sets of 10 reps of kip swings, move to a full muscle-up as your chest meets the level of the bar.

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

Step 6: Build muscle

• Grab a pull-up bar with a hand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang your arms straight and your core and glutes engaged.
• Begin the kip swing: Starting in a squat position, use your shoulders to lift your chest forward and arch your spine. Then, use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to an empty body position. (Once you’re behind the bar, lean back and pull the bar as high as you can.)
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your hips toward the bar. Once your stomach is in contact with the bar, rotate your wrists forward, lean forward and straighten your elbows so that your knees are above the bar.
• Hold, then lower to a dead hang position.